Porcupine Tree @ Toronto Sound Academy, May 8th
This venue is in the middle of NOWHERE, near the docks. Soooo bleeding cold that day, and getting home was a trial I won't even mention. It would've been a really nice venue otherwise. I think PT managed to fill out the house well. It wasn't sold out, but a good ~500+ people were packed in there.
Opening act: Bigelf. Don't know who they are, but they are very 70s. A bit Sabbathy, which is a compliment to them.
Setlist:
Set 1 (The Incident)
1. Occam's Razor
2. The Blind House
3. Great Expectations
4. Kneel and Disconnect
5. Drawing the Line
6. The Incident
7. Your Unpleasant Family
8. The Yellow Windows of the Evening Train
9. Time Flies
10. Degree Zero of Liberty
11. Octane Twisted
12. The Séance
13. Circle of Manias
14. I Drive the Hearse
Set 2
15. Hatesong
16. Russia On Ice
17. Anesthetize
18. Stars Die
19. Way Out of Here
20. Normal
21. Bonnie the Cat
Encore:
22. Blackest Eyes
23. Trains
Easiest setlist ever, since the first part is just the entire album. Which they handled very nicely. The screen projections on the back-- I can't decide if they're distracting or entertaining, or plain weird. There were these multi-armed kaleidoscopic human figures, and they either remind me of a thousand-armed Avalokitesvara (good) or the poster from that gross Human Centipede movie that has been repulsing me lately, thanks to kidoairaku (bad). There's also something about the way Steven Wilson talks that I just can't understand. He's either really mumbly or the mic is just bad. Maybe it's a global musician thing.
We were on the VIP balcony, and watching the audience move was pretty interesting. Less shoegaze-y than Isis, and definitely more energy than Nagoyans (hehe), but for the most part, people stayed where they were and didn't shove. It makes me kind of wonder if Toronto is like the Nagoya of North America (I can't compare, since I travelled to see shows in Japan, but I never do here). Are we too polite? Are we supposed to be more violent? Are we at least more energetic than Montreal? Wilson riled people up by mentioning French Canada (le boo) and Rush (yay?). Very perfectly timed show, as I noticed, since they couldn't either quicken or slow down the tempo due to the screen images. I find the bassist fascinating to watch.
I didn't recognise the much older songs, but Anesthetize was definitely cut short, before the last part, I guess because it's not that fun playing a 17-minute song, the last 5 minutes of which are mostly just cool-down soothing quiet stuff. But I am most pleased that they played it.
I was surprised they didn't play any In Absentia songs, but I guess it was deliberate, since at the encore, he basically said, "we're going to play songs off the only album we've left off so far", and Blackest Eyes & Trains are clearly the favourites and coincidentally the only two about which I was disgruntled that they hadn't performed. So basically, I saw/heard everything I wanted to see. Very satisfactory. Would see them again!
Opening act: Bigelf. Don't know who they are, but they are very 70s. A bit Sabbathy, which is a compliment to them.
Setlist:
Set 1 (The Incident)
1. Occam's Razor
2. The Blind House
3. Great Expectations
4. Kneel and Disconnect
5. Drawing the Line
6. The Incident
7. Your Unpleasant Family
8. The Yellow Windows of the Evening Train
9. Time Flies
10. Degree Zero of Liberty
11. Octane Twisted
12. The Séance
13. Circle of Manias
14. I Drive the Hearse
Set 2
15. Hatesong
16. Russia On Ice
17. Anesthetize
18. Stars Die
19. Way Out of Here
20. Normal
21. Bonnie the Cat
Encore:
22. Blackest Eyes
23. Trains
Easiest setlist ever, since the first part is just the entire album. Which they handled very nicely. The screen projections on the back-- I can't decide if they're distracting or entertaining, or plain weird. There were these multi-armed kaleidoscopic human figures, and they either remind me of a thousand-armed Avalokitesvara (good) or the poster from that gross Human Centipede movie that has been repulsing me lately, thanks to kidoairaku (bad). There's also something about the way Steven Wilson talks that I just can't understand. He's either really mumbly or the mic is just bad. Maybe it's a global musician thing.
We were on the VIP balcony, and watching the audience move was pretty interesting. Less shoegaze-y than Isis, and definitely more energy than Nagoyans (hehe), but for the most part, people stayed where they were and didn't shove. It makes me kind of wonder if Toronto is like the Nagoya of North America (I can't compare, since I travelled to see shows in Japan, but I never do here). Are we too polite? Are we supposed to be more violent? Are we at least more energetic than Montreal? Wilson riled people up by mentioning French Canada (le boo) and Rush (yay?). Very perfectly timed show, as I noticed, since they couldn't either quicken or slow down the tempo due to the screen images. I find the bassist fascinating to watch.
I didn't recognise the much older songs, but Anesthetize was definitely cut short, before the last part, I guess because it's not that fun playing a 17-minute song, the last 5 minutes of which are mostly just cool-down soothing quiet stuff. But I am most pleased that they played it.
I was surprised they didn't play any In Absentia songs, but I guess it was deliberate, since at the encore, he basically said, "we're going to play songs off the only album we've left off so far", and Blackest Eyes & Trains are clearly the favourites and coincidentally the only two about which I was disgruntled that they hadn't performed. So basically, I saw/heard everything I wanted to see. Very satisfactory. Would see them again!