Arriving Somewhere

Monday night’s show at the 9:30 Club was fantastic. But really, I expect nothing less from Porcupine Tree!

Robert Fripp of King Crimson fame opened. I have to admit I was taken a bit by suprise by his set. I knew he would be playing solo, and since his latest album is titled Soundscapes I should have had a clue. I believe he played one song for around 45 minutes. His guitar was plugged into a huge stack and he would record himself playing, loop it, change the speed, volume, bend the pitch and in other ways manipulate it while layering more and more guitar. It was all very atmospheric. I think he was using an e-bow much of the time. An ebow is used in place of a pick, and it produces a magnetic field that when held over a guitar string causes it vibrate. Interesting music, but I’m not sure how well it went over with the audience. One guy in front of me said he felt like he was at a planetarium!

Porcupine Tree came out rockin’. Since they had already done a tour in support of Deadwing last spring so they mixed in some older songs this time around. The set was mostly a mix of songs from both Deadwing and In Absentia (2002), their previous album, with a few oldies thrown in. I imagine this is in preperation for the two Chicago shows that they will be recording for their first ever live DVD. No technical problems this time around and the sound was pretty good. My favorite moment was the final encore when they played “Radioactive Toy”, a song from their first album On The Sunday of Life… (1991) that they probably haven’t played live in six or seven years. It was awesome.