Arriving Somewhere

Porcupine Tree played the 9:30 Club Friday night, and I’m still glowing!

This was the third time I’ve seen them, and it was amazing. The guys were totally on fire, had lots of energy and appeared to be having a great time. You would never have know that they had arrived from the U.K. the day before.

I had an extra ticket for the show so I waited by the ticket window to give it away. After a bit another guy who had a ticket to get rid of joined me. We were able to give them away to the first pair who approached the window. It was great to see the shock on their faces!

I was impressed by the turnout. While the show wasn’t sold out, it was the largest crowd I had seen at a PT concert. And the crowd was great. Many seemed to know the music from the last two ablums.

Highlight of the show: Hatesong (from Lightbulb Sun).
Gavin was absolutely amazing on drums. He tore it up! But the magic was the first extended guitar solo by Steven. Wow. It was (dare I say it) of Jimi Hendrix quality. Incredible. I hope somebody makes a live recording somewhere ’cause I have got to hear that again. It totally made the price of that second ticket worth it. *sigh*

Of course, not everything went perfect. There were some technical problems…. The sound was pretty muddy in the middle of the set and there was an awful squeal-feedback sound a few times. But the best was what happened to Colin during the first encore (Shesmovedon). He suddenly kneeled while playing, with the bass propped on his knee. Then he sat back and finally lay on his back playing the bass kind of like an upright. He kicked his legs a few times before a roadie ran on stage to help. It was probably something with the strap but Colin was laughing the whole time and when he finally stood up the crowd gave him a big ovation. I think its great that these guys can be serious rockers, but still have a sense of humor about themselves.

In all, an awesome night.

technorati tag: prog