Explosions In The Sky, a killer four-piece instrumental band from Texas, hit up Lupo's in Providence, RI last Saturday and nearly brought the house down.
I ended up arriving late and missed the opener, Lichens, but managed to find a friend there who squeezed me through the sold out crowd to about eight or ten rows back from the stage, nearly in the center.
The Texans were not at all ashamed to be sporting a large version of their state flag draped over one of their amps, even in the mostly liberal Northeast. The band consists of primarily three guitars and drums, with one of the guitars occasionally subbed for a bass.
Their set included many slow, building pieces from their newest record "All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone," including the epic "The Birth and Death of Day," which I was highly anticipating. They create some really beautiful tones that rise above the doom-laden structures of the songs, allowing for slow, beautiful rises and brutal, cascading climaxes.
One problem with the Lupo's venue, though beautiful, is the security guys monitoring flash use on cameras. Due to this, I was unable to get any real clear photos of the band, but I think the picture above does the best to capture their intensity. The morphing lights were another aspect that added to the show, constantly bathing the drummer in a different color (usually white or red) than the rest of the band placed in front of him.
The final song found the band in a drawn out climax towards its end, essentially punching their guitars in throttling unison to create the loudest sounds they made all night. The band left the stage and the crowd roared for what seemed like literally ten minutes straight, demanding an encore. The house lights came on, as did the house music (nearly inaudible due to the cheers, stomps, and applause), and some security members motioned that it was the end, though the audience didn't give up.
Finally the crowd caught a glimpse of the apparent lead man returning to the stage, and erupted in yet another fit of hysteria, though to their dismay he revealed that an encore would be half-hearted compared to the energy they put into their hour or hour and twenty minute set, so he thanked the Lupo's crowd again and left the stage for good. This was probably the loudest non-festival, non-stadium crowd I've ever experienced, which is to speak wonders of the quality of their performance.
Ian Nelson, Collegian Staff
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