Porcupine Tree live from Dublin.

It’s been about seven years and three full albums since myself and about thirty other eager punters got treated to the live sounds of Porcupine Tree in the Temple Bar Music Centre.

The long queue and sold out gig goes a long way to tell how far the band have come since then. The venues keep getting bigger and the LPs keep shifting more units. It appears that they have become quite the overnight success, after seventeen years of hard graft.

The band is currently thirteen months into the tour for their latest epic—‘The Incident’. The coup de grace is the title track, which takes up the whole of the first disc. The fifty five minute work is split into fourteen tracks, if for no other reason than to make listening easier. The self-produced album is completed by four standalone compositions; ‘Flicker’, ‘Bonnie The Cat’, ‘Black Dahlia’ and ‘Remember Me Lover’ feature on a separate EP length disc to stress their independence from the rest of ‘The Incident’.

Support act North Atlantic Oscillation.

Support band North Atlantic Oscillation received an overall warm welcome. Their sound is heavily prog rock and drawing from acts such as Sky and Yes. The sounds unfortunately seemed quite generic and probably why so many people frown on the genre as a whole. Perhaps with a headline spot that would allow them to incorporate better visuals helping the band be more interesting but the stage setup was cluttered and uninspiring, with every member of the band (except the drummer) seeming playing both synths and guitars simultaneously, though you could not tell this from anywhere but the front row as the band were hidden by their equipment. Overall not a terrible act or choice of support but I have genuinely forgotten all but the vaguest of bleeps from their music so draw your own conclusions there.

Porcupine Tree took the stage and showed why it’s been worth the wait. Opening with blistering performances of ‘Even Less’ followed by ‘Open Car’ and ‘Lazarus’, Steve Wilson and Co showed exactly why critical success has been converted to fans.

Mr. Wilson however, should perhaps refrain from addressing the crowd. Although he only did this twice, on both occasions he came off as aloof and even condescending. Stating that tonight they planned to deviate from the normal set to include less often played material is good. Admitting that you are only doing this to warm up for the next nights show in the Royal Albert Hall, not so much!

The second time he address the crowd was to tell them that Porcupine Tree hadn’t played here in so long because only five people showed up the last time or that the entertainment magazine they found in Dublin stated Prog Rock to be below Blackface in musical genres probably not the classiest of moves, the crowd here were the converted however and didn’t seem as put off by this as I.

Credit has to be given for the most prompt interval I have ever witnessed at a rock show. When Steve Wilson announced that there would be a ten minute interval, a countdown time appeared and the band came back on, exactly ten minutes later.

Steve Wilson of Porcupine Tree.

The band did play a great mix of older tracks as well as a good smattering of material from ‘The Incident’. The performance of ‘Blackest Eyes’ and ‘Time Flies’ standing out to me. The finish was an epic version of ‘Trains’, reminding us again why most people hail Porcupine Tree as the rightful successors of Pink Floyd.

The show in general I think would have won over new fans or those sitting on the fence—that is assuming they didn’t get put off by remarks made by Steve Wilson during the set. Sonically and visually stunning performance however you take it.

All images by Damien James O’Farrell. Used with Kind Permission.
www.damienjamesofarrell.com