Concerts – 2025 July – BANANAMASHER

A stomping hardcore/death metal gig around home then hit the road with Pelican once again for a 10-day loop around the Midwest, Northeast, and Canada.

It’s been a little while since I found myself at Hardcore Stadium, the infamous Elk’s Lodge in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Gatekeeper Jam 24 would feature a tag-team of death metal crushers Connecticut’s Vomit Forth and New Jersey’s Weeping swinging by on a short-bender tour as well as BHC outfit Opposition and death metal/hardcore stompers Blood Tithe.

A pleasant birthday gift would be in store for me this year as I will set off with Pelican once again, this time for an upper East Coast migration with the rockers in Porcelain. I would meet the band in Cleveland, Ohio where the tour would kick off with a bang with a special guest who happens to be in town. Geoff Rickly would perform vocals along the track “Cascading Crescent” for a limited 7″ b-side, well as luck would have it, Thursday played the city the night before with an off-day when Pelican would be, so he stuck around to join the band to perform live.

Day 2 would be an intimate, sold-out evening at the DC9 Nightclub in the District of Columbia. Finally got to see a gig at Underground Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a super characteristic place with really well done art in the form of graffiti, skeletons cast about, an electric chair, and toxic waste barrels for thrash barrels – my favorite venue along this tour. Equally exciting, My Wife’s An Angel would open this one while Couch Slut would start things off at The Meadows in Brooklyn, New York. Hitting your home turf while on tour is quite the pleasant experience, with dozens of friends out in the audience, as well as friends in Glacier taking the stage first, especially at a lovely venue such as the Sinclair in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

We cross the border into Canada for two shows, first a sold-out night at Montréal, Québec’s Bar “Le Ritz” PDB with Improvised drone composers Some Became Hollow Tubes, featuring the drummer of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Aidan Girt. The next night would be at Lee’s Palace in Toronto with math rock city poppers Daydream Plus, a side project of members of the death metal band Tomb Mold. Getting back into the States, the next stop is Grand Rapids, Michigan, where the bands will meet noisey psychedelic sludge riffers Bronson Arm at Pyramid Scheme.

Another highlight of the tour was Post Fest at the Hifi in Indianapolis, Indiana. Having attended the 2022 installment, I was very excited to be back, spending the day running back and forth from the merch table to both outdoor and indoor stages to catch as many bands as possible. The greenroom was shared with local-to-me Converge, another touch of home along this tour, not to mention that we got there just in time for Circus Trees. Unfortunately, Cave In had to drop due to Adam breaking his wrist, Pianos Become the Teeth would fill their spot playing songs from earlier releases (they performed ‘Keep You’ in full the day before). Got to weep side-stage during Emma Ruth Rundle’s beautiful solo set and caught a couple of songs from Bongripper before we had to head out.

To close the tour, Pelican would perform a Chicago hometown show at the most beautiful Thalia Hall with Kansas City metalcore heavyweights Coalesce. As with the first show of the tour, the last would also have a special guest. Allen Epley (The Life and Times, Shiner) happened to be around and would come out to perform vocals on the song “The Cliff.” Epley performed a haunting and obsessive love ballad on the song part of a four-track single EP (2015 – Southern Lord Recordings), marking the second time he would sing the song with the band.

Spotify Playlist:
2025 – Live Actions
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4bcRkuAftCEWUbqqgXukyu?si=12e12437297f4212

Opposition