Therefore, by the time we got into the Koko, it was only about 20 minutes later that Explosions came onstage, missing the acoustic space rock experimentalism of Alexander Tucker of all of about 10 minutes at the most. This also meant that the show ended up going extremely fast, as I only ended up actually being at the venue for a total of an hour and a half, not being adequate time to really savour a gig in the flesh as it happens in front of you.

However, bad mood or none, Explosions in the Sky, a band who have become probably one of my all time favourites over the last year, should have been able to blow me away, no matter what had gone on before it. I should have felt suspended in time and loving every second, every beat, and every breath. This ended up, like their new album; being one of the most inconsistent performances I’ve ever seen which totally undermined the whole experience.

It all started pleasantly enough, the opening notes of ‘First Breath after the Coma’ were enough to get the whole room excited, with a whole chorus of approving noises. But it wasn’t really until a couple songs later in ‘The Only Moment We Were Alone’ that they really got going. Everything before that had been pleasant, but could have just been listened to off a CD. Now, we were getting a mind-blowing Explosions in the Sky, one that were giving all the magic and amazing feelings you get from CD but with the added euphoric experience of seeing a band like that live; for a few minutes or so I was in the timeless mood I was hoping for.

It didn’t last forever though. ‘Greet Death’ was a pleasant surprise as it’s aging a bit now, and was played with a lot of intensity, but then the next 20 or so minutes (2 songs) were devoted to the new album and live it just wasn’t that exciting. The new album was frustrating me enough as it was, I just can’t make my mind up if it’s brilliant or awful. I switch between the two pretty much per listen. But this did not help the case. ‘Catastrophe and the Cure’ in particular was just a bit sluggish and seems to have done what a lot of people accused the new album in general doing, losing it’s magic. For an album that starts off so well in ‘The Birth and The Death of a Day’ (which was fairly criminal to have been omitted from the set considering how its arguably the most powerful piece of music they have written yet) it does noticeably dip in quality as it goes on, and this, sadly proved it further.

Of course you have to remember that this was a warm up show at best. In preparation for a huge European tour they are now embarking on, but for a band and a show I had such high expectations for, this was at best, a little bit of an anti-climax.

‘Memorial’ was absolutely stunning as a closer though. It in fact almost made me keep faith in the whole night. It was performed with such vigour that it gave all the heart-warming pleasure the music is meant to. Even though a stage crasher managed to put one of the guitarists out of tune slightly and pulled the bass lead out – but Michael James got the last laugh, managing to put his lead back into his bass just in time to start playing, receiving a huge, British cheer - it still managed to be amazing and an absolute highlight. The problem though was that ‘Memorial’ is not a finale. Yet still, there was no encore with the claim that “We don’t have anything else to play” despite 3 albums of relatively untouched material. Now this criticism is potentially a bit petty, but for many people to hear a couple more classics would have made this absolutely amazing. All they really needed to do was come back on stage; play ‘Your Hand in Mine’ or ‘Yasmin the Light’ and all would have been forgiven. The night would have been amazing and my faith restored.

As it was though, I was left feeling a little bit indifferent, something I never really expected in my wildest dreams. Some songs in this set were truly incredible, but sadly they were under half of the number of songs of the set, and the rest were just pleasant. I think this may also make me appreciate how some Explosions songs are definitely better than others, and how, as I’m used to hearing them in the contexts of their albums, a few of them fell a little flat when taken out of them.

Here’s hoping though that when they return in April not only will I have had a better build up, but also they will give a much more satisfactory set, because this is a band that can move me at the worst of times, and when it didn’t happen so much live, I wasn’t quite sure what to be thinking.

Adam Turner-Heffer