- Porcupine Tree: as proggy as they wanna be
Triple bills and co-headlining summer tours are usually maddening. Initial ticket purchase excitement usually bleeds into the disappointing awareness of short sets, poor sound, lack of stride, and so on. Fans get the shaft because the gig never lives up to the hype.
Somehow, last night’s Coheed & Cambria/Porcupine Tree show managed to avoid these pratfalls — largely due to faculty and sheer strength of character. The final date of this co-headlining tour ended at Nautica with a bang, even if it was only sparsely attended.
Coheed’s big, meaty riffs and complex time-signature sound careened around the venue like a comic-book film come true. Resident banshee (and James Hetfield disciple) Claudio Sanchez and company made sure fervent fans felt every punch in their catalog and left everyone wanting more.
Slices of Year of the Black Rainbow decorated their set list, which hit peak early on with “Here We Are Juggernaut,” “The Crowing,” and “The Suffering.” “Delirium Trigger” and “No World For Tomorrow” were also exquisitely potent.
Porcupine Tree’s own rabid following would take a three-hour set anytime. While their hour’s worth of dark, angular psychedelic prog couldn’t compare to last year’s House of Blues gig, it was riveting nonetheless. A rare reading of “Russia on Ice,” in particular, was a nice treat.
With focus on albums In Absentia, Fear of a Blank Planet, and The Incident, Steven Wilson and band doled out wicked renditions of “The Blind House,” “Trains,” “Blackest Eyes,” “The Start of Something Beautiful,” and set closer “Sleep Together.”
Propelled by strobe-y magic and Danish artist Lasse Hoile’s films, Wilson nearly upstaged their touring companions. And while PT skipped their epic “Time Flies,” their set surely proved it does. —Peter Chakerian
Did you go to the show? Let us know what you thought of it in the comments.
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