While radio-ready pop acts have benefited most from television's recent heavy placement of indie music, even the mellifluous and experimental Explosions in the Sky has cashed in on this trend. The NBC drama Friday Night Lights about highschool football in Texas featured several songs by the Austin-based post-rockers.Explosions played a sold-out show at the Middle East Downstairs last Wednesday to an eclectic crowd-one far more varied than the usual college-age hipster crowd. But everyone there seemed to share an anticipation, one that only grew during opening sets by Eluvium and the pAper chAse. When the hotly anticipated headliners took the stage to wild applause, they wasted no time with banter or introductions. Explosions in the Sky played straight through its set with no pauses between songs; rather, ambient passages indicated the transitions between numbers. Reacting to what can only be described as a monolithic wave of sound, many audience members swayed violently, arms extended in unison with the band. Explosions in the Sky played hard, and its reverent fans responded in kind.

Ultimately, that sound didn't prevent some members of the audience from talking throughout the show. But perhaps they shouldn't be blamed; it takes a certain type of person to stay tuned into an hour of post-rock.

The ambient post-rock artist Eluvium (né Matthew Cooper) started off the evening's performances with a guitar, a keyboard and a lot of electronic effects. At first, the crowd failed to quiet down for his performance because it seemed merely to continue the filler music that had been playing from the PAs. But eventually, the audience was swaying to Cooper's ethereal, largely indistinguishable songs.

Next up was the pAper chAse, which is perhaps best described as "Halloween rock" and was a welcome departure from the post-rock that preceded and followed its performance. The band's high, plinky piano sounds-the kind that float ominously over the rest of the music-offered up an almost creepy sound that coupled with the lead singer's spastic stage gestures deftly captured the audience's attention. Vocalist John Congleton's near-pantomime-as well as a look that recalled Jared Leto in Fight Club-managed to distract the audience from his actual singing, which was considerably less melodic than on record. The shouting-and-speech-style singing that replaced it was certainly entertaining, but a little more attention to melody would have been appreciated.

Still, the pAper chAse was an entertaining yet striking contrast to Explosions in the Sky's tight and harmonious set. Without the inclusion of the pAper chAse's energetic and vocal set, the combination of Eluvium and Explosions in the Sky might have been a post-rock overload.