{"id":47607,"date":"2009-10-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/features\/porcupine-tree-and-kings-x-energize-the-house-of-blues\/"},"modified":"2009-10-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-05T00:00:00","slug":"porcupine-tree-and-kings-x-energize-the-house-of-blues","status":"publish","type":"feature","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/features\/porcupine-tree-and-kings-x-energize-the-house-of-blues\/","title":{"rendered":"Porcupine Tree And Kings X Energize The House Of Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"

The rain let up over Boston just in time to spare the fans queuing up for a night of great music. The House Of Blues sits in the shadow of Fenway Park, and happy rockers lined up noshing bratwurst from street vendors, extolling the virtues of the Sox, and waiting for one of the rare U.S. performances of Porcupine Tree, one of only 12 North American shows on this tour. (This was a sold-out show so the venue was packed, a testament to their growing popularity).<\/p>\n

Opening the show were veteran rockers Kings X (Doug Pinnick \u2013 bass\/vocals, Ty Tabor \u2013 guitar, Jerry Gaskill \u2013 drums), a band I had not explored beyond a couple of their early releases. I knew I liked what I heard, but hadn\u2019t given them more than casual attention. Boy, was I missing out. The best way to describe them is power. They\u2019re a supercharged hard rock band with a strong sense of melody. They blazed through a short but excellent set that had the audience fired up.\u00a0 Pinnick was in great voice, Gaskill delivers thundering power, and Tabor is a grossly unrecognized talent.\u00a0 His solos are amazingly fluid and crisp and his rhythm work is impeccable.<\/p>\n

\"porcupinetree_250\"I can\u2019t give enough props to these guys; the power trio is a dying breed, and these three carry the torch with pride, offering up a no-frills set of tasty hard rock. Pinnick got the crowd fired up with his energetic stage presence, calling for hands of any musicians in the audience during the closer \u201cOver My Head,\u201d exclaiming, \u201cIf you love music then make music. It doesn\u2019t matter if you never get famous or make it on MTV, or even make it out of your basement, don\u2019t ever give up the music!\u201d I\u2019m a fan now and will be looking forward to my next chance to see them live.<\/p>\n

A brief break and then Porcupine Tree (Steven Wilson \u2013 vocals\/guitar\/keys, Colin Edwin \u2013 bass, Richard Barbieri \u2013 keys, Gavin Harrison \u2013 drums, John Wesley \u2013 guitar) took the stage. On a personal note, anyone who knows me knows what a fanatic I am for PT. I\u2019d been waiting for almost ten years to see them live, but their scant touring in the U.S. had made it impossible. All I can say is that it was worth the wait. If I have to wait another decade, it\u2019ll still be worth the wait for next show. I\u2019m hoping that\u2019s not the case, though.<\/p>\n

The band\u2019s set kicked off with the fifty-minute title suite from their new album The Incident<\/i>. Pretty daring, but the audience ate it up, which is a testament to the strength of the music since it was likely the first exposure to these songs for many. Accompanying this piece (and most of the show) were eerily beautiful visuals projected behind the band. Longtime PT collaborator Lasse Hoile<\/a> is legendary for his artistic contributions to the band\u2019s image, and the short films created for the PT videos and live shows add a lot of dimension to the live performance.<\/p>\n

After a short break, they returned to deliver a stunning set drawing largely from their recent albums, but with a few older pieces included as well. My spies reported that they are mixing up the setlist each night, so some surprises were in store. Gotta love a band that doesn\u2019t put on a cookie-cutter show. One of my favorites, \u201cRussia On Ice,\u201d was the highlight for me, a blast of angst and melancholia featuring Wilson\u2019s searing guitar work. The rarely played \u201cStrip The Soul\u201d and \u201c.3\u201d from the In Abstentia<\/i> album were fan favorites, as was a surprise from the Nil Recurring<\/i> EP, \u201cNormal\u201d which segued into the blazing \u201cMother And Child Divided\u201d to end the set.<\/p>\n

For the encore, the audience was treated to \u201cThe Sound of Muzak\u201d and their signature closer \u201cTrains.\u201d With a lot of material available, they did great job of offering up a good mix of old and new, with a couple of songs I never really expected to hear. For the long wait, I was completely satisfied with the exhilarating show that left me hungry for more.<\/p>\n

Sadly for us here in the States, they are headed back across the pond. But our European friends can see them all across the continent, where they\u2019ll be touring extensively through the end of the year. Get a ticket \u2013 you won\u2019t be disappointed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

House Of Blues; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; September 27, 2009<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"feature_type":[32],"class_list":["post-47607","feature","type-feature","status-publish","feature_type-feature"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature\/47607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/feature"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"feature_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature_type?post=47607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}