When I entered the room, support act Pure Reason Revolution had already started. I was quite impressed with the band’s latest album, but the live performance was one major disappointment. The sound was pretty awful. The instruments sounded way too loud. They were completely dominating one of the main strong points of the band, the vocals. I had to listen to the band for several minutes before I could confirm that this was actually Pure Reason Revolution on stage.

Porcupine Tree kicked in with the opener of their latest album “Fear Of A Blank Planet”, a concept album I had hoped the band would play in it’s entirety. They did, although not in one piece. Tonight seemed to be some sort of a best of set. I had the feeling that the band played almost every single one of my favorite tracks, with a power I’ve hardly ever seen before at a Porcupine Tree gig. I’ve even seen Steve Wilson change his way of holding a guitar. He is metal now! Absolute highlight was the excellent performance of the seventeen minute Anesthetize, also known as ‘the beast’, There are two things that could have been slightly better though. For one, the sound was too loud. Second the reactions from the crowd could have been better. Maybe I’m spoiled by the last 013 gig where the crowd went crazy. My guess is that the audience was too much blown away by the high volume. Too bad, because the band deserved more it got.

(Review & Pics: Geert Oldenmenger)