I would suggest Erlang. I rather like the syntax. If anything, semicolons and C-like similarity is deceiving because other things don't work like C. There are probably more examples at the moment in Erlang. Watch some of the Erlang Factory talks, those are good.

Try http://learnyousomeerlang.com/ that is a fun and great resource. Joe's books are great.

But Elixir is fantastic too. You can call into Erlang from it. But it is still a bit new. Maybe spend a couple of hours with both or pick a small project and try to do it in both and see how you like the feel of both.