Porcupine Tree

w/ Sleep Parade

The Tivoli, Sydney – 5th February, 2010

It seems that for the past decade or so progressive music has seen a huge resurgence, with the genre seeing its biggest critical and commercial success since the mid 70’s. Bands such as Tool, Mastodon, Opeth and Dream Theater have all seen huge success in both the metal scene whilst making significant in-roads into the mainstream music industry.

Porcupine Tree are no different to any of the aforementioned acts, with the release of 2002’s In Absentia breaking new ground for the band commercially, as well as gaining a significant following in the heavy metal scene. While probably calling the band ‘metal’ would be un-true per se, their Radiohead meets Pink Floyd meets Opeth sound has certainly captured the listeners of both progressive music and metal-heads.

With Porcupine Tree returning to Australian shores in support of their new, double disc epic The Incident, and the promise of performing the first cd in it’s entirety, tonight’s show promises to be a fine example of experimental, progressive metal music. The crowd on hand is a pleasing mix of old and young prog-heads, with Rush and Opeth shirts covering around half of the Tivoli’s attendee’s.

Melbournians Sleep Parade open tonight’s show, as they did when Porcupine Tree last toured Australia, and almost receive a headliner’s reception from the rapidly filling audience. With a sound that comes off not too unlike Karnivool, the band’s somewhat messy mix of guitars actually work in their favour – with a huge, wall of sound punctuated by lumbering riffs and restrained verses. While the crowd slightly loses attention during some of the more extended instrumental breaks, Sleep Parade brings an end to their set with a chaotic finale of feed backing guitars and uncontrolled drumming, and win over basically every person in attendance.

Before Porcupine Tree’s set a pre-recorded tape plays over the P.A, warning against any recording of tonight’s performance, and also against the audience taking any photos. The disclaimer claims this is because “it is distracting to the band and the audience”. Despite a few scattered “Boos”, the crowd respects the band’s wishes with very minimal camera-flashes seen through-out the rest of the evening.

Tonight’s run through of The Incident album is a great sign that the band is extremely confident with their new material, and as they take to the stage with the hugely dissonant opening chords of “Occam’s Razor”, it is obvious the full audience is completely behind this decision. The tightness of the band is almost staggering, with front-man Steven Wilson casually switching between electric and acoustic guitars, as well as electric piano through-out the set. “Drawing The Line” and “Time Flies” are hugely received, while the title track’s dark, Massive Attack-meets-Meshuggah groove and spectacular light show hypnotises the audience. Tucked in the background, Gavin Harrison dominants his kit while improvising multiple fills through-out and Richard Barbieri commands a stack of keyboards and sample pads, adding layers of ambient sounds to the mix. The highly emotional “I Drive the Hearse” closes the first set and with that the band leaves the stage for a 10 minute interlude (which is somewhat humorously counted down on the background projector screen).

The second set is basically “Best of” style fare, with modern-day prog classics such as “The Start of Something Beautiful” and “Lazarus” sending the crowd into hysterics, while “Anesthetize’s” crushingly heavy middle section gets the crowd moving. “Bonnie the Cat’s” industrial rhythms and un-settling vocals provides a huge high-light for the night and even the breaking of a string is not enough to throw off the five-piece’s almost mechanical precision.

Through-out both sets the band’s somewhat unsung hero is live-guitarist John Wesley, who provides tight harmony vocals through-out, on top of sharing the solo duties with Steven Wilson and singing lead vocals in the previously mentioned “The Start…”

As tonight’s show is ended by the music-industry baiting “The Sound of Muzak” and the un-rivalled beauty of “Trains”, it is obvious to everybody in attendance that they have just witnessed a truly magnificent performance and that Porcupine Tree will surely be revered for many, many years to come.

Porcupine Tree Setlist
The Incident
—–
Start of Something Beautiful
Russia on Ice
Anesthetize (Middle Section)
Lazarus
Way Out of Here
Normal
Bonnie the Cat
—–
The Sound of Muzak
Trains