Pelican rocks! One of the most anticipated shows on Oh My Rockness' crazy summer calendar is this one, guaranteed to be chock full of instrumental melodic mayhem that will make your spine tingle, your eyes tear, and your ears say, "why?!?."

Pelican are, almost impossibly, both brutally forceful and stunningly melodic at the same time. Think of these Chicagoans as an angrier Mogwai, a more polished By The End of Tonight, or Explosions in the Sky on an overdose of Barry Bond's favorite clear substance. Pelican play repetitious, almost trance-like, guitar riffs that steadily build into a euphoric atmosphere of hardcore noise with subtle, yet crucial, traces of honest-to-god beautiful guitar lines floating effortlessly over the top of the metal bedlam. I guess Pelican is what happens when emo kids grow up and finally realize that no one cares what's in their diary.

With driving, precise and concise rhythms that tread the fine line between melody and dissonance, Pelican wards off the instrumental band's curse of monotony. The main thing these guys have going for them is that they're interesting. Any band can make your ears bleed once. But these guys have all the tools and craftsmanship to keep you returning, like a co-dependent lover, for more and more wonderfully painful pleasure. Yes, Pelican are an extremely loud band, but it's a loud that just sounds so damn welcoming.

Pelican plays Metro, Saturday, August 20th. (Get Show Details)