This Will Destroy You + Christopher Tignor @ Theatre Fairmount▪

Breaking out of another dry spell in terms of shows (almost a month since my last Montreal show!), it’s the first of a back-to-back to end the working week.

On arriving inside Theatre Fairmount, New York-based Christopher Tignor is on stage. As he loops beats while alternating between violin plucks and triangle twangs, you can tell the crowd is already intrigued. His last two songs are more intricate, with extensive violin solos overlaid with a bass drum, creating a spooky, post-apocalyptic vibe that sets things up nicely for tonight’s headliners.

Texans This Will Destroy You are in town celebrating their third full-length record, 2011’s Tunnel Blanket, by playing it in full. Their arrival on stage is somewhat muted, tuning up in the dark and starting before anyone even realizes they are there. But theirs is a sound that takes over a room pretty quickly, that’s for sure!

Very quickly, things get loud, heavy, and bassy, to the point where you feel it in your guts. Their brand of post-rock has always placed them as forerunners of the genre, and for me, their diversity in sound has always been a key reason for this. Pummeling riffs intersperse with delicate piano interludes, the calm before or after the storm, and it’s an enthralling journey that isn’t interrupted by lyrics, or any words at all, until a simple “thanks for coming out!” from guitarist Chris King introduces the main set closer Powdered Hand.

An outpouring of cheers and claps that have been held in for the last 50 minutes echoes around the room for a good while, and the band salutes back before closing out the Tunnel Blanket record. An encore of Weeping Window constitutes the encore, an enormous, swirling end to the hour-long show. Chris flails his guitar so much he wrenches out the lead (before seamlessly replacing it… not his first rodeo, clearly)! From start to finish, it’s a triumphant return for This Will Destroy You.