Live Review: Explosions In The Sky

In what was a nearly flawless performance, five Austinites demonstrated how wonderfully versatile rock music can be when manipulated and sculpted by strong hearts and steady hands.

Explosions In The Sky brought to bear all of rock music's potential and all of its rage and pathos, playing symphonic pieces that could take their place proudly amid the long history of singular talent the Concert Hall stage has hosted.

The group played behind a wall of smoke and light, which made it seem like we were, in fact, watching grainy footage of the band being projected onto a gigantic screen. The sound desk did a fantastic job fleshing out all the details that go into their arrangements, and the lighting rig was savvy in design and execution. Thin rows of spots lined the stage edge and could change direction in sync or individually, creating sheets of colour and light that cut through the fog.

The setlist was balanced, and while they slightly favoured new material from their latest LP, Wilderness, the set was flush with career-defining pieces that exemplified what they were best at: lush atmospherics, rich, emotional expression and gripping riffage. Greet Death, a chugging, lumbering beast, was thrashed into oblivion, forming a wall of distortion that bled out in the final stretch. From there they slowed it right down, milking every melancholy note. First Breath After Coma brings chills just writing about it, and the heroic closing crescendos of The Only Moment We Were Alone brought relief and fatigue in equal measure. Emotional highs cannot be sustained, and the highs were so high that once it was all said and done, and the band had bid a fond farewell to a crowd losing its mind, our hearts felt like warm craters in our chests.