At the Commodore Ballroom on Monday, September 5

Texas post-rock band Explosions in the Sky played two shows at the Commodore Ballroom on September 4 and 5 to an adoring crowd that ate up every note of their performance.

Though the first performance sold out, this second did not—and it was noticeably less packed than previous concerts performed at the venue. That didn’t stop opening act Dada Plan—a Vancouver band—from playing a wonderfully psyched-out set that got the crowd’s energy up before Explosions in the Sky took to the stage.

On tour for its newest album, The Wilderness—the group’s first since its previous and most successful record to date, Take Care, Take Care—Explosions in the Sky has written a great new LP. The Wilderness is an ambitious outing, and one with more individualized tracks than the band’s previous albums. This isn’t a bad thing, and it’s good to see the four-piece trying new ways to create music.

From the moment that the group took to the stage, EITS displayed pure power accented by intricate and delicate melodies. For a band with no vocals whatsoever, the musicians excel at transmitting a wall of emotion to their audience—and, at this show, the audience was a spectacle in itself. A strange mix of athletic dudes with large beards, hipster girls with black-rimmed glasses, grey-haired rock’n’rollers, and nerdy college kids, it was definitely a diverse crowd. At one point an audience-member proposed to his girlfriend, brandishing a ring while she took pictures with her cellphone of her own life event. It was a beautiful, strange moment, and people in the crowd applauded and cheered.

Explosions in the Sky are a talented band. Every member added to the powerful noise with their pretty guitar and basslines, weaving together to form the group’s signature sound. With his commanding stature, bassist and guitarist Michael James lead the four-piece. Guitarist Munaf Rayani thrashed about, pulsing to the music so completely in sync with James that it almost seemed choreographed. Head-banging and swaying at almost the exact same moments, the other members could have been borrowing stage-techniques from the emo era.

You can’t help but feel like you’ve seen this before. You have. It’s better—and it’s called Mogwai. Lacking the diversity that other post-rock bands like Godspeed! You Black Emperor and Mogwai showcase, EITS might have extreme talent and musicianship, but these two behemoths of the genre have left little for other post-rock bands to explore. Nevertheless, EITS adds a different dimension to the style, offering a more “get to the point” soundscape that challenges Mogwai’s long-windedness, despite their obvious debt to the band. (Check out Mogwai’s 2006 masterpiece LP Mr. Beast or 2003’s Happy Songs for Happy People if you don’t believe us.)

The lighting was superb, and, when combined with a smoke machine that didn’t stop for the entire set, the fog created a wall that encased the band in a cube. The flashes and pulses of the stage lights happened at exactly the right moments, and the colours changed to reflect the moods of the songs.

At barely an hour and 15 minutes the set was a short one, but EITS closed with a spectacular climax, cut by a split-second stop. As the band walked off the stage, background music started playing instantly. There would be no encores tonight. Rayani came back out and thanked the audience, but said that they were “beat, tired, and had played all the songs they had for two nights”. Far from the most rock’n’roll of sentiments, the audience couldn’t help but feel a bit cheated. If the band’s intention was to leave you wanting more, it achieved its goal with flying colours.