Instrumental music can always be a tough sell in a live setting, yet that didn’t seem to stop a sold out crowd at the Middle East for coming out to catch the Explosions in the Sky, Paper Chase, and Eluvium tour.

Opening act Eluvium (one-man ambient artist Matthew Cooper) spent his 45 minute set entrenched behind his Yamaha keyboard while a projector illuminated the stage with images of insects buzzing around. While I certainly have enjoyed his new album, Copia, it is tough to translate it into the live setting while you have hundreds of people talking loudly. Despite that, he built up slow moving synthesizer pieces that eventually developed into distorted, rhythmic movements that sometimes stretched on for 10 minutes. He occasionally threw in some guitar for a full wall-of-sound approach, which livened things up a bit. It’s a shame the crowd was yapping over him, because they missed out on a simple, but entrancing set.

Next up, The Paper Chase, with their odd, post-punkish sound. The lead singer sounded like John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats if he had joined a post-punk band, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the vocals just did not fit the music. He did make full use of the stage and was moving all over the place during the entire set. The band used odd samples and electronics to fill in the gaps made by their jagged, punk guitars.

After taking an unquantifiable amount of time just to set up their massive amounts of guitar pedals, everyone’s favorite post-rockers Explosions in the Sky took the stage and rocked out. There is simply no other way to describe. While playing material from their newest album All of The Sudden I Miss Everyone, like the song “It’s Natural to be Afraid”, as well as tracks from The Rescue EP and The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place, the band used tons of feedback and guitar effects to pack the room with swirling sound. The drummer hit heavy and slammed his cymbals like it was the last show he was ever going to play. There was a certain moment when the lights dimmed and a red spotlight was on the band, while they blasted out a song and it was a simply beautiful sight to see and hear. The whole “no vocals” thing may seem like it would only dampen the live experience, but hearing a group of individuals so in-tune with their instruments proves that musicianship can certainly make up for it. The hype is true, don’t miss this band live while they continue touring in support of their new album.

Some photographic highlights are below and a full 105 pictures can be found on at my Flickr page.

Eluvium

The Paper Chase

Explosions in the Sky

Explosions in the Sky Website
The Paper Chase Website
Eluvium Website

Tags: Eluvium, explosions in the sky, photos, show review, the paper chase //