Explosions In The Sky - Tripod - Dublin

Credit: Smur89

I tend to tell this story every time someone brings up Explosions In The Sky to me. I live in the countryside, well away from modern day conveniences like late night buses which drop you off from Dublin within reasonable walking distance from your house, as a result unless I've prearranged a sofa to crash on I drive to most of the gigs that I attend. These gigs often turn into hanging out till we get thrown out so it's not uncommon for me to find myself driving home at 3 or 4 AM. The roads get pretty deserted in Kildare when it gets that late and usually the only living things I see are of the canine variety. The occasional fox but more regularly this crazy sheepdog that, as I approach the gateway to it's farm, jumps out from behind a wheelie bin and starts running around and around in circles chasing it's tail. There's not much on the radio that time of night either so usually my journey is sound-tracked by whatever CD I bring out with me. One trip it was Explosions In The Sky's The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place and at a point just after "The only moment we were alone" came on I arrived at a crossroads where the other road had the right of way so I stopped and checked for cars coming up the road. I got a little caught up in the music and by the time I snapped out of my trance the song was well past the 7 minute mark and I realised that I'd been sitting at the crossroad for about 4 minutes. I'm glad there were no foxes about to notice it.

What always gets me about Explosions In The Sky's music is how stirring it is, more so than any other post-rock band they're able to engage with me on an emotional level; Mogwai lights a fire in my belly, Godspeed!... gets me in the head but it's EITS that moves me, and apart from one spoken word part on their second record they do so without uttering a single syllable.

And for 70 odd minutes in Tripod last night they managed to sweep me away in a tidal wave of epic, majestic music. It doesn't take long to cop why Explosions' music is so emotive. Watching them play they seem completely caught up with and lost in what they're doing. Munaf Rayani alternates between hunching over in front of his pedal board and swaying about the stage as if he's a marionette being operated by a particularly unskilled and somewhat inebriated puppeteer. Equally eye catching is Michael James in centre stage who spends the night seemingly doing one of three things, staring blankly into space, strumming blindingly fast and, most impressively, seemingly attempting to beat the shit out of his bass guitar. A cynic might say that it's all a bit formulaic, a song begins with a quiet guitar part, usually with some delay on it and building over the course of 6 or more minutes until in climaxes in a giant crescendo of noise while Chris Hrasky wails on his crash cymbals like a madman (the cynic with some knowledge of the practicalities of music might say all that before adding "and their best stuff is almost all in 6/8"). I don't really have time for that sort of talk, music is either good or bad, and for me the deciding factor is always some intangible quality that exists beyond the structures of the tunes themselves. And whatever it is Explosions In The Sky have it.

Unfortunately the band are planning to take a break from touring from the start of the summer so this is likely to be their last gig here for a while but they are playing at, and curating one of this May's ATPs in the UK in May which also features The National, Liars, Sunset Rubdown, Broken Social Scene and a whole host of other bands that I would have picked to play too.