Porcupine Tree at the Royal Albert Hall

[El_Mayonnaise]

on the train back after seeing the pt lads. Cracking as always and spot on with every lick, fill and whimsical observation of society. However, felt let down by their setlist. It was brilliant but i'm sure i read somewhere that this was the last time they would play the incident in its entirety. Only the first half made an appearance though the venue was HUGE and added to the atmosphere. Not really a sound expert but i could hear the drums so that was cool. Any other frosties there? Should have set up a pre-gig topic really. Ah well. Apparently it was recorded so i hope to buy the cd soon.

Also the girlfriend knew that the singer was called steve. Aww bless her.

[Pedro]

JamesA, Bert and JM were there.

[El_Mayonnaise]

Dawww, see I knew i should have asked if anyone was going  :roll:

[LivingForever]

Here's my review from the Tinyfish forum (note that I had some of the same gripes as you... :p)

Yep, couldn't really fault that gig!*

A very cool acoustic set to start off the evening, with Colin on Double Bass and Gavin playing a little mini drumkit down at the front - and a brilliant setlist of rarely-heard songs including 2 classics from Stupid Dream, the almost-forgotten ''Small Fish" and a hilarious/genius acoustic version of "Futile" ('We tried to think of the least appropriate song to play in this configuration', said Steven.)

A quick break and they were back in full-on electric mode, kicking off with the never before played full 15-minute version of 'Even Less', followed by the slightly overplayed (IMHO) Open Car and Lazarus from Deadwing. 'We're going to play a couple of songs from an album called The Sky Moves Sideways' drew an enormous cheer and off they went with 'Dislocated Day', something I never thought I'd see played live again and definitely not in a venue like the Albert Hall! It was also fantastic to hear the full version of 'Sky Moves Sideways (part 1)' including the Floyd-y keyboard intro.

A selection of tracks from 'The Incident' were up next, starting with the last one (!) and then the first big chunk up to 'Drawing the Line' after a 15 minute break. I was initially a bit disappointed when they stopped after that, but to be honest I thought they played this material better when I saw them in Paris last year so when they took a break to play 'Tinto Brass' I thought I'd let them off...  

'Time Flies' was the last Incident track to get an airing, and I seriously doubt that this is the last time we'll hear it as it's a phenominally good live track and one which I can imagine living on in the set for some time. From then on, the setlist was a bit more predictable although there was still the odd curveball like 'Up the Downstair' and it was great to have 'Arriving Somewhere' back in the set.

All in all, an absolutely top gig, I think PT are best experienced when standing down at the front and not sitting up on the side, but it was a nice change to get a different view for once, and there was definitely no lack of atmosphere in the hall! I felt a bit sorry for Wes having to leave the stage every time something old was played but I guess he wouldn't have had much to do in many of these songs.

Interesting that you saw Rothery and H, James - Karin and I walked straight into John Mitchell as soon as we arrived (naturally he was oblivious to our presence and even the 'Keep Calm and Mellotron' T-shirt didn't seem to attract his attention - although it did provoke discussion with a chap sitting near us who was wearing the same one... wonder if it's someone from here or the Frost* forum?)

But even more exciting than that.... STEVE HACKETT was there, and walked right past me! He was so close I could almost smell the Just for Men. I notice SW is apparently guesting at his Shepherd's Bush gig on the 30th of November which has now turned into a must-see. Bit odd I thought, though, that the flyer would announce which song they would be playing together - surely part of the fun is to guess what they might play?

Anyway. I should go to bed.






*Okay, I can fault it and am going to... for a show billed as "the last performance of The Incident" they actually played surprisingly little of it... and considering the rest of the setlist was also billed as "mostly pre-2000 songs" aside from the Incident stuff, I thought there were a few too many newer ones (3 songs from Deadwing, 2 from FOABP, sodding TRAINS!!! yet again... and yet nothing from Signify or Lightbulb Sun.)

[Brom]

Nicely written review LF, thanks for taking the time to put finger to key at such a late hour.

Still think it's cool (for SW at least) that after early years of attending gigs in London, and listening to Genesis as a teen, to play in the Albert Hall AND get Steve Hackett to come and see you play - that's just Awesome!!

[Bert]

IMHO this gig was perfect in almost every respect, for me.

I rank it "significantly awesome" and easily one of the top 10 best gigs I've ever witnessed. Simply brilliant.

[spaceloaf]

Dang, I was planning on going to this, but my plans fell through.  Thanks for posting your impressions; it sounds like an awesome gig.  I would have loved to hear acoustic Futile.

[grif]

It was a really good show, I noticed a few Defence of the  Realm t-shirts throughout the night. First time I've been to the Albert Hall and found the venue to be impressive. I remember seeing PT in a firkin pub in B'ham around 15 years ago, wonderful that they've come so far.

[catherine]

Mr Wilson was at The Luminaire last night, watching Unitopia and The Tangent.