While a bit of rain and the threat of thunderstorms seemed to put Monday night’s Panamania concert in jeopardy, luckily things went ahead more or less as planned with Austinites Explosions In The Sky and Alejandro Escovedo each putting on impressive performances.
Taking to the stage a couple of hours before Explosions In The Sky, Escovedo led his band though a set of songs from throughout his career as well as a cover of Neil Young’s “Like A Hurricane.” During the latter, he attempted to get a singalong going on the chorus, though the response was pretty weak. “They sing louder in Kamloops,” he said.
Escovedo’s a bit of a storyteller in his songwriting style and this carried through into his stage banter as he gave a bit of a history lesson on himself, his musical career and his family throughout the set. He noted how he’s been playing shows in Toronto for many years now, both as a solo act and with his old bands The Nuns, Rank and File and True Believers, and dedicated the song “San Antonio Rain” to Yvonne Matsell, who first booked him in Toronto. Unfortunately, the lyric “The rain ain’t gonna come” from that song did not hold true as there was a light drizzle throughout his set. The weather improved as the night went on, though the usual victory celebration for Parapan Am athletes and the post-show fireworks display for the evening were cancelled, which was unfortunate, but at least it spared us from hearing any more “Explosions In The Sky will be followed by actual explosions in the sky” jokes.