{"id":1845,"date":"2009-07-05T23:36:20","date_gmt":"2009-07-06T03:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/?p=1845"},"modified":"2022-10-22T12:45:04","modified_gmt":"2022-10-22T16:45:04","slug":"explosions-in-the-sky-live-in-central-park-june-30-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/explosions-in-the-sky-live-in-central-park-june-30-2009\/","title":{"rendered":"Explosions in the Sky live in Central Park, June 30, 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Explosions in the Sky is an instrumental post-rock quartet from Texas. Their characteristic formula of a chiming guitar power trio on top of pulsating drums is a bit more palatable than their extremely loud, menacing Scottish peers Mogwai (read our review of their April show in New York<\/a>). Personally, I hear a kind of homogeneity to much of Explosions’ music that I don’t hear in other post-rock outfits like Mogwai, Sigur Ros<\/a>, and Tortoise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To oversimplify their history, the band is primarily known for two factoids. In an unfortunate coincidence, their album Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever<\/em>, released a few days before 9\/11, featured a cover illustration of a plane and a caption reading “This plane will crash tomorrow.” Long before I actually heard any of their music, I do recall this story helping to feed the 24-hour-a-day broadcast news hysteria that followed. Better bolstering their repute, they composed the popular score to Peter Berg’s 2004 film Friday Night Lights<\/em>, and they’ve attracted a significant fan base – selling out outdoor Central Park Rumsey Playfield even in the rain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The band’s designated spokesman Munaf Rayani began the show by announcing it was their 10-year anniversary as a band. They played for about an hour and half without interruption, blending songs together into a continuous flow. From where I stood, the appreciative audience recognized and cheered many tunes. But Rayani apologized at the end of the show for things having “going off the rails,” and they walked off without an encore despite there still being some time before the Central Park curfew. For all I know, that may be their custom, but it was really surprising, and audibly disappointed everyone around me. Awkward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Explosions in the Sky is an instrumental post-rock quartet from Texas. Their characteristic formula of a chiming guitar power trio on top of pulsating drums is a bit more palatable than their extremely loud, menacing Scottish peers Mogwai (read our review of their April show in New York). Personally, I hear a kind of homogeneity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,13],"tags":[604,607,1691,603,568,439,570,606,609,608,440,605],"class_list":["post-1845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-3-stars","category-music","tag-central-park","tag-chris-hrasky","tag-concerts","tag-explosions-in-the-sky","tag-guitar","tag-instrumental","tag-live","tag-mark-smith","tag-michael-james","tag-munaf-rayani","tag-post-rock","tag-summerstage"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/explosions-in-the-sky-1.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa9lhB-tL","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1765,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/mogwai-live-at-the-music-hall-of-williamsburg-april-2009\/","url_meta":{"origin":1845,"position":0},"title":"Mogwai live at The Music Hall of Williamsburg, April 2009","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"April 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The Scottish instrumental rock outfit Mogwai earned their reputation in part for sheer volume, like My Bloody Valentine and The Who before them. Their music is also notable for exploring the kinds of extreme dynamics you usually only hear in electronica or progressive rock, wholly unlike the fatiguing constant loudness\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "4 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"4 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/4-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mogwai","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/mogwai-williamsburg.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/mogwai-williamsburg.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/mogwai-williamsburg.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/mogwai-williamsburg.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/mogwai-williamsburg.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1446,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/sigur-ros-heima\/","url_meta":{"origin":1845,"position":1},"title":"Sigur R\u00f3s Comes Home to Iceland in Heima","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"January 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Dean DeBlois' documentary film Heima (meaning \"coming home\" or \"at home\") follows the band Sigur R\u00f3s on their summer 2006 tour of their home country Iceland. 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The wildly catchy \"Time to Pretend,\" \"Electric Feel,\" and \"Kids\" (the latter featuring a truly deranged music video) are not out of keeping with the rest of their repertoire\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "3 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"MGMT","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/mgmt-stage.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/mgmt-stage.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/mgmt-stage.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/mgmt-stage.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/mgmt-stage.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1825,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/california-guitar-trio-tony-levin-stick-men\/","url_meta":{"origin":1845,"position":4},"title":"California Guitar Trio & Tony Levin’s Stick Men, live at the B.B. King Blues Club, New York, June 22, 2009","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"June 23, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The California Guitar Trio may not actually be from California (they actually hail from Belgium, Japan, and the US), but there are indeed three of them and they each play a guitar. In a way, that tells you everything and nothing you need to know. 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