Porcupine Tree w/ King's X at the House of Blues 9/27/2009

Look at that, I actually have something to write about here...

I'd heard a lot about Porcupine Tree is supposed to blow your mind when you see them in concert. Between what I heard from friends, and what I had read in reviews, they had a lot to live up to. And they did.

Let's start with the opening act. I didn't originally plan on being at Landsdowne Street in time for King's X, but I was and I'm kind of glad about it. For one, to try to get a decent spot on the floor if we (my wife and I) had showed up late would have been impossible. Two, I was pleasantly surprised by King's X. I've tried really hard to enjoy their music over the last few months... listening to their entire catalog, forcing myself to get through songs and albums that I just couldn't stand. Seeing King's X in concert certainly did not make me a fan (I'm not going to go back and suddenly love, or even remotely like, all those albums now), but I do have a respect for their live performance and presence on the stage.
I can not recite their set list for you, but I can tell you that they played Dogman, Black Flag, and Music (during which Ty Tabor played perhaps the most jaw-dropping guitar solo I have ever witnessed). Doug Pinnick gave a speech, during Music, about there being no one true religion and "never give up your dream." After their set, we stood by a table at stage right to sign autographs and take pictures and just basically hang out with their fans, which I guess was a pretty cool thing for a band to do. I'm not really into them, but I can tell you that the people who are into them, are waaayy into them.

King's X is now off the stage, the crowd on the floor barely shifts, approximately a 20 minute wait and now the synth-drums from "Blind House" is the intro music for Porcupine Tree.

Though I knew what to expect, I'd be a liar if I tried to deny how awesome it was to hear The Incident's opening "Occam's Razor" blast from the stage in perfect timing with it's visual accompaniment. This is where my complaints begin, but not because of the band at all, we'll get to my bitching and moaning later. After "The Blind House," Steve Wilson said a quick hello and informed the audience that he wanted to make Roadrunner Records job easy. "We're gonna make their job easy, we figure we'd just promote the new album by giving them one long song and playing it live, and that's what we're going to do as we continue." And thus the rest of The Incident was played, basically without stop.
The highlight of the first half of the show (The Incident) in my opinion was "Time Flies." I kind of wanted to hate this opus when I first heard it, because of how much it sound like Pink Floyd's Animals, but I love it and think it makes sense for it to sound like such an obvious knock-off. So much so, that you can actually sing Roger Waters' lyrics along with the opening chords. Performance was perfect, visual accompaniments were thought-provoking. Other high points of the first half of the nights performance included "Drawing the Line," "The Incident," and the "The Hearse." The entire performance was one of the most enjoyable concert experiences I've ever had, except for what I am about to complain about...

If you like to talk, sarcastically mimic people who are dancing (which means they are enjoying themselves, assholes), or make fun of people who are singing along (another sign that one is enjoying themselves)... DO NOT ATTEND CONCERTS. I highly doubt that the two assbags who stood behind me, mindlessly yammering throughout the ENTIRE performance of The Incident, will read this. You two wastes of sperm know who you are (Big poofy hair, big noses, probably Berkley students) and if you are reading this, never attend another concert. Stay at home and listen to the CD. I know that the concept of people having fun is beyond you, so do the rest of the world a favor and don't show up. These idiots were carrying full, lengthy conversations during the performance. I am not exagerating. I was glad to see these two told off by a young lady in the audience during the second set, because they were oblivious to the signs being given to them to shut the hell up during the first set. Then again, that's probably because these two have such under-developed minds that they don't realize that there is a world outside of their own existence.

Ten minute break, with a stop watch on the screen, audience counts down the final ten seconds of the break and Porcupine Tree takes the stage once again. Time for more fun, here is the set list for the second half of the show.

The Start of Something Beautiful - Excellent performance, excellent visuals.

Russia On Ice - Steve Wilson played the coolest guitar I've ever seen for this one. I used to think Matthew Bellamy (of Muse) had the coolest guitar, with the built in Kaoss pad under the bridge. I don't know what make or model this guitar is, but it has an LCD screen where the pick guard would be. The screen on the guitar displayed animations of galaxies and planets, which also blended in to psychedelic visuals. Oh yea, and the body of the guitar lights up as well. SWEET. GUITAR. Russia On Ice is played until the middle section starts, synth swells, guitar change for Steven, video screen lights up and now into the insane second half of

Anesthetize - Need I say more? Gavin Harrison is up there in my top 5 drummers of all time and is relentlessly making up for all the down time he had during the first. This is probably my favorite PT song, so my only disappointment is not seeing this performed in it's entirety. But, hey, it's an 18 minute journey when played in it's entirety so I can't really be harsh on this, I was more than happy to witness this abridged version.

Remember Me, Lover - The one thing that really surprised me. I'd been following the set lists and reviews for this tour and didn't expect to hear this. Most previous shows included "Bonnie the Cat" as the soul song from The Incident's second disc to be performed live. We lucked out in Boston, I was really hoping they would play this.

Strip the Soul - Excellent performance, excellent (creepy as hell) visuals.

Normal - Another one of my favorites from the FOABP sessions, executed wonderfully. Again, Gavin Harrison is the man when it comes to the drums.

Mother and Child Divided - The instrumental from the DVD for Deadwing. Excellent song, the visuals for this gave it a context that I found sad and inspiring at the same time... a moment of insight, the type that usually comes during an LSD trip. Not that I would know.

The boys leave the stage, everyone knows there's more. Lots and lots clapping, screaming, stomping of feet. Very energetic. Not even 5 minutes go by and PT is playing...

The Sound of Muzak - A song that seems to become more relevant as time goes by. Steven introduces the members of the band. He introduces Gavin as "the Drum Wizard," and tells us that he part-times as a magician. "He's going to do a magic trick half-way through this next song, so you'd better keep an eye on him. This is our last song this evening, this one is called...

Trains" - Steven Wilson headbanging while strumming away on that sweet Ibanez acoustic of his is fun to watch. At the first break, following the line "the hissing subsides, I'm in luck." Richard Barbieri humorously messes up and hits a note on his keyboard that is supposed to represent ghostly magic. The audience laughs, Steve and Gavin look at him, confused. Steven begins to finish the lyric "When the evening reaches here, you're tying me up. I'm dying of love... did you do your trick yet?" Gavin does his trick, Richard plays the sound late (instead of early) this time, everyone gets a good chuckle, and they finish the song.