Porcupine Tree!
On Friday night, I went off to see Porcupine Tree at the Fillmore in San Francisco. I had first heard of them on alt.music.rush. The regulars on that group are not shy to express their opinions about other bands. (Dream Theater is not a welcome topic on that group!) But I don't remember hearing anything negative about Porcupine Tree. I was intrigued, so I got a couple of their CDs and was fairly blown away by them -- "Deadwing" and "In Absentia" in particular. It was obvious that this is an extremely talented band, but without the self-indulgence of bands like the aforementioned Dream Theater.
I had never been to the Fillmore before. This was a general admission show. There was no seating -- everyone had to stand for the show. (Some may argue that no one should be sitting at a rock concert in the first place.) We arrived just before 9:00 when the show started but still found a relatively decent spot to watch the show from.
The Tony Levin Band took the stage promptly at 9:00 and opened with an a barbershop a cappella piece. That set the tone for their set -- you could tell they were talented, but they were having a great time too. They mainly concentrated on material from his latest CD release, "Resonator". Tony didn't really show off on the bass too much, but he did pull out the Chapman Stick for a couple pieces. One of the highlights for me was when they played a version of Khachaturian's "Saber Dance". That was cool! It reminded me of ELP's covers of pieces such as "Hoedown" or "Pictures at an Exhibition" but with distorted guitar as well. The band got a very warm reception from the crowd -- not always a given for an opening act! In fact, the crowd enjoyed them so much that the band performed an encore. Very cool!
Tony has been writing from the road on his website about the tour. He has already updated it with a bit of info about the San Francisco show.
Porcupine Tree took the stage around 10:00. As they mention on their web site, the first set on this tour consists of brand new material that has not yet been recorded. Unfortunately, Steve Wilson's amp was giving him problems during the first song. It was taking a while for them to figure out the problem, so I think they changed the order of the setlist and they played another song where he played keyboards. The problem persisted after they finished that song, so they were forced to take a break to deal with the problem. The crowd was very understanding and supportive, which was cool.
After they resolved the problem, Steven returned to do a couple songs solo on acoustic guitar. I didn't recognize the first one, but the second one was a cover of Alanis Morissette's "Thank U". Quite unexpected.
The rest of the band came back onstage to perform what Steven called the centerpiece of the upcoming new album. That piece blew me away. It's entirely possible that the new album will be even better than "Deadwing" or "In Absentia". There are some real gems in the new material. The second set contained their "older" stuff (a censored paraphrase of Steven's description). I just wish I was a bit more familiar with all their material, but the entire concert was performed extremely well. I was amazed by the vocal harmony blend -- I didn't expect them to be able to faithfully reproduce that live, but they pulled that off beautifully. I was a bit disappointed that they only got one encore, but they did play "Blackest Eyes" in the encore, so I was happy. The concert didn't finish until about 12:45 am.
My main complaint was that the midrange sound was pretty muddy. I don't know if that was due to the volume or not. I could understand everything fine when people were just talking to the audience, but it got really distorted when they started singing. This was also true during Tony Levin's set so it had something to do with the house sound. But I didn't let that take away from a very cool set of performances. I'll definitely have to check out PT when they come back out here. Steve mentioned to look for them again in the spring, so hopefully I'll get a chance then.
I had never been to the Fillmore before. This was a general admission show. There was no seating -- everyone had to stand for the show. (Some may argue that no one should be sitting at a rock concert in the first place.) We arrived just before 9:00 when the show started but still found a relatively decent spot to watch the show from.
The Tony Levin Band took the stage promptly at 9:00 and opened with an a barbershop a cappella piece. That set the tone for their set -- you could tell they were talented, but they were having a great time too. They mainly concentrated on material from his latest CD release, "Resonator". Tony didn't really show off on the bass too much, but he did pull out the Chapman Stick for a couple pieces. One of the highlights for me was when they played a version of Khachaturian's "Saber Dance". That was cool! It reminded me of ELP's covers of pieces such as "Hoedown" or "Pictures at an Exhibition" but with distorted guitar as well. The band got a very warm reception from the crowd -- not always a given for an opening act! In fact, the crowd enjoyed them so much that the band performed an encore. Very cool!
Tony has been writing from the road on his website about the tour. He has already updated it with a bit of info about the San Francisco show.
Porcupine Tree took the stage around 10:00. As they mention on their web site, the first set on this tour consists of brand new material that has not yet been recorded. Unfortunately, Steve Wilson's amp was giving him problems during the first song. It was taking a while for them to figure out the problem, so I think they changed the order of the setlist and they played another song where he played keyboards. The problem persisted after they finished that song, so they were forced to take a break to deal with the problem. The crowd was very understanding and supportive, which was cool.
After they resolved the problem, Steven returned to do a couple songs solo on acoustic guitar. I didn't recognize the first one, but the second one was a cover of Alanis Morissette's "Thank U". Quite unexpected.
The rest of the band came back onstage to perform what Steven called the centerpiece of the upcoming new album. That piece blew me away. It's entirely possible that the new album will be even better than "Deadwing" or "In Absentia". There are some real gems in the new material. The second set contained their "older" stuff (a censored paraphrase of Steven's description). I just wish I was a bit more familiar with all their material, but the entire concert was performed extremely well. I was amazed by the vocal harmony blend -- I didn't expect them to be able to faithfully reproduce that live, but they pulled that off beautifully. I was a bit disappointed that they only got one encore, but they did play "Blackest Eyes" in the encore, so I was happy. The concert didn't finish until about 12:45 am.
My main complaint was that the midrange sound was pretty muddy. I don't know if that was due to the volume or not. I could understand everything fine when people were just talking to the audience, but it got really distorted when they started singing. This was also true during Tony Levin's set so it had something to do with the house sound. But I didn't let that take away from a very cool set of performances. I'll definitely have to check out PT when they come back out here. Steve mentioned to look for them again in the spring, so hopefully I'll get a chance then.