After a deserted January, Explosions in the Sky rejuvenates area concert-goers

February 12, 2024

Andrew Dodderidge,

Explosions in the Sky. // photo by Andrew Dodderidge

Munaf Rayani said something very interesting at the end of Explosions in the Sky’s wordless and commentless 80-minute set at The Truman on Tuesday night.

“You did this. We wouldn’t have been able to do this without you.”

It’s something you don’t really reflect on when you go to shows, but wholeheartedly true. If you didn’t buy a ticket to see the now 25-year-old post-rock group, you wouldn’t have been able to see it happen. And they wouldn’t have been able to make it come to fruition.

Rayani took a snare drum out in the middle of the performance, hacking away to preserve that feeling entirely. The air in the room felt fresh and anew, and while I looked around inside the barren warehouse, I could tell that people felt the same thing, too.

It’s these moments that create the memories that fellow concert goers hold close. And Explosions in the Sky craft a live show that does just that, incorporating new and fresh ideas at each new stage of their catalog to keep spinning the wheel and reinventing their sound.

Nightosphere. // photo by Andrew Dodderidge

“We have one more for you…and then it’s time for explosions,” said Nightosphere’s Claire Hannah, half an hour before the main act took away the night, making a double-entendre that felt both scripted and improvised at the same time, setting the stage for the feelings described above.

Hannah and fellow Nightosphere members Brittany Sawtelle and Dekota Trogdon had one of their biggest moments as a band that night.

The local KC rockers opened for Chat Pile back in September at The Bottleneck, another show to go along with their many sets at Farewell KCMO throughout last year, but had not mustered up the gravitas of playing a venue this large for a group of this magnitude so far in their career.

Hannah and Sawtelle exchanged vocal duties throughout the brief 35-minute opening set (which started at 8 p.m. on the dot), switching from the right side to the left side of the stage about midway through.

The support I’m seeing online for the group seems small compared to the in-the-moment live reaction from fans of much bigger groups. That needs to change. A photog waiting for Explosions to start around 9 p.m. stopped Hannah, who made her way to the crowd for the closing set, to tell her how great they were. I couldn’t agree more.

A majority of the tracks played by Explosions in the Sky reside on their most recent record, End, which was released back in September. While the buzz has died down on the three-decade old instrumentalists (it had been seven years since their previous LP), all the press I have seen for the group’s seventh album has been dipped in a positive light, and the songs translated perfectly.

Penultimate track “The Fight” has a sports movie soundtrack-esque quality that seeps out in your room, but bursts into droves in a larger space. The same could be said for “Loved Ones”, which they transitioned to after opening with All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone’s “The Birth and Death of the Day”.

The first inclusion from the band’s most imminent success, The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place, came about an hour in with “Your Hand in Mine”. And as soon as the opening guitar riff was played, that edged audience anticipation had a collective reaction.

The final three cuts going from Earth (“Your Hand”) to End (“Fight”), back to Earth (“The Only Moment We Were Alone”), exacerbates an idea of the totality of the group at-large. The twinkle of the band’s third LP that resulted in massive critical success has been sidelined for newer and more modern ideas, whether it’s the booming climax of “The Fight” or the expertly piano-driven “Loved Ones”. That spark of something extraordinary is gone, but the idea of transformation is still present.

As Rayani said goodbye to the nearly-sold out crowd at The Truman, the passionate feelings from fans nearby were fully felt for the group’s seventh (I see a theme here) trip to KC (including an appearance at the formerly-named Sprint Center back in ‘13). It was a true reminder why all of us go out to these things in the first place: because of the music.

No lyrical distractions, no mic mishaps, no frontman filibustering. We are all looking for the inspiration to keep us, or get us going again. For some, it’s just good ol’ plain rock riffs.

Explosions in the Sky