Because Manchester Academy 1 is in the middle of being refurbished, Porcupine Tree played their northwest show in the 53 Degrees in Preston. Preston is a longish trek from Manchester, but fortunately there was a late train back, and with an 11pm curfew at the venue I wouldn’t have to miss the encore to catch it.
I wasn’t the only person that had trouble finding the venue. I met up with three guys (one wearing a Pineapple Thief t-shirt) who I assumed were heading for the gig; unfortunately they were lost as well. After going round and round in circles we eventually did find the place with enough time to get some food from the pub round the corner (can’t remember the name, but it was the bright orange one across the road).
The 53 club is a modern building, about the same size as Manchester Academy 1, and the gig seemed pretty well attended, although I don’t think it sold out. While it’s not a ‘home’ gig for me, I did bump into a few familiar faces, such as Ian who I’d met at the Mostly Autumn convention in Ringwood. NRT apparently recognised me, but tells me I’d disappeared before he realised who I was.
Support was Amplifier, one of the ‘new wave of prog’ bands that have attracted the attention of some sections of the media. A trio, pretty bass-heavy, and to my ears more metal than prog, although there were vague hints of Muse about them. I was reasonably entertained, but not completely blown away. They were loud, though. This was one of those gigs where you could feel the bass in your guts.
This was the fourth time I’d seen Porcupine Tree, and they just get better and better. Some people, such as HippyDave, have claimed they’re not as good as a five-piece augmented with John Wesley on second guitar, but this is the only lineup I’ve seen, and the five-piece works fine for me. They need those two guitars for a lot of the newer heavier songs, and they don’t overplay on the older songs. As at previous shows they used a lot of back-projected videos to augment the music, including some shots of withdrawn Danish DMUs and 0-6-0 shunters for one song from the new album. The band’s performance was as precise and tight as I’ve come to expect.
As I expected, the two hour set included the whole of the excellent new album “Fear of a Blank Planet”, plus an additional song (can’t remember the title) that didn’t get included. In contrast to the last show in Manchester that drew almost exclusively from “Deadwing” and “In Absentia”, this time we were treated to an excellent selection of older songs; going right back to ‘Sever’ from “Signify”, along with ‘Lightbulb Sun’, ‘Even Less’ and ‘Smart Kid’. The oldies were well received by the crowd; so much for the claims that newer fans know nothing before ‘In Absentia’.
Another great show from a band that have yet to disappoint me live. I spent the 90 minutes travelling back home on a class 185 tired but happy
I’ve almost finished my ~3,000-word review of the concert
though work is getting in the way this week….
I’m not sure Amplifier would call themselves ‘progressive’, in any wave. Their website says ‘post-classic rock’, whatever that means. I thought they were pretty good, despite poor sound.
To clarify: P-Tree didn’t play an outtake from the new album, but a b-side from ‘In Absentia’, ‘Drown With Me’. Now I think of it, the second encore piece was an outtake too, but from ‘Deadwing’.