photo credit: Matt Riley

Explosions In The Sky
Wilma Theater
Missoula , Mont.
September 6

Go ahead and brand Explosions in the Sky with whatever genre tag you want; in the end, their live show can really only be explained in terms of emotional reaction. There’s a reason their instrumental epics, once described by the band as “cathartic mini-symphonies,” have been used to underscore dramatic gravity in dozens of films and TV shows, from CSI to The Kite Runner. Their tour stop in Missoula, Mont., played out as an act of cinematic elegance from start to finish.

From the moment the five-piece hit the stage and began to play, they transformed the ambience of the historic Wilma Theater into something entirely their own. Beginning with the title track off their new record, The Wilderness, the band launched into a set of atmospheric conjuring without stopping once to address the crowd. Despite the lack of vocals, the songs offered up a powerful narrative. A band without a frontman is rare, even in instrumental circles, but this outfit doesn’t show a leader or offer a real focal member, and their sonic landscapes are better off without such distractions. That’s not to say that the musicians aren’t animated—guitarist Mark Smith and bassist Carlos Torres’ whole bodies gave into the movement of the music without exuding campy flamboyance.

Watching the music of EITS unfold live is less like a typical rock-concert experience and more like watching a force of nature at work. Songs ebb and fl ow and transform the way a storm system moves across a horizon, touching both resplendent beauty and unrepentant might. The group is heavy, but not in a thrashy, macho sort of way; EITS are heavy like the ocean beating the shoreline with sheer, hypnotic power.
Even under the weight of the three-guitar attack in songs like “Catastrophe and the Cure,” strains of tender melody can be found weaving through the dense, overdriven chord changes.

The applause came during the brief lulls; the band never really offered succinct stopping points between songs. Still  the Friday Night Lights soundtrack song “Your Hand in Mine” drew the greatest audience response and set up the new tune “Disintegration Anxiety” perfectly. Their 90-minute set ended as gracefully as it started—without an encore, just a brief thank you from the band, as the last threads of textured melody bled out through the speakers.