Aidan Schroeder

Night one at the 9:30 Club 10/03/2023

Washington DC, November 9, 2023

Explosions in the Sky performing at the 9:30 Club in DC on October 3, 2023.

About 15 minutes after doors opened, the 9:30 Club started to pack up for the first of two sold-out nights of Explosions in the Sky. By the time the supporting act, Glom, had finished their set, the place was pretty close to full capacity. I went with a friend, and we got to the venue early so we could get up front. 

Music is a very unique art form. It is audible instead of visual, it is more based on communication than many other forms of art, and it can be a very satisfying way for a person to express their creative visions, beliefs, and emotions. It is also based on time. Unlike visual art pieces, a song uses time and a meter. There is no set amount of time someone needs to look at a painting to be done looking at it. When listening to a song, this is not the case. Musicians are able to use time and dynamics to create pieces with a storyline. An introduction that hooks the listener, growing tension, a climax, and then a resolution. The most emotional songs are the ones written by people that know how to effectively use dynamics, among other things, to create this kind of cinematic effect in their music, and the more emotional the music, the bigger the impact on the listener will be. Explosions in the Sky are a group that has been able to harness this ability to create expressive and moving works of music. 

Explosions in the Sky are a four piece rock band from Texas. They are widely considered post-rock, despite having deflected the label in the past. They are made up of drummer Chris Hrasky, and multi instrumentalists Michael James, Munaf Rayani, and Mark Smith. For this tour, they are calling The End Tour, they brought in bassist and percussionist Jay Demko, who has toured with them since 2019. 

EITS are known for their guitar centered and crescendo heavy “cathartic mini-symphonies”, intense live performances, and work with movie soundtracks. They have composed and recorded a multitude of soundtracks for films including Friday Night Lights, Prince Avalanche, and Manglehorn, among others. Their works have also been featured in documentaries, TV shows, and other movies. They released their first album, How Strange, Innocence, in 2000, and their second album, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever, in 2001. The latter earned some attention from the media because its cover art depicted a plane flying over a line of soldiers and shining its light on an angel, and its liner notes contained the words “This plane will crash tomorrow”. Rumors were then spread that the album was released on September 10, a day before the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This was proven false, as the true release date was September 4, 2001. The album also brought them their first critical breakthrough, as they were acclaimed as the next big thing in post-rock, and considered by many as on par with more popular bands such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and Mogwai. Explosions in the Sky released their eight studio album, End, on September 15, 2023. It was their first release in six years and their first full length album in seven years.

Explosions’ setlist was a carefully chosen and ordered collection of songs, about half of them coming from their latest album, End. Each part bled into the next, and the dramatic crescendos and dynamic changes vividly conveyed a wide spectrum of feelings and emotions, promoted by lights and visuals that seemed to be choreographed with the music, instead of distracting from it, with the lack of lyrics leaving the song to be interpreted by the listener, and a cinematic quality that points to their work with film scores. 

The group opened with “First Breath After Coma”, the first song off of The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place. The song’s light introduction with gradually compiling melodies and a kick pattern resembling a heartbeat made for a great start to the concert. Something I didn’t really pay much attention to while listening to the record for the first time was how much the song seemed to not just progress, but grow, with every added layer, or every time a melodic phrase or rhythmic pattern started to mutate from its original form, but this seemed a lot more apparent in a live setting. It created a feeling sort of like being eased into the set, rather than starting big, and having nowhere to build up to from the start.

“Greet Death”, from Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever, was the point in the show to me where the performance started to intensify. Layered chords reverberated to the back of the room, and then were held out, and a coat of loud, high pitch, feedback was peeled away and prolonged bass chords along with volume swells and cymbal rolls emerged. This slow, almost rhythmless section continued until a steady progression kicked in with a half time drum beat to create a relaxed yet driving groove.

The final song was “The Only Moment We Were Alone”, and it was surely the most intense part of the set. It felt as if each previous song was building up to this one. Out of all the songs in the set, this had the most pronounced builds, and the highest climax. Throughout the night, the band showed no lack of stage presence, gracefully swaying back and forth, and letting themselves be moved by their music, and this song took everything notable about every previous song and took it up a few notches. The song was not played completely verbatim. Unlike the majority of the songs, it differed from the studio version in a few ways. The song was filled with dual guitar melodies that complemented each other and weaved in between each other until it ended abruptly with a perfectly in sync strike that quickly went to silence.

When music, an audible art, is performed live, the performer or band has the opportunity to add to or change the experience someone gets from listening to their recorded music. This could mean altering the way they play their songs, adding transitions in between songs, or adding a visual dimension to their performance, with lights, choreography, and other theatrical elements. EITS played two consecutive nights at the 9:30 Club, which has a capacity of 1,200 audience members, and they sold out both. Even though they could have played a larger venue, the smaller venue made the concert much more intimate. 

Set list:

First Breath After Coma – The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place

Ten Billion People – End

Greet Death – Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever

Loved Ones – End

The Birth And Death Of The Day – All Of a Sudden I Miss Everyone

Your Hand In Mine – The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place

With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept – Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever

The Fight – End

The Only Moment We Were Alone – The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place