Year after year, PELICAN celebrates the end of the school term. They have organized school parties, grilled a piglet and fed people bearing the motto „meet up in the name of decorum and run away home for Xbox“. This year, within the framework of a very ambitious year, they spiced it up a bit and rented this little pub by the name of Fléda.
Yeah, the Fléda where perhaps even Michael Jackson had his gig, Fléda, which looked in the initial hours of the party miserably empty, bringing not only into my head metaphors like one single ant feeding on a whole watermelon. I think you can draw the image yourselves. Nevertheless, the discipline Party Hard does not come alive in Brno until the midnight is over and Pelican party was yet another witness of this phenomenon. A few hundreds of dancing, drinking or any other way having fun people brought an entirely authentic feeling, which let you forget about the fact that you are basically at a school party. Well, like school like party - swinging, inspired, young and limitless. From the very beginning the music programme was supplied by DJs. They chopped and changed behind their board in the course of the party and kind of kept the drum’n’bass line, which they at times enriched by means of delving into affiliated electronic subgenres. Initially, they felt like a set piece, elevator music if you like. With the passing of time it cracked into a regular stage with its regular dancers. The atmosphere was flowing and omnipresent especially thanks to these guys. There was no shortage of live music either. As a contrast to strict electronic beats, nothing could deliver better than a proper, pure rock inferno from no-one else than the rising star of Brno indie scene, Gerda Blank. This international duo, with Maori and English blood circulating in their veins, executed a raw, minimalistic (just drums, guitar scream/singing) rock show, which must have kept heated even the mineral water in the fridges. Words of respect were flying around, likening these two wild men to White Stripes. One cannot wonder because it is this big band of nowadays that Gerda resembles most. Add a bit of noise and improvised sequences to this template and you have got a recipe for a happy, hypnotised crowd.
Next and also last musical experience I absorbed in this very busy evening programme was provided by a likeable rookie hip-hop band Peneři Strýčka Homeboye (Uncle Homeboy´s Bums in English if you like). OK, enough fun. PSH is a huge act with capital H, thriving for two decades, you say Punk´s not dead! Mushrooms with mustard, my dears, it´s hip-hop which isn´t dead here in the Czech Republic and its liveliness was proven by the bonus of a live set supporting the three core members of PSH. The beats of Mike Traffik were even mightier with a live drummer and the bass guitar player delivered a soothing stream of deep and low frequencies. Easy-going Vladimir 518 and the notorious legend Orion dictated one hit after another into their mics, picking both from the drawers of their band´s rep as well as of their solo projects. The whole set was by no means watered down. It lasted almost two hours, which still was not the finishing pitch for many.
These continued in the veins of After Pelican Party Hard style, which starts to gain a legendary status. Unfortunately, I cannot share the details with you because my memory was slowly but steadily going off-service. The new era of PELICAN could not have had a more stylish start and it will be damn hard to jump over a bar set so high next year but I believe that we can do it if we join forces! Big thanks to all of you coming and see ya next year!
Well, isn’t the only reason to compare G. Blank to The White Stripes the absence of bass guitar?