This Will Destroy You Whelans Oct 12th, 2008 Fiona Donnellan
cannot think of a better way to spend a Sunday evening than listening to the unique stylings of experimental rock quartet, "This Will Destroy You". Their sound is not for the light hearted but this Texas born band seemed to grab the attention of everyone in a packed Whelan's on October 12th. They played songs from their first album Young Mountain and songs from their more technically mature, self titled, second album released earlier this year. They also promoted their current album "Field Studies" which is a joint venture with band Lymbyc System, who have a more electric, synthesized sound and who toured with them around America.
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The show was impressive, the support acts managed to create the perfect atmosphere for "This Will Destroy You", to quite literally, destroy the audience. The band took over the stage, their presence was amazing and the audience fell silent as they created these powerful post-rock, uplifting songs, with dense drums and guitars. The band were completely enthralled in their performance, you could feel their intensity, they barely acknowledged each other on stage but yet they were completely in tune with each other making their delivery flawless. hey are often compared to bands such as "Explosions in the Sky" and "Mogwai" purely because they use similar criteria for song creation, using captivating instrumentals, starting off soft and cascading into an epic conclusion. It's no wonder "Explosions in the Sky" were commissioned to create the soundtrack for the Film "Friday Night Lights" because like "This Will Destroy You" they have this cinematic quality to their sound.
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"This Will Destroy You" formed in 2005 and is made up of Chris King and Jeremy Galindo on guitar, bass player Raymond Brown and Andrew Miller playing drums.
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he band came on stage at about 920pm following support from fellow Texas band Mom and Dublin based band, Halves. Mom played a short set of what they describe as electro acoustic trance music. The duo were indeed multi talented playing violins, guitars and a cello to create beautiful and ambient sounds. The real surprise of the night, however, was Halves made up of Brian Cash, Elis and Tim Czerniak, Dave Scanlon and Sarah Pratt. They have played Electric Picnic the past two years and have played a handful of gigs around the country so it was great to eventually witness them first hand. It was worth the wait, they were remarkable, the stage was a hive of activity as they created their sound with drums, guitars, bells, vocoders, syths and a cello, to name afew. Their set was perfect, each song leading seamlessly into the next, starting out slow with the sound steadily gaining momentum, ending in an explosion of huge guitar and drum anthems.
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"This Will Destroy" are completing their European tour over the next month with Mom. Their latest album is available through their my space page www.myspace.com/thiswilldestroyyou If you missed your chance to see Halves at Electric Picnic or in Whelan's this time around then they play a solo show in Whelan's on November 22nd and they play along with Bell X1 in Vicar Street, November 11th.
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