porcupine tree - royal albert hall, 14 october 2010

Another one from the I wrote this years ago and did nothing with it pile...

 

Porcupine Tree at the Royal Albert Hall, 14 October 2010.

 

It was a bit of a rush to get to the Royal Albert Hall - what was up with the tubes last night?? Everywhere I went there were announcements like “The Central Line, the Bakerloo Line, the Piccadilly Line etc etc are suffering from signal problems and are experiencing long delays - Sorry for any inconvenience.” There was absolutely no trace of “sorry” in the tone, which just sounded like “tough luck folks”. London Transport!

 

Anyway, I got to Knightsbridge tube at 7.20, with the show scheduled to start at 7.30 and I’d forgotten quite what a trek it is from the station… A good ten minutes brisk walking, but I got in to the RAH and found my seat straight away. Good view, just slightly raised up. Interesting crowd – loads of Europeans. I was next to some Dutch teenagers – they knew every word of every song and cheered till they were hoarse. It was so great to see such enthusiasm. Behind me were a group of Italians. No idea if they’d come specially for this show, but I wouldn’t have been surprised. The show turned out to be basically the same as the celebration gig in New York a couple of weeks ago, but no complaints from me as it had a spectacular set list. *

 

At 7.40 the band strolled on stage and they were their own support act, playing a sort of acoustic set. Richard Barbieri had a small keyboard and a Mac set up, Gavin Harrison played a little drum kit, Colin Edwin had a stand up double bass, Steven Wilson mainly sat on a stool with an acoustic guitar leaving any electric solos in this part of the show to second guitarist John Wesley.

 

They opened with the quite Pink Floyd-y “Stranger By The Minute” – nice harmonies in this one, followed by early rarity “Small Fish” (which, apart from the New York show a couple of weeks ago, had never been played live before). Popular choice “Pure Narcotic” was followed by The Incident’s “Black Dahlia” and then the surprise choice of “Futile” – surprising as it’s one of PT’s heaviest ever songs and so, as SW laughed, the obvious candidate for a semi acoustic arrangement in the august classical setting of the Royal Albert Hall. 

 

There was a short break while the equipment was re-arranged and then the opening notes of “Even Less” began to ring out. For about 5 minutes that string intro was looped until the lights went down and Wilson hit the guitar. The place went nuts! Everyone on the floor stood up, but being slightly raised up I didn’t have to and was able to enjoy the show from the comfort of my seat (how very rock ‘n’ roll huh?). “Even Less” turned out to be the full 15 minute epic version, which was a phenomenal opener. The sound in the RAH was excellent, loud (very loud at times) but not painful and no ringing in my ears after. Strange really as some of the songs were really pounding but I didn’t hear that ‘humming of 1,000 fridges’ afterwards. Well done the guys on the soundboard (which was just in front of me and looked horrendously complicated!). Two Deadwing songs followed with the beautiful “Lazarus” being one of my highlights. We all sang along.

 

Then we dropped back to 1995 with two from The Sky Moves Sideways. “Dislocated Day” was superb, but it was the title track that totally blew me away. Just amazing. Nearly 20 minutes long but I could have listened all night. Really good lighting too. A couple of screens were utilised on the newer songs with some rather spooky films, but mainly it was just spotlights twirling all over the place and frequently playing over the audience. Judging from the reaction “TSMS” was many people’s favourite too. The applause at the end was just enormous. The very severe looking man the other side of me (not the side with the Dutch kids) turned to me at this point and said in a very Germanic accent “Zat was my favourite song. It wass very fine.” I enthusiastically agreed with him but he didn’t say another word the rest of the night – though he did do lots of head nodding and occasional air drumming.

 

The band calmed things down afterwards with the final track from The Incident and ended the first set with the deeply odd “Bonnie The Cat” with it’s equally strange video flashing above the stage. 

 

There was a ten minute break which really was just ten minutes – a countdown clock counted down (well it would, obviously) on the screens and much fun was to be had cheering each passing minute, and of course we all joined in with the final ten seconds. 

 

The second half of the show opened with the first few songs from The Incident. That Very Loud intro, was indeed Very Loud, but as I said before, not distorted, not muddy, but clear as a bell. Gavin Harrison’s drumming was astonishing, especially on these songs. How he can hit so many things, so precisely, so quickly is nothing short of miraculous.

 

The video screens showed all sorts of images during these tracks including some fantastic swirly tunnel effects during “Blind House” that would make a great Doctor Who title sequence!

 

It was sometime around now that Steven Wilson brought a photographer on stage and got us all to raise an open hand to recreate the cover of The Incident 3,000 times over. Photos were taken because the show was being recorded (yes!) ** and the images will be used when it’s released. The photos should have been taken by regular PT sleeve designer and video maker Lasse Hoile (who had come over from Denmark both to attend the show, and exhibit some of his work at a special exhibition elsewhere in the Albert Hall – arriving so close to show time meant I missed that). But no-one could find Lasse when they wanted to take the photos. Whilst a substitute photographer did the honours someone told SW that Lasse was actually in the loo which SW, laughing, relayed to us all!

 

1999’s “Tinto Brass” followed which was great fun, full of bouncy energy, then a lovely “Time Flies” which was again accompanied by its video.

 

Then probably my personal favourite of the night – the middle section of “Anesthetize” which PT have been playing as a song in its own right, now dubbed “The Pills I’m Taking”. Another amazing reaction to this one from the crowd, so I’m not alone in favouring it. Brilliantly performed, really pounding at times, but still clear as a bell.

 

The main set ended with oldie “Up The Downstair” which got some of the oldies in the audience bopping to it’s trancey vibe and then “Sleep Together” from Fear Of A Blank Planet. Not one of my favourites, but it was much better in person than on record and works very well as set closer. 

 

Another short break and they were back for an epic encore of “Arriving Somewhere But Not Here” which was another of my favourites and a song (along with “Lazarus”) that really got me into PT when I first heard it, so it was wonderful to see / hear it live.

 

Lots of thanks, to all the crew, managers, lighting people etc etc, and Gavin Harrison stood up and performed a little magic trick (pushing a handkerchief into his clenched fist, opening his fist and hey presto it was gone!). Quite why he did this I have no idea but it was a funny moment. And finally into “Trains”, a favourite gig closer of PT. Another pause during the song as SW thanked the band and various roadies stuck their heads up and waved (Harrison’s drum tech waved the little yellow hanky that Gavin had made ‘vanish’, which got a laugh) and with one final triumphant chorus of “Trains” that was it. Thunderous applause as the band took their bows, with the shy Barbieri getting massive cheers as he tentatively waved to us all. It was 11pm, with just a couple of short breaks that made 3 hours of music! Fantastic value for money! 

 

The band are fascinating to watch – Colin Edwin looks like he’s in his own world, quietly smiling to himself whilst playing some superb bass. Barbieri has a faint mad professor air about him, hovering over various keyboards and computers. Harrison plays amazing drums quite effortlessly and John Wesley, whilst not an ‘official’ member of the band has now been a vital part of the live line-up since 2002 and SW simply couldn’t manage without Wes’s superb harmonies and surprising amount of electric guitar – lots of stuff that I’d have thought Wilson would play was taken by Wes. Steven Wilson, with his glasses and floppy hair looks remarkably like comedian Ed Byrne, and wanders all the stage in his bare feet whilst playing great guitar and smiling at everyone when his face can be seen under his hair. He was clearly in awe of the RAH mentioning a couple of times that the band first played “The Sky Moves Sideways” in clubs to audiences of no more than a couple of hundred. And now look!!! 3,000 people!!! The Royal Albert Hall!!! He actually seemed quite choked up. And he waved to his Mum. What an all round nice bloke. (And he got her a set list from Cliff Richard’s concert the day before – she’s a big Cliff fan apparently – and yes, in answer to the question we weren’t all thinking, Cliff had played “Devil Woman”. Good job SW told us that…) 

 

There was a definite impression that this was a celebration of all things PT and also something of an end of an era. SW said quite a few times that they’d been on the road for nearly 13 months and were looking forward to time off. It’s clear that there will be no PT record next year. But they’ll be back. ***

Opening set –

Stranger By The Minute
Small Fish

Pure Narcotic
Black Dahlia
Futile

Set 1 - 

Even Less
Open Car
Lazarus
Dislocated Day
The Sky Moves Sideways (Phase I)
I Drive the Hearse
Bonnie The Cat

Set 2 - 
The Incident –

  Occam's Razor
  The Blind House
  Great Expectations
  Kneel And Disconnect
  Drawing The Line
Tinto Brass
Time Flies
Anesthetize Part II (The Pills I'm Taking)
Up The Downstair
Sleep Together

 

Encore –

Arriving Somewhere But Not Here

Trains

 

 

 

* Radio City Music Hall, 24 September 2010.

** three tracks were used on the live album Octane Twisted, but sadly the whole RAH show has never been issued.

*** sadly, six years on, this gig remains, to date, the last Porcupine Tree show.