Explosions In The Sky

Explosions In The Sky are one of the finest outfits of "post-rock fundamentalism" around. Formed in 1999, this Texan quartet has released two gorgeous albums, "Those who tell the truth shall die, those who tell the truth shall live forever" and "The earth is not a cold dead place"; unlike so many other bands lumped together under the "post-rock" umbrella, Explosions in the Sky reject electronics, focusing almost exclusively on the expressive and melodic potential of rock's principal instrument: the guitar.

Arriving at the station in Turin around 8:30 pm, I realize that the venue where Explosions In The Sky will be playing, a place called Supermarket, is quite far away. On the bus I encounter the evening's saving grace: an 18-year-old who manages to score a ride to the venue from a friend. Around 10:30 pm we get to the place, where there's a bit of a wait before the shows start: I discover that Explosions will have a full two support acts, both "guitar-driven" post-rock bands.

Opening are Lulu Kaine, an Italian quartet (two guitars, bass, drums) who play for about 40 minutes… they're a bit dull, but overall convincing, especially in the "nastier" moments.

Next up are Noir (also Italian, also in the same vein as the previous band), a trio whose live set runs a little shorter: here too we get excellent musicians who never miss a beat, but the songs don't always seem up to par.

Anyway, for opening acts, they're really not bad at all…

Shortly after, the headliners take the stage, and when they kick off with a track from their latest album, the emotion is immediate. They play relatively little overall (about an hour, no encore, despite an endless collective clapping demanding their return to the stage), with flawless execution and a clear preference for songs from their second record (from the debut they only play the gorgeous "Have you passed through this night?"), backed by a lot of effects work and sound engineering, along with a generous and well-crafted use of feedback to link the songs together.

The venue's acoustics (quite lovely, by the way, fairly intimate and equipped with very comfortable armchairs…) allow full appreciation of every nuance in their songs and the band's strong emotional charge: the melodies always come through crisp and clean, the guitar tones and volumes (three guitars when the bassist also picked one up, two when he went back to his own instrument) are perfectly dialed in, and even in the distorted passages the band loses none of its clarity or power.

Extremely faithful to their studio recordings, with the guitarists tracing out melancholic interlocking arpeggios and the drummer showing an unmistakable fondness for military-march rhythms and the use of mallets (both on the cymbals, for a classically "ethereal" sound, and on the toms, for one with a vaguely "tribal" edge), Explosions In The Sky won me over completely… perhaps even more than Mogwai.

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