The Dulcinea and I hit the road on Saturday evening for Milwaukee and The Rave to catch Porcupine Tree for the second time in about 3 weeks. It would also be the last show of this leg of the tour. I was heartened to find that the band was moved up from the basement into The Rave Hall. The sound in the basement venue is total crap so it could only get better and it also meant that The Tree had gone from playing to 150-200 folks to a few hundred more. Still, nothing will beat the intimacy of seeing them for the first time at Shank Hall. Unlike the basement, The Rave Hall has a cocktail lounge off to one side which features beer other than Miller's horrid flagship products, but the prices are the same - absolutely ridiculous - $7.50 for a Leine's compared to $6.50 for High Life. Shank, by contrast, has good beer such as Sprecher on tap and a pint is quite reasonable. All bitching aside, I was pleased to find that the acoustics in The Rave Hall were considerably better than down in the dungeon.
The opening band was once again 3. Having arrived towards the end of their opening set in Chicago, I wasn't able to get a good grasp on their music then but we caught their entire performance this time around. My opinion was much the same as the one I formed a couple weeks ago - that they just don't appeal to me all that much. I really like the dual percussion thing but the singer is just too hair metal for me. After they left the stage I tried calling Tim (hi Tim), a fan from the Chicago area who haunts this site and was in attendance. I had forgotten my cell phone so I used The Dulcinea's. Unfortunately, I kept getting his voice mail. So we wandered from the lounge out onto the floor, The Dulcinea clutching her ear plugs tight. We found a spot to stand where I traditionally do at Tree shows - close to the stage in front of bassist Colin Edwin. That's where I was at Shank Hall the first time I saw them and that's where I try to be now. Looking around, I couldn't help but notice how the audience has changed over the years. It's gotten much younger, there are more women, and I even spied a few people of color. The band's move to a heavier sound has drawn in the metal crowd so there were lots of college-age guys there. As the lights went down, a woman standing on a chair to our right was yelling something I couldn't discern. Folks looked at her and, when she finished, she turned around and smiled.
The set that night was identical to that in Chicago last month excepting that "Trains" replaced "Even Less" as the first encore. The band had been mixing up the set with "Mellotron Scratch", "Hatesong", and "A Smart Kid" and I would have loved to have heard "Mellotron Scratch" again or the last of those live for the first time but, alas, it was not to be. On the upside, I got to hear and, being so close to the stage, feel "Sever" again. I first got into Porcupine Tree a bit after they had released 1996's Signify and the song was immediately one of my favorites from it. Gavin Harrison adds a bit more muscle to it than original drummer Chris Maitland and the guitar is heavier (plus Steve Wilson went crazy at the end) but the song remains a different breed than the newer stuff. The band's sound is more melodic and more metal now than it was 10 years ago but "Sever" treads a rather minimalist path. It makes for a nice change of pace in the set yet fits the zeitgeist very well. Plus it just brought back a lot of great memories of first getting into The Tree back in 1996 or 97.
As this was the final show of this leg of their tour, I'm sure the guys were exhausted but I must say that they seemed to be really fired up. Edwin was smiling most of the night which is a change from the old days; Harrison beat the skins with his usual intensity, showing why he was voted best progressive drummer of the year by the readers of Modern Drummer magazine; and Wilson was manic at times which made for a very energetic performance that rubbed off on the audience. It helps when you're standing close to the stage instead of being seated in the back somewhere. "Anesthetize" was incredibly intense and even more amazing than the Chicago gig because it was blasting in my ears. Live, the song is like a mini Gesamtkunstwerk with the music, Steve Wilson flailing about onstage, the lights, and the crowd reacting. I don't want to repeat myself too much but I must reiterate just how masterfully this tune builds up the drama. The rhythm begins on the toms and steadily becomes faster and more primitive as it's joined by the grinding 6-string menace. You can feel the tension build in your chest and spread out into your arms and legs as the guitars slash away and primal beat pulses its way into your veins and forces you to move. It all comes to climax with that burst of 24 karat chaos. Closing my eyes, I lost myself in the music as I thrashed about. When people talk about transcendental moments, well, that was one of them.
"Open Car" followed and at least one guy several feet to my left started moshing which I thought was great. The Dulcinea was very happy that they played "Blackest Eyes". Before starting, Steve Wilson commented on Arielle Daniel, a young fan of the band who died shortly after the last time the band were in Milwaukee. "Blackest Eyes" was apparently her favorite PT song and it was dedicated to her. Her death also served as inspiration for "Way Out of Here" from the new album and the video screen was turned off for the tune as some members of the girl's family were in attendance. "Sleep Together" ended the set in classic fashion. I absolutely love this song as it's great to have Richard Barbieri's keys up front for a change. The Dulcinea noted that the animation for the song is very reminiscent of a short we saw at the 2005 Wisconsin Film Festival. A wonderful set closer, I wish that it went on longer.
My ears finally stopped ringing last night. Steve Wilson noted that the band have been coming to Milwaukee ever since they began touring America. Indeed, their appearance at Shank Hall of June 1999 was only their 6th concert on American soil. The Tree are to return to the States this October so here's hoping they return to Milwaukee.
There was a trio of audience shot videos up at YouTube but they were taken down today. This is odd considering that the clips from their official DVD remain.
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