Explosions In The Sky played Ruums, Kuala Lumpur

i have to admit firstly that i'm not very familiar with EITS' back catalogue, particularly stuff before the Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place, although i am a huge fan of the genre. hearing that the band (and a post-rock band, at that) would be playing in KL was an extreme rush of anticipation and joy. finally! some relevant music was coming to KL!

amazingly, there was quite a turnout; i suspect a huge chunk of the crowd would've hailed either from Singapore, Indonesia, or the Philippines, seeing that KL was the only stop for EITS in this part of the world. you could say that we're pretty lucky to have these guys after missing out on so many other great live acts that skipped KL in favour of other countries with more expensive hotels.

the show started at 9.oopm sharp - the band entered the stage and was greeted by a huge wave of applause by an already pumped and ecstatic crowd. there wasn't any opening act, which i predict would seriously dampen the mood, had there been one. anyway, Munaf did the band introduction, holding a piece of paper with Bahasa Malaysia wordings, as he tried so earnestly to pronounce the baku-ishly difficult 'selamat malam', right after he wished chinese audiences 'Gong Xi Fa Cai' (instant win number one!) what caught the audience off guard was when he introduced the band with this phrase, 'Kami adalah Letupan Di Langit', which literally translates to 'We are Explosions in the Sky'. that was instant win number two. the crowd was hamfisting and the band ready to rock out.

throughout the set, the band swerved and swayed in some trance-like unison, which reminded me so much of flowers swaying in a gentle breeze. ok, not a very good metaphor. Munaf was especially feeling the music a hell lot, which made him really interesting to observe. Michael looked very much like the head honcho, smacking his bad-ass bass guitar on Welcome, Ghosts. on a couple of tracks, he switched his bass for a third guitar, assaulting the audience with a triple guitar threat. i had hoped for Your Hand In Mine to be played, and with Michael picking up the third guitar, i suspected Your Hand would definitely be played tonight. instant win number three! Mark was a tad subdued, but his guitar playing was pitch-perfect and on the spot, he definitely conquered the stage in the majority of the set. Chris pummeled his drumset like no tomorrow; his presence was definitely felt throughout the entire set, especially during crescendos of longer tracks.

at the end, the crowd was ecstatic for an encore, chanting 'We want more!' madly like an angry mob. Munaf came back onstage in what most of us thought was a successful chant. despite that, he told us straight to the point that the band had already played with their entire heart and energy in tonight's set, and it would be inappropriate for them to do an encore. with that humbling tone, a sort of respect for the band rose from within me - so what if they're not gonna play an encore? they're sticking to their principals, and that's what really matters to a band!

later on, the band offered an autograph session for the audience, and being typical Gemilanglanders, the crowd pushed themselves out onto the hall where the band was to do their autograph session. i thought it really wasn't necessary to get autographs, because i've already received so much more just from the gig itself; my very first post-rock gig and above all, knowing the fact that indie music was triumphant last night itself. instant win number four!

on a lighter note, i noticed Munaf and Michael wearing Mono t-shirts! labelmates, they are, and here's hoping that EITS will recommend Mono to come play at KL in the near future! i'm seriously keeping my fingers crossed!