Explosions in the Sky

Late, late, late, late, very very late Tuesday night, we were excited to see a fantastic show from that oh-so-lovely band from Texas, Explosions in the Sky. I will say, I was a bit skeptical as to how exciting and entertaining the show would actually be as Charles and I fall asleep to their music most nights. Seriously, everyone should try it out. If you don't already have it, put the Friday Night Lights soundtrack on your iPod and I dare you to try and make it through 5 songs as you're laying in bed at night. It is deliciously good sleep music. That said, you can imagine my concern about attending the show even after reading countless raving reviews about the quality of the live shows and hearing first-hand from a good friend that the show they attended a couple years ago was mind-blowing. In my head I was thinking, "Should I wear my jammies and bring a pillow and blanket?"

The first two bands I could've done without. It's always a nice surprise when you show up to see the headlining band and end up really enjoying the opening acts. P.O.S. comes to mind at the Minus the Bear show...also, The Ghost and Thursday totally schooled Rival Schools at a show at the Echo Lounge many many years ago. Alas, Tuesday night's opening acts were a bit disappointing for me. The first band was trying hard to sound like Explosions but failed miserably and instead had people scrunching their faces and covering their ears in agony. The guy used volume to build energy into each song to the point where your entire head was vibrating from this big loud noise. It was pretty bad. The second band was decent enough I guess but the lead singer annoyed the hell out of me for some reason. Not to mention, it was about 90 degrees with 107% humidity in the bar so listening to a really good band was almost unbearable. After about 2 songs from the second band, Wendy and I went outside to get some air.

The lateness (especially for a Tuesday night), the heat and the mediocre opening bands were worth the wait when EITS finally began their set. They have this fantastic ability to play really slow, swaying music just long enough that right when you are about to either fall asleep or become bored with the sound, they throw in the drums and guitar and bass and the audience goes crazy bopping up and down and shaking their heads. Then, just as you are about to lose your mind with the increasing intensity of the sound, they bring everything right back down again. It's really hard to decipher when one song ends and the next begins as they tend to play almost white-noise sounding music between the songs...it made me think of these in-between periods as palate cleansers because I think if they played back-to-back songs, everything would run together and might sound too much alike. The pauses kind of make you forget what you just heard so when they start a new song that has a lot of very similar sounds you don't get a sense of monotony. There was no encore and I think the audience was a little bummed about it but I was just fine as the heat was really stifling and uncomfortable. I left with a big smile on my face and I wasn't sleepy at all! Definitely check them out if they head to your city...also, check out the guitar player, he is beautiful. See below.

**Note: I just read my husband's blog and his account of the show. So interesting how we each describe what we saw. Clearly, he is the superior writer in the family and certainly gives a more in-depth description of the show experience. Read and enjoy.