Grey Eagle, Asheville, NC
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Texas instrumental post-rock outfit Explosions in the Sky composes each album classically, as one great work consisting of a series of movements. The movements are executed with three guitars and a set of drums. Without words, they take us on a deeply existential, sometimes fantastic journey. And so it went with the band at Asheville’s Grey Eagle, a down-to-earth, personable rock venue.
The four rockers (Mark Smith, guitar; Michael James, bass guitar; Munaf Rayani, guitar; Christopher Hrasky, drums) got directly down to the nitty-gritty after a charming and brief introduction. Starting out with the epic endeavor “First Breath After Coma,” they warmed up slowly, sounding their guitars in shimmering reverberations and easing into gentle drums beats. Highly meditative, the musicians built up every note with intensity; each pensive moment grew like a water droplet before finally reaching capacity and raining down with complete release. The guitars reached a glorious high point while drums marched on, before coming back down to a whisper.
“Catastrophe and the Cure” was especially compelling; with its dark underpinnings, thrashing drums, ruthless guitars and moments of glimmering hope, it created an emotionally lush atmosphere that gripped the heart for a powerful seven minutes. Drawing equally from The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place and All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone, EITS didn’t take so much as a breather throughout the eight-song set.
Although there was an incessant, irreverent murmur among the crowd, there were also plenty of attentive devotees who banged heads and pumped fists along with every jolted note on stage. And when the band kicked it into full throttle, the particular glory of drowning out the murmur was added to the noise assault on stage. After giving it their absolute all for a little more than an hour, the band made one final push with the scorchingly hopeful “Memorial,” whipping their guitars violently up and down in the air and raising the volume to unrestrained levels.
They could do nothing but collapse afterwards; although the crowd urged loudly for an encore, the band came back out to say, “Believe me: We gave you our all.” Nothing could be truer.
Powered by AkoComment 2.0! |
