For some people this is probably not one of the most known bands around. A lot of people when I told them who I'll be going to see gave me the same 'Porcupine Who?' look, which, funny enough, one of my music teachers at college gave us when another student mentioned them. But this concert, despite being of a whole different genre than my usual listening, was most excellent indeed. I lined up with 2 hours to spare, and just happened to be beside the side exit doors where I could hear the sound check, and what I heard from within was exciting enough to be sure.There was an odd mix of people about, from a variety of generations and genres, and the crowd had a whole different sort of feel than my average metal gig. Safe to say the Opeth shirts were out in force, as to be expected since Mr. Åkerfeldt is Porcupine Tree's unofficial spokesperson with many local stores confusing Fear of a Blank Planet for a new Opeth album since it has an Opeth logo on the front (but only to accompany Mikael's comments on the band). And I'm sure, like a lot of other fans, that a lot of the Opeth supporters heard of PT from Opeth, since front man Steven Wilson did produce and help create a few of Opeth's epic masterpieces. it is, afterall, how I came to find this awesome band.
But back to the concert. For some reason the venue decided it'd be fun to let everyone in through the one main door, which ended up taking a few more minutes than I'd have liked considering the time I waited just to get in. Most people seemed to head straight for the merch desk (me and my company included), and, sorry to say, it was one of the slowest merch desks I've been at, only 2 guys serving the Porcupine Tree fans. I must have stood at the desk waiting while the guy served 10 people that got there after me. But alas, we got through that just happy to have a shirt, and headed up front.
The support act was Melbourne band Sleep Parade, and although they had talent, they could only play one good song a few times. Yes, all songs sounded pretty much the same to me. I was impressed by their sound and presence on stage, and the epic ending where guitarist/vocalist Leigh Davies sung into the bridge pickup of his guitar, which sounded freaking awesome! it gave me a sorta vibe I'd get when listening to The Angelic Process with the awesome distorted sounding vocals. But unfortunately that was pretty much the only highlight of their act for me. The crowd really warmed up to them though, giving them a torrent of applause and cheers at the completion of their set, which despite my elitist views on them, I felt they earned it.
The wait for Porcupine Tree was next, and although I feel I had waited longer for bands to arrive, I started to think how silly it is having a support act to get the crowd 'worked up' only to have that wear off in the 40 or so min wait for the main act. The crowd seemed a tad more arrogant than they do at my usual sort of show, infact I felt rather privileged when someone decided I was good enough for them to flick their cigarette butt at my hand in this non-smoking venue. Or even when some girl pushed past me, and at the same time spilt her drink all over my leg. At least she said a prompt 'sorry mate' as she vanished as quick as possible. Gotta love how considerate others are these days. Alas, the crowd was getting excited, and restless as the wait went on. Any slight movement on stage meant cheering in hopes that the band was coming out. Patience people, paitience!But finally Porcupine Tree were ready, and rushed out to begin their set with the title track from their latest album, Fear of a Blank Planet. The mix was excellent, although could have used a little less bass, but otherwise it sounded great, and Steve's vocals were in top shape this evening. The stage was set up rather differently to most other bands. Seemed to have taken inspiration from Opeth, with having the drums on the audience's right and the keyboards on the left. A nice touch indeed. The light display was impressive aswell. After the first song or two people were calling out requests, which Steve responded to by pointing out that they have this thing called a 'set list'. Really? Since when?
A few of the songs they played from Deadwing, and all of the songs they played from the later album were accompanied by visuals on a projected backdrop. Fear Of A Blank Planet and Way Out of Here were both accompanied by the film clips, which were rather interesting I found since I hadn't seen them before, and went rather well with the music. it was all timed perfectly aswell, in particular in Sleep Together where they had visuals of robots in bubbles on some form of computer tapping to the beat, and perfectly on time aswell, which I found impressive.
The band played a bunch of (awesome) songs from all over their catalogue, some of which I didn't recognise, but still thoroughly enjoyed. Those played included Blackest Eyes, Lazarus, Sleep Together, Open Car, Halo and Trains. I was hoping to hear something from Up the Downstair's first disc, but didn't recognise anything from that. They played for close to 2 hours and the crowd loved it.
As soon as they were off stage people were cheering for an encore, despite the fact that it's now become a part of the performance to go off stage for a little while with the intentions to return anyway. You really can't call it an 'encore' if it's a part of the set list, where an encore was originally a band coming back out after finishing their set to play some requested songs because the audience kicked arse. But, it's what everyone does these days, apart from a select few. And as expected, they returned to play another three songs before saying their goodbyes to their first Sydney crowd in 15 years or so.
So, for me it was an awesome evening, despite a few minor set-backs, but let's be honest, what gig doesn't have it's problems. I'd definitely go see Porcupine Tree live again in a f*cking heartbeat, and so should you.
Thanks to Anna for the pics.
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