By Jason Walker
Explosions In The Sky have been on my bucket list for a bloody long time, well over 15 years now, and in that time, they’ve built up a pretty chunky back catalogue of music. Quite happy to be ticking this off on the list of “bands I should have seen ages ago, but life dealt me a crap hand”.
Bringing with them a rather new, yet infamous artist, A.A. Williams, who seems to have appeared out of nowhere last year and somehow ended up being on the bill for quite a significant amount of gigs I went to last year. This’ll be I think the fifth time I’ve seen her and she’s always been a real pleasure to watch with her somber and often melancholy sound, tonight promises to be quite a chilled one on the whole I think which is a rather nice way to end what has been a pretty busy week for me.
For tonight’s show A.A. Williams has opted for the more stripped-down sort of set which I’ve seen previously when supporting Nordic Giants last year. Personally, I prefer the full band sort of sound as I like the punch it gives but that’s not to knock the more intimate setup she’s gone with for tonight. As per her previous shows, the sort of music she plays is “quiet” in a lot of respects, there’s no big crescendos or hooks here. She really does have an incredibly wonderful big voice that effortlessly moves to from softly spoken words to big vibrato, something that in this particular setup becomes an essential focal point of the playing.
For the most part the audience has respectfully quietened down with the exception of a couple of blokes to my right who don’t seem to give a toss, which is quite frustrating. Each song she plays is met with rapturous applause, so it seems the audience is really digging her stuff which is awesome to see because she’s quite the interesting artist in the way she’s ingratiated herself into so many niches of alternative music. As for the light show, this essentially accents the whole somber lounge style she’s gone for tonight, there’s no big active light show, just a subtle purple lighting focused exclusively on her and her accompanying bass player. I genuinely look forward to her sets whenever she appears as it’s an easy listen, yet her songs are still potent and strong, definitely an enigma on the scene, but for good reason.
- A. Williams supports both The Sisters Of Mercy and Nordic Giants on their tours next month, and then plays the ArcTanGent festival in August.
As Explosions In The Sky walk on, the crowd goes absolutely bananas, many whoops, cheers and whistling! Time to strap in for what will inevitably be a pleasant journey through the back catalogue of one of the world’s most prestigious and esteemed post rock bands. As an instrumental outfit, there is a distinct onus on them to keep their songs interesting on a melodic front, as many bands in this sort of genre can often become complacent band overly reliant on repetition which can give the genre a bad reputation for being a bit boring.
Immediately one of the most noticeable things about the production for this show is the extremely tall light pillars that are set either side of the band, which alongside copious amounts of smoke do a fantastic job of accenting the atmospheric music that they’re very well known for. One thing that they do also that stands out is the use of chordal playing on bass, which is a very underestimated way of creating layering from the ground up.
A key part of their song writing style is often a build up to a large crescendo which builds tension before dropping back to a more ambient break and then reverting the previous crescendo. Each part of their playing is well executed and sounds great as they move seamlessly between each song in a true session performance style, there’s very few breaks between songs here. One thing that I’ve noticed is that the audience are almost completely silent when they’re in the midst of playing, which is great to see or hear as there’s many quiet passages within their music so it’s nice not to have that spoiled with some random bloke whittering on about how his MOT cost too much.
On the whole Explosions In The Sky have been everything I wanted them to be after waiting so long to finally see them. An absolute masterclass in powerful, atmospheric playing, it’s all been stunning. All the way from the accompanying light show, to the wonderful sound of their music wrapping itself around you like a warm hug, that sings you a soft hymn as it lays you down to rest, this show has been a magnificent display and I’m genuinely glad that I was finally able to witness it.
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