An ever-changing all-star musical cast
Between the dense jazz-, punk- and contemporary-classical-influenced sounds of Tortoise and the wide-screen grandeur of Explosions in the Sky, it’s a great time to hear adventurous instrumental rock performed live in the Bay Area.
The band makes a stop Sunday, May 1, at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, while the acclaimed Austin quartet Explosions in the Sky headlines a sold-out show Saturday, May 7, at the Fox Theater in Oakland.
In a quarter century-plus of music making, Tortoise — co-founders John Herndon and Doug McCombs, along with multi-instrumentalists Jeff Parker, John McEntire and Dan Bitney — has frequently placed an emphasis on rhythm.
Two of its five members are drummers, though the entire quintet impressively switches up instruments throughout their concerts.
The 17-year-old Explosion’s sound, on the other hand, has been largely guitar-driven, while adding electronic percussion and synthesizer elements to its last two studio albums.
The band’s evocative arrangements and mastery of dynamics have made its compositions favorites for TV shows such as “Friday Night Lights” and films like Terrence Malick’s latest, “Knight of Cups,” and the real-life military thriller “Lone Survivor.”
[...] You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead and Pompeii, Explosion has grown its audience starting with the clubs and theaters of Texas’ famed state capital.
[...] though two of its members now live in Southern California, Tortoise still reflects its Windy City free jazz and indie rock roots — particularly as heard on “The Wilderness,” a sound the band plans to bring to the Bay Area.
Five of those pieces became the basis for “The Catastrophist,” which was released mid-January by Thrill Jockey, the Tortoise’s lifelong label home.
Moving from North Carolina to Chicago after graduating from high school in 1985, Herndon joined “some punky Midwestern-style pop bands that put out a couple of records and played some great shows.”
Herndon admits it was simple curiosity that first brought the mallet-driven tuned percussion instrument into his arsenal and onto the bandstand.