Mp3s: Explosions in the Sky live in NYC
Posted on December 15, 2005 at 3:14 pm | No Comments
So I just flew back from NYC and boy are my arms ears tired. Actually, my whole body is beat, and achey, and all sorts of other pain-related adjectives. Wrestled with a nasty cold during the entire trip, and was determined not to let the bug bring me down. Essentially pretending it didn’t exist, I went about my normal getaway plans… and am paying for it now. Wandering around a chilly city, seeing shows, drinkin’ beers, staying out too late, and crashing at the pads of kind friends is not the ideal cold remedy (and I can only pray I don’t repay my inviting hosts by infecting them… my fingers have been crossed for days, you guys).
I did a bunch of stuff while I was down there (and I’ll write about some of it later), but the capper of my four day visit was on the final night, when I caught Explosions in the Sky for the second of their three shows at the Bowery Ballroom. Here’s the set…
Live at the Bowery Ballroom
Manhattan, NYC
Monday, December 12th, 2005
(files removed on 3/1/2006)
1. First Breath After Coma
2. New Song?
3. Six Days At The Bottom Of The Ocean
4. Have You Passed Through The Night?
5. Memorial
6. The Moon Is Down
It was an excellent, ear-blistering set… the delicacy of their studio work was there, though trumped by the pedal-fueled moments of fury. These guys know how to swell to a sonic payoff, and they were as tight doing so as their recordings promised. Speaking of, I was finally able to pick up discs I’d only had as mp3s at their merch table, including the one-per-person / immediately-out-of-print Travels in Constants EP, ‘The Rescue‘, which includes these words in the liner notes:
“… for this, our idea was to take two weeks and write and record a song every day. (we ended up doing this for eight days and the rest of the two weeks was spent mixing the results). No riffs were to be written beforehand; things would be made up on the spot. It seemed daunting but fun and perhaps, instructive. A learning experience. A chance to try new instruments and new ways of thinking about writing songs.”
So that explains the ‘Day One’ through ‘Day Eight’ titles, for all you downloaders. The band is cool with you stealing that sucker online if you aren’t fortunate enough to find it at one of the few shows they’re playing right now. If you do get to see ’em in person, grab that EP early, because they were gone fast in NYC.
As you can see on the setlist, we got what I’d imagine is one of the new songs that will end up on their in-progress next album (did anyone else get different unveilings at other shows?). If it’s an old one I’m not familiar with, set me straight in the comments. For those upcoming show dates (two in LA this weekend, two in Texas next month), check out the EitS site, and for more frequent news updates, hit this excellent fan site. For a couple more pictures from the Bowery show, head over to my Flickr page. (12/19 eta: some excellent photos from the sunday show can be found at crackers united.)
As always, here comes the fine print: live songs are recorded with a Sony minidisc recorder, converted from .wav to 192kbps mp3s, and are made available for a few weeks. If the artist or anyone involved with making the music has an issue with them being shared here, just say the word… my email address is on the left.
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