Entertainment: Post-rock quiet-loud-quiet guitar heroes Explosions in the Sky

When I saw Explosions in the Sky about three years ago I was curious as to how their post-rock slow burns would lend themselves to a live setting. In my review I voiced these concerns about the structural confines of what I call “crescendo music” but they were thankfully groundless.

The gig was kept varied, with moments of shoegaze, ambience and distortion to break up the mood and there were fantastic blasts of noise to stir the senses. I gave the Concorde 2 gig five stars and praised its pounding triumphant finales, so it will be great to see this dynamism and intensity at the Dome.

You may well have heard EITS on the soundtrack to the film/TV show Friday Night Lights; their music is certainly cinematic but they have returned to focusing of full albums with the release of ‘The Wilderness’ on 1st April. The album still features their trademark fluid chiming guitars, but other elements feel more chopped up, such as the big DJ Shadow-like drumbeat and the musical melange collage introduction on ‘Disintegration Alley’.

The music recalls EITS’ guitarist Mark T. Smith’s Inventions collaboration with Eluvium, and is a little more reserved than the band’s earlier work. It will be nice to see how they play the more contemplative album live, but they will surely still be producing a melodic, tectonic wall of sound this weekend.

This gig is well worth trying out if you’re a fan of instrumental music, or just high quality musicianship in general. You can expect a well constructed, meticulously layered, guitar-based experience from a sensational live act.

Concert Hall, Brighton Dome, Sunday 24 April, £22
http://brightondome.org/event/8754/explosions_in_the_sky/