Explosions In The Sky

Mon 25th Feb, 2008 in Gig Reviews

Explosions In The Sky. Nothing but encouraging beauty.

A instrumental four-piece from Austin, Texas, gathered a sizeable crowd this past Sunday night and inducted each participant, whether eager or reluctant, to let go. To Jump. Fall. Believe. And Try. Their performance was nothing but enthusiastic and their music is nothing but emotional. It is the perfect score to any character-defining scene or a trustful companion to the fragile beauty of everyday life – the waking of a day, the shimmering light in your eye that you cant stop looking at, his kiss, her smile, an airport departure, the ticklish grass between your toes, or the taste of that salty sea breeze. Their delicate sound invokes imagery and awakens memories so effortlessly that even their movements on stage do not distract or abate their flow.

Keeping their music forever growing is the multitude of crescendos and false climaxes that seem to surpass Hendrix’s rendition of All Along the Watchtower in number, if not intensity. The strength of these shines through stronger when Explosions play live as the acoustics tend to envelop the audience and build a long, winding staircase that leads to an edge, where you fall off on climax – an all encompassing, tidal wave-like climax. Their music is heavily laden with both hope and the ebb and flow of life, making Explosions In The Sky the perfect score to so many of your life stories.

The unforgiving, yet patient, running narrative that is evident in each of their studio recordings comes through even stronger when Explosions play live. The lads played a well crafted selection from most albums with nearly every song generating a strong response from the crowd, Day 1 from The Rescue, Catastrophe And The Cure from All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone and Greet Death from Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever in particular. There were no breaks or stop-and-start’s, just gentle slowdown’s. The non-stop transition between songs allowed the audience to be free from the attachment to songs they knew and nervous about songs they didn’t, and allowed the band to guide their ride and create a continuous dream-like experience for those who could let go.

This experience is pushed deeper when created live. Noticing that only four standard instruments produce these feelings spurs extra hope, and even gratefulness. The juxtaposition of their daydream-like sound and the stolid concrete towering over them further added to the reach of their music that night. As did the very well crafted interplay of hopeful yellows, reflective blues, invigorating reds and other characters that joined in the light show. Furthermore, Mark Smith (guitar), Michael James (bass), Munaf Rayani (guitar) and Chris Hrasky (drums) seemed to enjoy the performance as much as the audience did.

On the flipside, some may find their music repetitive, unsustainable and irritating – in that, their music is unrelenting, forever teasing, and some songs have a general feeling of similarity. Furthermore, the characteristic flailing of noise at the end of some tracks may break the tranquillity created by the climb toward climax painstaking developed before. And the screensaver-like – œpsychedelic’ visualisations used as a backdrop, apparently made without any appreciation of the rhythm or tone of the music, may be hugely irritating.

Nevertheless, any second of criticism cannot extinguish the flickering hope that you can walk away with after an Explosions In The Sky show. A hope that this current movie will end with a happy, forever-after ending that will make all the previous struggles worth it.