The title track - both phases - was especially fun with the trippy lighting. At one point I found that my eyes easily slid into that mode that one uses to look at anaglyphs. It was no trouble at all to move in and out of that. The green dots looked as if they were just inches away from my face while the blue clouds churned in the background.
The Vic Theatre was packed on Tuesday for one of only two Porcupine Tree concerts in the middle of the States. With the coasts are getting the bulk of dates, we here in flyover country had to get to Chicago or Cleveland to see the band on this leg of the tour. The crowed in Chicago was a real mix. There were metalheads next to industrial fans along with the grizzled veterans of a thousand prog concerts.
After King's X's opening set, The Tree took the stage and wasted no time delving into their 55-minute concept opus, The Incident, which is one continuous piece of music composed of several parts. The short, slow-burning "Occam's Razor" whetted the crowd's appetite for the opening blast of "The Blind House". This song arguably encapsulates the entire album along with much of PT's history in about five and a half minutes. There's the heavy guitar of touring member John Wesley contrasting with Steve Wilson's acoustic; at the back of the stage Richard Barbieri and his keys fill out the picture and set the mood. I almost feel sorry for bassist Colin Edwin these days because he's often left alone holding things down on the back end as drummer Gavin Harrison is usually busy trying to use every drum and cymbal he has at his disposal. He's not overplaying but methinks that his time spent with King Crimson last year has only made him better. It's not that he fills every space in a song with a fill or cymbal splash, it's that he carves out his own space and plays the right part bar in and bar out.
Curiously enough, Wilson greeted the crowd after just two songs. He said that Chicago was the band's spiritual home here in the States and that they'd continue with the rest of The Incident. Much to their credit, they pulled it off without a hitch. I'm still getting to know The Incident but I can tell you that it is gelling for me. The soaring chorus of "Drawing the Line" is oddly comfortable next to the industrial sludge of "The Incident" (the section of the longer song with which it shares its title). "The Yellow Windows of the Evening Train" provided one of those ineffable personal moments. It reminds me of a certain Genesis song and so the short instrumental pulled a switcheroo, of sorts, and took me somewhere else for a couple minutes.
As Wilson started strumming the opening of "Time Flies", I returned. The song is an epic mash-up of Pink Floyd's Animals with a blatantly catchy chorus. During the slow part in the middle, I kept waiting for someone to bust out a Vocoder and starting intoning, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…" "Octane Twisted", with the screen behind the stage alight with creepy footage of a train careering out of control, had better not be dropped from future sets or there will be hell to pay.
After a 10-minute intermission, the band returned to the stage for a set of mostly older tunes. "The Start of Something Beautiful" started things off. This was followed by "Russia On Ice", from 2000's Lightbulb Sun, which would prove to be as far back in their catalogue they'd go. I hadn't heard it live since 2002 so I was very excited. However, just as I was getting ready to rock to the powerful, riff-laden closing, the band switched gears and launched into the middle section of "Anesthetize", from their previous album, Fear of a Blank Planet, which was also heavy on crunching guitars.
The two sections worked well together as a medley, but I, like many prog fans, am leery of medleys. Genesis got to the point where they basically stopped doing entire songs prior to a certain point in their back catalogue and instead relegated a few minutes from several tunes to a medley. PT, in fact, played two last week with "Strip the Soul" and ".3" also being abbreviated and combined. My own personal preference is for choosing one or the other song and performing it in its entirety. I am hoping that this is not the beginning of a period where the band neglects their wonderful back catalogue prior to In Absentia.
This night saw the live premiere of, "Remember Me Lover", from The Incident's non-concept disc. The wonderful vocals and churning guitars are making this a favorite of mine. "Way Out of Here" was a fantastic closer as it was on the FoaBP tour and it highlighted Wesley's backing vocals. "The Sound of Muzak" and the now obligatory "Trains" were the encores.
Steven Wilson will not go down in history as the best vocalist progressive rock ever produced, but he sounds more confident which each album and this has carried over to the stage. Coupled with Wesley's voice, the vocal harmonies at PT shows are truly beautiful these days. As Gaff from Blade Runner might say, Wesley did a man's job. He is the sine non qua of Porcupine Tree live and deserves a lot more credit than he gets.
The band will be back next spring for the second US leg of their tour, which will hopefully bring them back to Wisconsin.
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.
I left work early on Thursday and scrambled to clean out my car in preparation for a trip to Chicago's Park West to see Porcupine Tree. Any hopes of arriving earlyish and either catching up with fellow fans at a nearby restaurant or finding a spot close to the stage were dashed by traffic. It was stop-and-go from Des Plaines to about Lawrence Avenue on the Kennedy. But we eventually arrived and were $20 poorer after finding parking nearby.
We ambled into the Park West and found the merchandise stand to be mobbed. Making our way into the theatre, we stood by the mixing desk to survey the territory in search of a seat. This was rather difficult as the opening band, Three, was in the middle of their set. An usher noticed Mel's cane and immediately leapt into action. A few minutes later we were shown our way to a table and almost immediately approached by a server. Our late arrival meant that I'd not be able to find my customary spot standing a short distance from Steve Wilson and Colin Edwin but I had more company. Besides, there really isn't anywhere in the Park West that could be considered to have a bad view of the stage. The show was a sell-out and, since first seeing them in 2002, the audience had gotten a bit younger and there were many more women in attendance this time around. And not just girlfriends or wives who were being dragged along by a significant other in appeasement. The band's latest album, Fear of a Blank Planet, debuted at #59 on Billboard's Top 200 albums chart and the tour has been selling out. The Tree are no longer strictly the province of dorky older white men who can tell tales of seeing King Crimson back when Jamie Muir manically roamed the stage clad in furs.
The Park West has some of the best sound of any venue you care to name. Every instrument was clear and discernible as were the vocals. Plus the bass made our seats rumble. The Tree played the new album in its entirety and are one of the few bands to included more than one, much less any, non-LP songs into their set. That a b-side was an encore was even more extraordinary. Here's the setlist:
Fear of a Blank Planet Lightbulb Sun My Ashes Anesthetize Open Car Gravity Eyelids Drown with Me Sentimental Blackest Eyes Half Light Sever Way Out of Here Sleep Together
Encore: Even Less Mother and Child Divided Halo
There were many highlights that night. The new album translated to the live scenario well. Very well indeed. The title track had the advantage of opening the show but it's a great song with a propulsive beat. I'm beginning to like "My Ashes" more and more with each listen. Although a slower song, the chorus is catchy and guest guitarist/singer John Wesley's vocals were strong. Being 17+ minutes long, "Anesthetize" obviously appeals to the prog head in me but it was a PT classic even last fall when it was previewed on a short tour. The way the drama builds throughout the first several minutes of the song is amazing. First there's the drum-heavy opening and after a few minutes, the drum pattern starts along with that sharp, chugging guitar riff. At this point Wilson joined Richard Barbieri on keys and the tension just builds and builds. Then the heavy guitars jump in and the next section starts. It didn't take long to see that Wilson was really fired up as he moved around the stage and banged his head. The tension continued to build and I knew it was coming. I felt all giddy inside awaiting the super-fast death metal bit. The hair on my neck stood up as all the instruments went silent and then all hell broke loose. Fucking classic! When the song wound down and the quiet reprieve began, the crowd let out a huge cheer. Aside from his good looks which have enchanted Mel, Gavin Harrison's drumming here was fantastic and deserves special mention. There's nary a snare drum for the first three minutes so he was up there pounding away on the toms. Fans tend to think of him as having given more oomph to the band's sound but here he really proves his mettle with a more melodic style in addition to his heavy work on the bass drum.
Also from the new album, "Sleep Together" was tremendous live. It is a bit odd to hear the vitriol that Wilson puts into his singing. Even on In Absentia with its loose theme of looking into the minds of killers, he never sang with such force. But when he sang "Let's sleep together right now", he put a lot of emphasis on the last two words. And the song isn't nearly as fast as others in the set yet he almost seemed to thrash about most intensely on this song.
Some older material that hadn't seen the light of day in a while was also played. "Lightbulb Sun" was a nice treat as I've heard precious few songs from that album live. It sat well next to "My Ashes" for a relatively quiet interlude between "Fear of a Blank Planet" and "Anesthetize". "Gravity Eyelids", on of my faves from In Absentia returned as well. A natural fit for the set with its heavy riffing in the latter half of the song, I must admit that I love the opening with its waves of that Mellotron chorus sound that just descend upon and engulf you. "Drown With Me" is a leftover from In Absentia and has found new life by being added to the setlist for the first time. Wilson remarked that it was a song that they couldn't keep in the closet any longer. I'm not sure who keeps clamoring for it, but its breezy chorus made for a nice interlude between heavier songs. The Dulcinea got all fired up for "Blackest Eyes" as she always does. Seeing her getting into a groove, I felt a sense of pride for having molded a sweet, innocent thing like her into something that resembles a prog dork. The transformation is not yet complete because I'm not quite sure how to slip the likes of Magma and Henry Cow into her musical diet without adversely affecting our relationship but I'm working on it.
The Deadwing leftover "Half Light" made an appearance. It's a slow, more psychedelic piece that resembles the band's very early work and it vied for the closing spot on Deadwing with "Glass Arm Shattering" which won out. That it contrasts with all the heavy guitars of most of the rest of the set proved to be to its advantage. While some folks no doubt went to the bathroom at this point, I gave it my full attention and it's a much better song than I remembered. It also served as a nice, mellow prelude to "Sever" which I was absolutely thrilled to hear. The song is from Signify, ostensibly the group's last "psychedelic" album and the one that got me into the band back in 1997. The guitars roared instead of buzzed as they did back in the day and Harrison's extra muscle gave the song a little extra tweaking so that it didn't seem the least bit out of place alongside the newer material with its barrage of power chords. Instead of just marching along slowly, it stomped across everything in its path. Though I have to admit that I missed the spoken word samples that litter the studio version.
With the new album being played in its entirety and some older songs being given new life, I must say that I was greatly impressed with the setlist. And it was nice that the epics from Deadwing were given a rest. Many thanks to the usher who accommodated us with a table. He recognized me on the way out and I thanked him profusely. Only another two weeks until seeing them again next month in Milwaukee.
Oh! Before I forget, I must gleefully report that Dogger bought a t-shirt for Regan, his daughter who is 3. She is being molded into a prog lover at the earliest of ages. Apparently the first song she ever danced to was "Sever"...
One intrepid fan managed to grab some video at the concert and has posted a couple clips at YouTube.
Last month I gave a preview of the forthcoming Porcupine Tree album, Fear of a Blank Planet, which is due on the 24th of this month. That peek looked at a couple studio tracks and a mediocre live version of the album recorded last fall. Now that I've heard the album in its entirety, I want to revisit it.
"Fear of a Blank Planet" opens the album and begins with the sound of typing on a keyboard followed by an indiscernible blast of voice. Presumably someone brought up some audio or video from the Internet. The song then begins properly with an urgent riff on acoustic guitar. A few bars of this and the drums enter followed by the rest of the band. The Tree continue in the vein of their previous album, Deadwing, and this song is reminiscent of that album's title track with a fairly straightforward and very insistent rhythm. There is, however, some really fuzzy guitar work here that sounds like the bass from "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" by Genesis. There are a few different sections which build a sense of drama throughout the song and the presence of Mellotron-like strings adds to this. There's a slow bit in the middle where the opening riff is played on electric guitar which is followed by some really heavy guitar soloing. This section winds down slowly over the course of nearly 2 minutes.
Lyrically the song addresses disaffected youth with its imagery of a kid sitting at a computer while a TV blares in the background. "Xbox is a god to me", Wilson sings. The kid has overdosed on pornography to the point where it only bores him. He is medicated for bipolar disorder and finds sex to merely be another one of the "empty ways of using up the day".
"My Ashes" is the second song and it begins with some of that rather odd sounding guitar (or is that keys here?) that we first heard on "Revenant", a leftover from the Deadwing sessions. A single note on piano and strummed acoustic guitar enter as does Wilson's doleful singing. Lyrically it has a similar feel to parts of Lightbulb Sun, especially "Winding Shot (Summer 1981)" with its chorus of "And my ashes drift beneath the silver sky/where a boy rides a bike", which sees Wilson looking back to the innocence of childhood. There are some nice washes of strings (real or artificial?) and some dissonant bursts of guitar. It sort of lumbers along and is a bit like "Collapse the Light Into Earth" from In Absentia. The song is a beautiful, peaceful interlude between the title track and what comes next.
Until the official title was announced, "Anesthetize" was known as "The Beast" because it weighs in at about 17+ making it the longest song by The Tree in ages. Gavin Harrison gets things going with his work on the toms while a pointed guitar scrawls out something like a riff underneath. Think "A Saucerful of Secrets" but melodic and spacey instead of chaotic. Wilson does some real singing here, sustaining words as he does. His voice sounds purer here and on the album as a whole – he's decided to let it go without the effects and processing that he has used in the past. It builds slowly to a simmer and Rush's Alex Lifeson contributes a solo with his usual combination of long, sustained notes and fast playing. Wilson eventually cranks his detuned guitar up a bit as a drum box or sequencer kicks in with what sounds like a distorted hi-hat beat. The guitar here plays an almost mechanical riff which, along with the drum box, provides a martial backdrop for some soloing. Barbieri does put his own mark down here as well. Nothing Keith Emerson fast, but he leads the tune along as Wilson warms up. And when he's ready, Wilson busts out and the band move the closest they ever have into Opeth territory. With the rigid rhythm and the guitar hitting you over the head, one can hear why the song was given its title. The pace slows a bit with the guitar revving underneath and the vocals return. "My head in the clouds and I'm zoning out". There's just something menacing going on here. Wilson's voice gets its effects treatment back and there are parts where it is the grittiest I've ever heard it. Rather than the wonderful voice he uses in the remarkable Beach Boys-like finish to "Mellotron Scratch", it is strained here as if he can barely contain anger. After about 11 minutes when you think you've heard the heaviest metal The Tree have ever made, a burst of mayhem breaks out which might leave some long-time fans wondering whom they're listening to. I mean it's all out thrash with the dual bass drums and manic everything. The heavy metal gives way to moody synths and, when the first guitar notes arise, it's a bit like those from "Shine On You Crazy Diamond". This section harkens back to the more Pink Floyd-like PT sound of the 1990s. A respite from the pandemonium with some very welcome harmony vocals.
"Sentimental" comes next and starts with a fairly jaunty piano line which, I believe, Wilson played. Harrison plays a rhythm on the hi-hat and snare. Or is that a drum machine? The vocal line is really catchy, though I can't make out all the words, with some jangly guitar to boot. Some synth fills in the spaces in the background and piano helps the song move along as a kid ponders his life and the pain inside. A rare acoustic guitar solo is all-too brief. This is the "Lazarus" of FoaBP.
"Way Out of Here" follows. It begins slowly – kind of like "Stop Swimming" - with moody synth and what sounds like a loopy guitar. Robert Fripp adds his Frippertronic soundscapes to this song but I'm not sure if they're here at the beginning or not. It soon kicks in with some big guitar. After a few bars of riffing and a soaring chorus, things slow down a bit and Wilson's voice sounds unprocessed again. The rhythm almost stutters along giving an irritated feel. Wilson also gives a great solo before the song almost comes to a halt. Wilson picks out a riff and then the listener runs up against another monster riff. Drummer Gavin Harrison then proceeds to go bonkers. With dual bass drums pounding, he just starts flailing and hits everything in reach. The chorus returns and Colin Edwin's bass moves things along.
"Sleep Together", is the final track on FoaBP. The band are breaking a long tradition here of closing albums with a slow, moody track to contrast with the also traditional very big, heavy penultimate song. A slithery synth line worthy of Ozric Tentacles opens the song and, when Wilson begins singing, some piano is added. The drums eventually kick in and it seems that the bass drum is brought much more to the fore in the mix here than on previous albums. Here's the chorus:
Let's sleep together
right now
Relieve the pressure
somehow
Switch off the future
right now
Let's sleep forever
After the chorus, swells of the Mellotron choral and string sounds build and bubble up plus Gavin Harrison adds some great bass drum work as the song heads back to the verse. After a slow bit in the middle featuring that splooshy synth, the band returns and the song closes with a great instrumental section featuring some great soloing from keyboardist Richard Barbieri. Considering the band's move towards heavy metal in the past several years, Barbieri's contributions to this song not only stick out, but are also fantastic. The solo at the end features the string sound which is bent and twisted and just great.
This album has a lot of listening left before it truly becomes a part of the Porcupine Tree canon in my head, before I know all the lyrics, and the exact moments when a guitar comes crashing in or a synth part begins wavering somewhere in the background. But, at this point, I can say that it very much follows in the steps of Deadwing. There are more Opeth-like moments but the boys haven't packed their bags for Stockholm and became agents of death metal because, concomitant to this, there's also more acoustic guitar than we're used to. I personally appreciate some of the new synthesizer sounds here. They fit well within the songs and contrast nicely with the more organic sounds of piano and Mellotron. The songs are full of the drama that we prog fans know & love. As an album, it's carefully crafted to maximize that drama on a larger scale. Heavy and light are juxtaposed both within and between songs. You'll be hit over the head and left wondering exactly what could come next.
The band is largely covering familiar territory here but it adds something here and tweaks something there. The drums propel the songs forward here like no other PT album before it and the triangle at the beginning of "Anesthetize" is a nice touch, for instance. Current followers of the band will automatically love FoaBP and their continued flirtation with metal will no doubt draw more fans of that genre. But there is no commercial potential here (I say this as a positive thing) and I wouldn't be surprised if the band's label here in the State, Atlantic, dumps them in the near future. Still, it is heartening to see them playing some larger venues this time around and it seems like Chicago is a bastion of PT fans as it's the only city getting 2 (non-consecutive) stops on the first leg of the upcoming tour. The Dulcinea and I will be seeing them at the first Chicago date and the last U.S gig in Milwaukee. Dogger and Mel will be accompanying us in Chicago. The humor value of Dogger and I headbanging will be enormous.
