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.

Stomach Virus thwarts VH Plans

I came down with this nasty Stomach Virus after seeing Ari Hoenig. Despite having tickets, I was unable to see Van Halen at the AT&T Center, in San Antonio. C'est la vie!

Rush at the Verizon Amphitheater, in San Antonio, TX

Over 15 years have passed since I last saw Rush on tour to support Roll the Bones. I had seen them multiple times in the late 70's and early 80's, with an outstanding show at Radio City Music Hall during the Signals tour, being the most memorable.

I will admit to losing interest in the band, because of the direction they had taken during the 90's. Until two days ago, I was also unaware of the tragedy that had befallen Neil Peart and thought they had just gone inactive. I was somewhat surprised when I watched and heard Far Cry on Youtube 6 months ago, and really liked this return to their old sound.

While I will admit to being a fan of the band, I was never a fan-boy. I've noticed in the past that fan-boyism seems to be rampant amongst Rush (and Dream Theater) fans, and have always been curious (and somewhat annoyed) about this phenomenon. At the conclusion of this show, I discovered that nothing has changed in this respect (and I still don't understand it).

The show was listed as starting at 7:30PM, and probably started no later than 7:45. With one 20 minute intermission at the 2 hour mark, the show went all the way up to 10:52PM. The sight-lines were good once again, since my seats were about 30 rows back from the stage, dead center. Despite the great view, the heat and humidity made things uncomfortable.

The biggest downer for the show, was the sound. It sucked. The floor is a sloped, concrete slab. Ear plugs were an absolutely necessity. A real downer for me after the One World show two nights prior! I really despise large arena shows, and this did nothing to change my opinion.

Countering this, one of the cool features of the show were 3 large screens at the rear of the stage. There were live cameras in front, at the side and above the stage, that were used to focus in on the individual band members, and supply a "bird's eye" views of Neil. They also used the screens for CGI artwork and had two funny segues to introduce songs:

• The first involved the MacKenzie Brothers from the SCTV skit the Great White North.
• The South Park crew prepared a special cartoon, with Cartman, Kyle, and Kenny as Lil' Rush playing Tom Sawyer. There are several screeners posted to Youtube right now.

The show included a mix of material, obviously including Snakes and Arrows. It was a good cross-section of their discography, including cuts from Hemispheres, Signals, Moving Pictures, Power Windows, Vapor Trails, R30, and others. Noticeably absent however, were songs from 2112 and Farewell to Kings, other than Passage to Bangkok. The most glaring omission however, was that this was the first time I had ever seen them play where they did not play Closer to the Heart.

From what I could discern in the horrible mix the playing was tight. I did notice a reliance on prerecorded tracks at various points, and am pretty certain that some backing vocal tracks were also added at various points in the show. I'm not sure how I feel about this, and was a little disappointed.

Final Verdict: Good show, not great. I'll probably go see them again in the next few years, before they get so old that it's embarrassing.