Thursday 01/03/07 Explosions In The Sky, Alexander Tucker @ KOKO, London

What first needs to be noted about this gig is the peculiar array of attendees.  Glancing around the KOKO on this highly anticipated first Thursday night of March, one is able to take in the variety of people - emo kids, hardcore punks, scenesters, hipsters, and middle-aged men.  Loads of them.  Either it’s really cool right now to like Texas post-rockers Explosions In The Sky, or a lot of different people are somehow drawn together to listen to this incredible group.  We surely hope it’s the latter.

The show starts just after eight with solo act Alexander Tucker.  His style is quite unique; his set-up is composed of him sitting on a chair with an assortment of instruments scattered around him.  He starts out with a guitar, strums a few dark, slow, steady chords, then apparently has a device that records and loops the chords over and over.  He puts down the guitar and picks up a violin.  The same thing occurs.  This goes on as he adds ambient and droning vocals.  At first this is quite a sight to witness, but after eight minutes of the same noises, the crowd looks a little bored.  There’s only so much constant droning repetition you can take. 

“Hello, hello, hello, hello,” opens Explosions In The Sky guitarist Munaf Rayani with a nervous tone. “How are you guys?  This is pretty intense… Our last show in London was a while ago, and it wasn’t for this many people, man, I’ll tell you that,” he pauses, and then continues, “My hands are shaking!  We’re excited to be here!  We’re Explosions in the Sky from Texas!”  And with this, they launch into 11-minute track ‘First Breath After Coma’, the opening song from The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place.