For a photographer covering a band in Atlanta, The Earl is a nightmare. Of all the area’s popular venues and arenas, they have the worst lighting setup that consists of incredibly dim LEDs. While I, the photographer, can’t stand the lighting, they don’t care… and they shouldn’t. What matters is the artist on stage.

This past weekend’s EXITMUSIC show was perfect for that dark setting at The Earl. The band’s introspective and often chilling music thrived in that atmosphere.

If you haven’t heard of this duo from New York, I’ll skip the biographical run-through and point you to our March feature on them when they were our Band of the Month. Instead, I’ll jump right into their performance last Saturday night.

They opened their set with “The Sea,” the same track that introduced them to the world last June (download “The Sea” from their label Secretly Canadian). The song started softly with ooos and aahs and quickly grew into an explosion of sound that enveloped every dark corner and crevice of the black room.

Vocalist Aleksa and guitarist Devon rarely spoke during the set and there was hardly a moment of silence as samples and textures droned and looped between songs. I normally enjoy some good banter from band members in between, but in this case, it would have broken the entrancing ambience they created.

Their time on stage ended with the closer from their 2012 album Passage. The song reached a brilliant climax that quickly faded into Aleksa on the keyboard playing a simple riff. She softly repeated the phrase, “we are sparks of light, but we hide it.” Then the lights on musicians dimmed and they walked off the stage into darkness.

Exitmusic’s show in Atlanta was just the second stop on their tour with School of Seven Bells. You can still catch them in the coming weeks in these cities:

04/13/12 Austin, TX – The Mohawk (outside)
04/15/12 Kansas City, MO – The Riot Room
04/16/12 Denver, CO – Larimer Lounge
04/17/12 Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge
04/19/12 Los Angeles, CA – Echoplex
04/20/12 San Francisco, CA – Rickshaw Stop
04/22/12 Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge
04/23/12 Seattle, WA – The Crocodile
04/24/12 Vancouver, BC – Electric Owl
04/27/12 Minneapolis, MN – Triple Rock Social Club
04/28/12 Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
04/29/12 Bloomington, IN – The Bishop
04/30/12 Detroit, MI – Magic Stick
05/05/12 New York, NY – LPR