Opening act Pure Reason Revolution had some technical problems at the beginning of their set, but managed to tackle them and gave a show with many layers and sometimes almost annoyingly catchy singing lines. These many layers couldn’t all be played by the musicians so too many of these layers were on backtrack which was a somewhat weird sight. They couldn’t really get a reaction from the crowd but that was probably just because not many people knew the strong mix of prog rock, some grunge and some metal influences. A band worth to check out once.

 

From the first notes of ‘Fear of a Blank Planet’ the barefooted Steven Wilson and his companions created a cosy vibe in the big and overcrowded venue. On the backdrop a beamer reflected nice psychedelic images and visuals, which added to the great musical skills of the musicians; this combination was absolutely shivering! The entire album that was released a few months ago, Fear of a Blank Planet, was played, so that included ‘Anesthetize’ which was also played at their previous DVD promo tour when it wasn’t released yet. Because of the length of the song it was nicknamed ‘The Beast’ at the time, but it surely also deserves that name because of the fantastic, low riff which is the climax of the song. Songs from Fear of a Blank Planet were alternated with great songs from other albums such as ‘Mother and Child Divided’ and ‘Drown With Me’. It was a fantastic set and with an almost magical feeling I went home, totally drugged by Porcupine Tree, but far from an overdose.