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.

 

 

 

After a short break they came back and played tracks from Deadwing and various other albums.I like the use of the back projections.The speeded up film of traffic moving on the highways (LA??) worked pefectly in tandem with Arriving Somewhere which was my absolute highlight of the whole evening.

 

My only complaint is that they didn't play much from Stupid Dream plus the encore seemed a little bit perfunctory.They had already peaked so I would have liked something a bit different..maybe Sky Moves Sideways..even??! But that said it was a thoroughly enjoyable concert and at £16 very reasonably priced.Also a good word for the support band Paatos (from Sweden) who were excellent and certainly know their way round a Mellotron!

 

 

 

6 days for me.......

 

Have fun tonight Tony.

 

good camera-phone!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Only 4 days left...