live in los angeles:
Explosions in the Sky
(Wiltern March 17, 2008)
What is it about Explosions in the Sky that makes everyone who comes in contact with their music fall madly in love with them? When an instrumental rock band sells out the Wiltern you know that there is a reason for it. Not just anybody can sell out the Wiltern, and especially not just anybody without a singer. Maybe it’s because they announced that after this tour they have plans to disappear for a while (and who knows how long a “while” really is, the last time it was four years), or maybe it just boils down to one thing- raw talent.
A set that spanned somewhere
between 90 min and two hours would normally bore most people
to tears. I saw Thrice play a 22 song set once and by song
13 I wanted to go home. Because of the fact that Explosions
in the Sky never start nor end a song, they just
continuously drift through them without hesitation time
seems to stand still and makes their unusually long sets
seem like they aren’t very long at all.
For not having lyrics their music is rather moving, and for someone like myself I would go as far as saying it’s downright poignant. Emotions throughout the theatre were running high. I don’t think that there is a person in the room who can say that they didn’t shed a tear, or at least get goosebumps. We smiled, we got teary eyed, we hugged each other, we slow danced. It’s been a long time since a band had brought a tear to my eye (see: 2003 Sparta playing Collapse, acoustic) but I couldn’t help but give in and let a few tears sneak out, but this band earned it and rightfully so.
I could continue to gush about how beautiful it all was, how the lighting made the Texas flag that they always have on stage look ever so elegant hanging from the amplifier, how every note was perfect and that they didn’t need to encore, or I could just tell you that to experience Explosions in the Sky for yourself and make your own memories would be a much better way to do things. Let them sweep you off your feet, themselves. My words can only say so much, but their songs say it all.
— Alexis Roberts
EITS photographs by Alexis Roberts
Related:
Explosions in the Sky - All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone
More by this writer:
Mono & World's End Girlfriend - Mono & World's End Girlfriend
The Helio Sequence - Keep Your Eyes Ahead
Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton - Live - January 23, 2007
Appleseed Cast / Criteria / Russian Circles - Live - July 14, 2006
Feature Interviews:
Record Reviews:
Live Reviews: