Porcupine Tree at Radio City Music Hall on 9/24/2010

New York Odyssey

Last spring, Porcupine Tree had announced that they would be playing two special shows at the end of the Incident tour, one in New York City at Radio City Music Hall, and the other in London, at the Royal Albert Hall. My friends, Ron and Alissa, and I immediately planned on going to the New York show.

Together, the 3 of us had seen 5 other stops on this tour in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. The first show at the Rams Head in Baltimore, had occurred 364 days prior to this finale. We found every one of these shows to have been outstanding. With the exception of the San Antonio show, they had all followed the same format, two sets, each an hour in duration. The first set consisting the Incident in its entirety, followed by a second set of songs randomly selected, from their other albums.

This show however, was advertised as a three hour affair, obviously it was going to be different.

My history with Radio City Music Hall

While living in the Tri-state area, I had seen several shows at Radio City. The last one being Rush on their Signals tour, with Marillion as the opener, on 4/8/1983. The acoustics there are exceptional, so I was anxious to see another show there, after 27 years. (Holy shit, am I that old?)

Pre-show

Tree's fan base has steadily grown, they're not a secret anymore. It was clear that it was a sell-out or close to it. There were quite a few people walking the streets with band t-shirts on. As we waited outside for the doors to open, we spotted Jordan Rudess and John Myung of Dream Theater, among the crowd.

On entering the hall, we visited the bar, then the merch table, and then quickly found our seats. They were in row 3, but it was actually 8 rows back because there were about 5 rows of seats in the Orchestra Pit. None the less, it was a great vantage point.

The Show

After reviewing the usual places for the set list, there was this link to a photo, from a site in the Netherlands. (BTW, they did not totally follow the list in the photo).

As you can see, there were 3 sets. The first was unique in that it was Unplugged. Everyone with the exception of John Wesley and Richard Barbieri were playing acoustic instruments, with Colin on Upright! Steven announced sometime after the second or third song that tonight was going to be different, and that we were going to hear the Old Shit. The first set was phenomenal.

There were short intermissions between the sets, and at the conclusion of the first, I turned around to get a look at the hall. I was surprised to discover that Living Colour bassist, Doug Wimbish was sitting right behind me with his daughter. I'm sure that I would have been able to bird-dog other famous musicians in the audience. I'm also sure that this says something about Porcupine Tree. They are very clearly held in high regard by other artists (but I already knew that ;)

I think that like most PT fans, I enjoyed the second set the most, and was glad to be reminded how much I enjoy songs like Even Less. I also loved the hearing Arriving Somewhere for the encore. This show was three hours of auditory bliss.

Other observations about the show

Even though we were in the eighth row, there is a slight upward grade to the Orchestra Pit seats. Since many of the people in the pit chose to stand during a large portion of the show, this detracted a bit from the viewing experience.

I also noticed that since we were directly under the house mains above, that the sound was a little strange. Previously, I had always sat about 3 quarters of the way back in the house, which made for much better acoustics.

Out of the 6 PT shows I have seen in the last year, this was 2nd best. There was something very special about the Baltimore show at the Ram's Head. My friends and I, as well as the fanzine, Carbon Nation, all agreed that something special happened that night.

However, I will remember this RCMH show vividly for years to come, and I appreciate the planning and forethought that Steven and band put into this performance. Right now, I have to say that Porcupine Tree is one of the best live bands out there.

Porcupine Tree with Coheed and Cambria at Sunset Station in San Antonio, TX

For the third time this year, I was able to see my favorite band, Porcupine Tree. This time, they were co-headlining with Coheed and Cambria. Since the gig was in San Antonio, there's no way I could miss it.

I was a bit concerned however, because the sound at this venue has been atrocious, for some other shows I have seen there. Basically, Sunset Station is a concrete slab with a roofed pavilion over it. In addition, shows end early here because San Antonio's noise ordinance calls for a hard stop at 11PM.

Deerhunter

Because of the horrendous traffic on IH 35 heading towards San Antonio, the opening act, Deerhunter, was already on stage when my friends and I arrived. We were able to hear the last 2 songs of their set, but I really didn't get a good feel for this band. The were closer in sound to Tree than Coheed (which is a good thing).

It appears I will get to hear this band again at Fun Fun Fun Fest, later this fall in Austin. So, I'll be able to comment further, after that event.

Porcupine Tree

Unlike their normal shows, this one was compressed. One long set, with no time for encores. No matter, this was a nice appetizer for the main course, next month in NYC. My friends and I are traveling to see their special tour close-out show, at Radio City Music Hall, one of the best concert venues on the planet.

Here is the set list that I posted over at setlist.fm. A quick perusal of the previous shows will reveal their set has been the same every night. Basically, they played the first four songs from the Incident, and then finished with their older stuff (although I Drive the Hearse is also on the Incident).

Surprisingly, the wizards that Tree hires to do sound, worked their magic again. Although not stellar, the sound was acceptable, and better than normal. Steven was in a good form, and did a little informal straw poll, to see who had more fans. It appeared to be slanted about 65% PT fans, 35% Coheed. There was a visible age gap between these two groups, too.

There were no postings requesting no photos, so I took some shots:

Coheed and Cambria

My friends and I stayed for the first 4 songs in Coheed's set before leaving. I had already seen them at ACL two years ago, and while I found them listenable, I wasn't knocked-out by them.

During the 30 - 40 minutes of setup between the two set, it had looked as though the average age had dropped by about 15 years. Interestingly, it appears that the different fans timed their arrival for the set they wanted to see, and then left.

Fortunately, the arranged the sets, so that the old fogeys (the PT fans) could go home and get to bed. I had a great time, but am now looking forward to RCMH that much more.

Two Helpings of Porcupine Tree (and Big Elf)

For the past two days, my friends and I spent a considerable amount of time driving to Dallas, and then Houston, in order to see two stops on the current Porcupine Tree tour. This is the second leg of their North American tour supporting their latest album, the Incident.

I had already attended two dates on the first leg this tour in September. Once again, Tree chose to play the first disc of the Incident in it's entirety, and took a 10 minute intermission, before returning to stage for a 2nd set of material from their older albums. They randomly select different songs each night to keep things interesting.

The venue for both shows was the House of Blues, and both franchises had the same basic layout, each holding approximately 2,500 patrons. I had no complaints about the sound or sight lines with either club.

Big Elf

The opening band this time around was Big Elf. They're a 4 piece Prog outfit, with a guitarist, bassist, drummer and keyboard player/lead vocalist. The lead singer had a stack of vintage keyboards including a Mellotron, MiniMoog, and Hammond B3, with a Leslie 147. They sounded like they had stepped right out of the 70's.

Although they sound a little bit like the Beatles on their website samples, live, they reminded me more of old Deep Purple. I didn't enjoy these guys as much as Kings X (I'm still in awe of Brother Doug), but Big Elf is a great band. I will watch for them in the future, and I will most likely also buy a CD.

Kudos to Tree's management for picking good and complementary openers, once again. So far, I have discovered three very interesting new bands during the 6 PT Shows I have seen to date.

Big Elf in Dallas

Big Elf in Houston

Porcupine Tree

Like the first leg of tour, there was an announcement before PT came on stage asking the audience to refrain from recording or taking pictures during the show. Perhaps Steven is spending too much time with Robert Fripp? (LOL) Still, I do agree that it can be distracting, and I had no problem complying with their request.

Dallas

In general, this show had a good vibe, although the sound was a little harsh at times. The crowd was very well behaved, unlike Philly.

The set list for the night can be found here. Having listened to Nil Recurring quite a bit lately, the person beside me was surprised that I knew they were about to play Normal (one of my favorites), I also enjoyed hearing Anesthetize, the Start of Something Beautiful, and Way Out of Here.

Lower Balcony Seating in Dallas

The one bummer of the night was the fan club seating. Like other members, I had bought tickets through the Fan Club site to be seated in the Lower Balcony. When we got upstairs, all of the Fan Club people were shocked to see where our seats were.

There were lots of reserved seats, but they had all been sold later through the box office. I would have been willing to live with this, had I not found out that these seats were the same price as ours.

The fan club seats were all the way up at the top or last row, on stools. I suspect that there was some chicanery by the HOB to be honest, and I know that some complaints were registered. It was bad enough that my friend Dan and I chose to go down stairs and stand in the GA section. I'm still a little pissed about this. Live and Learn.

Houston

For this show, my friend Dan and I parked right next to the rail at the sound board. As a result, it was much better aurally, although Tree always sounds good live. In general, I would say that this was the stronger of the two shows.

The set list was a bit different. Strip the Soul and Buying a New Soul made an appearance during the 2nd set, and Normal was gone.

Other Stuff

During the fall leg of the Incident Tour, they were selectively playing Trains. However, it really has taken on a life of its own, and it is now their defacto hit. They're almost forced to play it every night as the encore now.

Veterinary Woes and What's Next

Recent Woes

The past month has been a little rough. The day after witnessing my Ravens lose their Divisional Round Playoff Game to that team from Indy, one of my two cats contracted Pancreatitis and Hepatic Lipidosis.

After a week in ER, and another 2 weeks with a feeding tube, I had little time for anything but work and taking care of her. Fortunately, she seems to have recovered nicely. The only casualty so far, has been my Lifestreaming experiment

Near Horizon

The forecast calls for lots of music. First, there's SxSW in a month, followed by a fantastic week in April, where I will get to see Porcupine Tree, Jeff Beck, and Chick Corea within a 4 day period. Can't wait.

Porcupine Tree x2

PT is presently one of my favorite rock bands. When the tour to support The Incident was announced, I was a little disappointed that I would have to fly to see them (again). I originally bought the tickets for the Philadelphia show, back in April. Things looked like they were working out well for me, since I could also visit my family, and catch a Ravens game during the same trip. I had also arranged to meet up with some friends from Austin, who were flying to see them in Philly, as well.

Several months later, a Baltimore show was added on Friday night, making my (and my friend's) schedule a bit more complicated. As a result, I ended up having to drive from Leonardtown to Baltimore, catch the PT show, drive to Philly the next day for the second show, then get up at 4:30 AM to drive back to Baltimore to tailgate, on Sunday morning. Needless to say, it was exhausting, but I made it. Fortunately, next weekend will be nice and relaxing with just the ACL Festival (LOL ;)

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Rams Head Live - Baltimore, MD - Friday 9/25

In hindsight, this may have been the show of the year for me. It was the better venue and performance of the two shows. The only slight minus was the lack of seating. It's a GA venue, with one web site listing the capacity at about 1600 people. If it wasn't a sell-out, it was close, because the club was packed.

The openers, Kings X, played for approximately an hour, followed by 2 sets of an hour each, by PT. For this tour, the first hour set consisted of a complete performance of the Incident, with the 2nd set consisting of a rotation of some older material.

The band had posted a No pictures or recoding request at the venue, and I complied with their request, for both shows. I was able to secure a position, right behind the sound board for this show, which made for an excellent listening experience.

Afterwards some members of PT were out and about. In particular, John Wesley, Colin Edwin, and Richard Barbieri. I'm not much of an autograph collector, but I did get to chat with Colin for a second. I noticed Richard Barbieri high tailed it quickly out of there, and that unlike Houston in 2007, Steven Wilson was nowhere to be found. I asked Colin to talk the band into playing Texas more, and in particular Austin. It sounds like their agent is deliberately restricting them to large metros, because of concerns about the US economy.

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Electric Factory - Philadelphia, PA - Saturday 9/26

This venue was also GA, and a bit bigger, holding approximately 2000 to 2500 people. The sound was good, but not exceptional. In general, there's a certain vibe that comes with attending a Philly/South Jersey show that detracts from the experience. True to form, a fight did break out during the show. I called it about 2 minutes before it happened, to my friends. It's kind of sad that this wasn't a surprise.

There were quite a few faces in the crowd that I recognized from the previous night, and this show was the first indication for me, that PT is becoming very popular. The set list was essentially the same, with some differences in the second set, as had been noted on the PT boards. One surprise however, was Normal from the EP, Nil Recurring.

I did talk to several people who mentioned that on previous tours, PT had played the Keswick when they came to Philly (where I saw King Crimson and which has seating). I also noticed, that there were a significant number of females in the audience, which is noteworthy for any band that might even tangentially have the label Prog associated with it. Perhaps this shouldn't be surprising since although they are labeled, Neo-Prog, they seem to be able to attract fans from the Prog, Metal, and Pop worlds in a way I've never seen before.

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Opening Act - Kings X

My friends, Ron and Alissa, have raved about this band for a while. They are actually from Houston, and after seeing them twice, I am now sorry I didn't go see them at the Red Eyed Fly in Austin. The lead singer/bass player, Brother Doug, is awesome. The guy is one of those classic rock scream/singers like Robert Plant or Ian Gillian, but takes it to a new level.

I will go see these guys, next time the return to Austin.

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Good News

Steven Wilson mentioned a Spring Tour! Here's hoping for a stop in TX.

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Update

PT has a blog and pictures from the Electric Factory show

Porcupine Tree at the Meridian in Houston, TX

Two nights ago, I was able to see Porcupine Tree perform for the second time on the Fear of A Blank Planet tour. With all the turmoil from the move, I contemplated not going to this show, but then decided otherwise. So, I made the 3 hour drive, with my friend Biggie, following some other friends Alissa and Ron from AMF.

As before, the opening band was 3 from Woodstock, NY. Three has progressed quite a big, and sounded much tighter than the last time I saw them. In addition, I was able to talk the Joey and Joe from the band and do some reminiscing about my days in the MHV playing Woodstock.

I estimate PT played about 2 hours this time around, with a set list very similar to what I heard in Boulder back in May. The sound was good, but not as good as the Fox Theater. Sight lines however, were excellent since I was able to spend the first half of the show about 4 rows from the stage.

Afterwards, it was interesting to see that Steven Wilson was outside signing posters, and taking pictures with a group of about 30 fans. Other interesting tidbits were a verification (I won't say how I found out) that Gavin Harrison is the fifth member of the new King Crimson lineup. All in all, a great show.

Porcupine Tree

Last night, I was finally able to see Porcupine Tree perform live, at the Fox Theatre, in Boulder, CO. This was the best show I've seen this year.

I arrived an hour before the doors opened and was amazed to see that the line went well around the block. Not being from Boulder, I quizzed the locals and found out that this was highly unusual. They had played this same venue twice the previous year (about 6 months apart), but the attendance had never been like this. In fact, they said they had never seen anyone draw a line like this to the Fox. Tree's popularity is rising, this may be their breakout album. (The entire US tour is sold out!)

The venue itself was nice, good sight lines and sound. The only downer, it is a standing room only club. It did have one cool touch, they had closed circuit video, so you can watch the show on large screen TVs behind the bars, while you're getting a drink.

Another small annoyance was the merchandising table. It was run by some British man who was doing his best impression of the British Munitions officer from the Zulu movie. (Gawd, was he freaking slow!)

The opening band, 3, was from Woodstock, NY (one of my old stomping grounds). They were interesting, but not really my cup of tea. A Boulder local who was obviously familiar with them, claimed that "they might blow Porcupine Tree off the stage". They were good, but not that good. The lead singer is classical trained and plays Flamenco licks on a Steel String guitar. (I would probably have been more impressed, except for seeing Del Castillo 2 weeks ago).

Tree themselves were awesome. They played all of the songs from Fear of a Blank Planet and a good selection from their previous albums. Noticeably missing were songs like Trains and Shallow (which Steven Wilson claims the band hates), but they did managed to play Open Car and Halo. I believe that the show lasted for more than 2 hours.

The sound was stellar, and the other people with me although new to the band, all left Porcupine Tree fans. As always, the star of the band is Gavin Harrison, the drummer. My friend, a drummer himself, was definitely impressed. Of course, Steve Wilson, John Wesley, Colin Edwin and Richard Barbieri were all in great form too.

Bottom line, if it weren't sold out, I would consider traveling to see them again on this tour.

Interesting news

Robert Fripp and King Crimson both have myspace pages now.

And the Porcupine Tree site reports that Steve Wilson will be touring with Blackfield and that the Tree is releasing a new album in April. Unfortunately, the Wilson/Blackfield tour is once again skipping the 3rd coast ;(