This Will Destroy You

I could not be more excited to see This Will Destroy You tomorrow right here in Harrisburg! Yes, this is a band with a somewhat annoying name (until you get used to it and actually love the name) but they have gradually, over the past few years, become one of the more important bands to me in my life.

This Will Destroy You (TWDY) is what is known as a post rock band, although that term, post-rock, can be argued about at length exactly what it means or what qualifies.  The commonly accepted definition is a group of people that plays strictly instrumental rock music, typically long songs, 10 minutes or longer, with multiple sections, no refrain or chorus musically, and an intense quiet/loud dynamic, although any of these elements can be changed, and the fundamental post-rock-ness remains.

Anyway, I began to love this band about 4 years ago, right before Karla and I got together. I had heard their name here and there as I was making me my way down my post rock journey, and had just started listening to their first album when Karla and I got together. I was still living in Philadelphia and she was living in Harrisburg, and she would come to see me about every two weekends. One weekend, TWDY was playing a show in Philly, and she was coming to see me that day, but she wasn’t going to be getting in until late at night. So I left her my door key, and I went to the concert. I remember feeling amazed at the concert, listening to this music that meant so much to me, that was so intense and so profound, knowing that the woman who I already knew I was going to be with for the rest of my life was laying in my bed back in my Philadelphia apartment. Which by the way I was going to ride my bike to after the concert; I was so hip. I felt so amazing, perhaps, the most amazing I’ve ever felt in my life. When I got home that night, I slid into bed with her and woke her up and talked to her about the show, then as she fell back asleep, I put their self titled album on the stereo quietly, and I drifted off to the sounds of Burial on the Presidio Banks.

My relationship with the band has only deepened over the past few years since I moved back to central Pennsylvania. I have acquired a jewel of a collection of their vinyl albums, including the centerpiece of the my post rock collection, their “Live from Reykjavik” on three vinyl records. In addition, the very first movie that Karla and I ever saw in a theater was “Room”, in which their song  The Mighty Rio Grande is featured during what is arguably the turning point and the most intense part of the movie. See below:

 

It is arguable that I put on this band’s music more often than any others, even though at this point I still would not classify them as my actual favorite band, but it is the perfect mood music, when I’m feeling a little down, when I feel like I need inspiration, when I’m reminiscing, when I’m writing. This band’s music runs through the fabric of my life almost like no other band, and somehow, tomorrow night, they’re playing a show in Harrisburg!

My favorite song of theirs is this one, A Three-Legged Work Horse: