Porcupine Tree at London Astoria 29/09/06

A five-star event!!!!

 

A highly-charged set fom PT was well recieved by a packed house in Central London last night. The new material was amazing - typical PT in style, heavy in places with the right amount of light and shade, and more hooks than a fishing convention! Steve has an amazing rapport with his audience, creating a very friendly atmosphere. The new songs made a big impression on me - the first a heavy number, then one which reminded me of the intro to "No Quarter" (the only way i can remember it), then the much-discussed 20 minute "long one" ("it must be good if it's long, then?" says Steve). Lots of concentration required on this as it is difficult to play - yes expert timing needed, an amazing epic which didn't seem 20 minutes long at all - each section was enthusiastically recieved! The other two new tracks were equally well recieved - i especially liked the last one! 

 

Steve is a very versatile musician, alternating between keyboards and a range of guitars - a Les Paul,  a PRS and two unusual looking acoustics, and the guitarist, bass player and keyboard player were all excellent, the drum sound was amazing, just like on the albums - each drum echoing round the hall .

 

If SW comes on the PA forums again i will ask him why he prefers to play in bare feet - the roadies even laid out a special little carpet for him - the Sandie Shaw of Prog??  The second half of the set, after their 5 minute tea break, was like  PT's greatest hits - all very familiar material from albums including "Signify", "In Absentia" and "Deadwing" - included the songs "Open Car", a fantastic rendition of "Halo", "Trains", all illustrated by the familiar album artwork of  speeding traffic, faces and  fuzzy images on a back screen, it all works so well!

 

A very happy and exciting evening, i highly recommend you seeing the band on this tour if you can, seriously one of the most memorable gigs i have seen and i'll definately catch them next time around!

It is commendable the band are airing new unrecorded material for their privileged fans, i hope Steve is pleased enough with the feed-back to include those few songs on the new album. They plan to start recording in October, so i will be looking forward very much to hearing the new album when it is finished.

 

 

 

6 days for me.......

 

Have fun tonight Tony.

 

good camera-phone!