Explosions in the Sky just wrapped up the North American leg of their tour supporting their first album in seven years, End, with a big show at Kings Theatre on Thursday (10/5). While they were in NYC, they played two much more intimate shows at Bowery Ballroom, performing their classic 2003 album The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place in full. We went on Saturday night, where after an opening set from Ron Orlando, the band delivered an intense performance, amplified by smoke and the intimate setting, which made their dynamic of soft to pummeling to soft all the more powerful.
Saturday night’s show also featured a few newer songs from End (“It’s Never Going to Stop,” “Moving On,” and “The Fight”), “Catastrophe and the Cure” from 2007’s All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone, and “Greet Death” from 2001’s Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever. They switched out songs for the post-album set for Sunday night; see both setlists below, along with an attendee-taken video, and photos by P Squared.
SETLIST: EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY @ BOWERY BALLROOM, 10/7/2023
First Breath After Coma
The Only Moment We Were Alone
Six Days at the Bottom of the Ocean
Memorial
Your Hand in Mine
Catastrophe and the Cure
Moving On
Greet Death
It’s Never Going to Stop
The Fight
SETLIST: EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY @ BOWERY BALLROOM, 10/8/2023
First Breath After Coma
The Only Moment We Were Alone
Six Days at the Bottom of the Ocean
Memorial
Your Hand in Mine
Ten Billion People
Yasmin the Light
Loved Ones
With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept
The Birth and Death of the Day
