(Live Review) PALLBEARER + SUPPORT - Chicago, IL (5/4/25)
- Mark McQueen
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
Greetings friends, fans, and followers and welcome to another episode of Beard reviews. Amazing that we are only in May and at forty episodes already. Thank you all for your willingness to follow the Beard into other areas besides just metal. If you have read even one of our reviews, know that we appreciate you.
The Beard continues the Metal MAY hem tour with his third show and 20th band already this month.
Tonight, on a dreary rainy Sunday, Little Johnny and I strapped it on again for our third consecutive day in Chicago and leapt into the darkened bottomless abyss of sorrow that is Pallbearer. This is the only band whose songs make Little Johnny so sad he wants to buy “them” a beer.
Support would be provided by Chicago’s own Immortal Bird, as well as Detroit Michigan’s Temple of the Fuzz Witch.
After the intensely crowded Legions of Metal festival all weekend, Reggie’s initially seemed almost empty and forlorn tonight. Early on only a sparse Sunday night crowd was hardcore enough for one more night of doom and stoner music.
Little Johnny and I were drinking PBR left over from the festival weekend which the venue was now selling for only six bucks a tall boy can (which in Chicago is almost considered free). Johnny suggested we remain downstairs since it wasn’t that crowded and initially I thought what the hell, let’s see it from his point of view. So, I was right next to him when at 8:00pm the lights went down.
TEMPLE OF THE FUZZ WITCH
Temple of the Fuzz Witch are a two-piece band hailing from Detroit. Low end stoner fuzz and vocals lifted from the Weedeater-meets-Electric Wizard handbook.
The buzzing feedback, while in actuality a part of what this bands does, was frustrating to at least one nearby fan who continually waved his hand at them in dismissive annoyance. This was a band for fans of Bongzilla and that style of weed doom. Get high and drift away on the buzz. Temple of the Fuzz Witch was accurate for the style and so about 77/100 seemed fair.
What did you think Johnny? “Do you think they sell twinkies here Beard? Cause now I’m kind of hungry.”
Next up was black death from Chicago in the form of ...
IMMORTAL BIRD
A four-piece act with traces of sludge and grind mixed in with their black and death. Kind of like a musical blob of evil toxic waste come to life. (Ed: Kinda like your bowel excretions after four straight days and nights of drinkin' and metal, eh Beard!)
Immortal Bird was fronted by Rae Amity, a woman who came across as very funny and sweet, at least until she started singing and then immediately transformed into someone who might pull out your soul and eat it in front of you. For the Beard, she was a bit “unnerving.” On the other hand, after only three songs, Little Johnny was calling her the hottest girl he had ever seen.
The rest of the band played something almost akin to prog/death. It wasn’t as oddly horrible as it might sound. Another act that stayed within their rather unique sub-genre and I had to admit the crowd was into them.
Although Immortal Bird was not really for me, I will respect the crowd and award them another 77/100.
PALLBEARER live
PALLBEARER
I have long waxed poetic over and over concerning Pallbearer and their ultimate fusion of emo and doom. 2025 was a new chapter, but indeed the same book.
As was usual, Pallbearer provided no intricate stage show. Shadowed and often indistinguishable, the band’s dark lyrical emissions moved across the black waves of their sound. Opening with the beautiful melancholy of “Silver Wings” from 2020’s Forgotten Days and sliding into “Devoid of Redemption” from their masterpiece, Sorrow and Extinction, deep and unseen feelings swim below the stygian depths of their music occasionally coming near the surface before retreating, while leaving the listeners with a sense of dread merged with longing, abject loneliness and sorrow.
“Thorns” from 2017’s Heartless would come next, and then “Endless Place” from the recent Mind Burns Alive release. “Signals” was one they don’t play as often. Likewise, “Forgotten Days” was another that is not always on the set list. Then Pallbearer pulled a complete left turn and covered Dio’s Sabbath track “Over & Over”. THAT, I did not expect.
The band finished the evening with the epic “Worlds Apart” from their early Foundations of Burden release. As always, Pallbearer are the unheralded ultimate evocators of emptiness given form. They are the band that touches the void.
Your thoughts Johnny?
“What the absolute #%$& are you talking about Beard? Seriously you wordsmithing old prophet, there are times I want some of whatever it is you take before you watch these guys. My thoughts? You want my thoughts? Fine, they sing heavy songs that all feel kind of sad. I mean look, I get it, they’re really good at it, but you go to this weird ass place when you watch these guys.
Remember that other old, bearded dude? The one that got arrested outside our neighborhood for holding that ‘Repent, the end is near’ sign, but wasn’t wearing pants? Beard, sometimes you start to sound like that guy. Seriously, I think you might need medication.”
“Pallbearers music teaches us that we find what we seek little dude, or else it finds us.”
"Whatever Methuselah. I’ll tell you what I am going to find now, I am going to find another beer and then see if maybe the yelling chick from that bird band is out back at the load-in spot."
So, apparently that wraps up two very different viewpoints on the headliner. Despite Little Johnny's fear for my mental acuity, I love this band, and The Beard says Pallbearer gets crack-a-cold-one status with a 90/100.
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