Track: “Last Day of Winter”
Co-Produced by TV Eye Magazine and Kenneth Thomas.
Edited by Kenneth Thomas.
Camera Operation by Tony Allen, Alan Sova, Kenneth Thomas, and Jozo Zovko.
Shot at The Knitting Factory, Los Angeles, 26 September 2006.
It’s been a few weeks since we’ve had a heavy dose of Hydra Head – so, Pelican seems like an ideal group to remind us of what this label is about.
I filmed Pelican a few times – in San Diego, LA, and Seattle – which means there has been some cross-over in documenting certain songs, with “Last Day of Winter” making frequent appearances on their set lists. This happens to be one of my favorites by these guys, as it shows off what makes them great: the ability to immediately grab you with an opening riff, and then slowly build the tension to a dual-guitar assault that leaves you in a state of triumphant exhaustion by song’s end.
By the time they performed “Last Day…” this time around, they’d mastered the song. However, I had filmed them several months prior, at a smaller club in LA, and that particular set had a furious energy that couldn’t be denied – so, that version is what ended up in the doc. Even though it was a close runner-up, I couldn’t fit this clip into the film, as well – but that means you get to see it now, in all of it’s fiery red glory (this club LOVED to bathe artists in red light).
There is a slight chance you might have seen this before – this is an excerpt from the Pelican concert that I co-produced for the Japanese version of “City of Echoes.” On a more recent note, Pelican just played this same song on the Southern Lord Records tour, The Power of the Riff – glad to hear they still dig playing this song, as I still enjoy hearing it.
