Written by Bill Whiting – billwhiting01@yahoo.com
Photo by Diana Nitschke
England’s Porcupine Tree entered the confines of Cincinnati’s Bogarts with a packed house to play to, and a double disc concept recording, The Incident, to unleash upon them. Legendary for their multi media concerts, replete with accompanying film to music, Porcupine Tree blasted their way on the stage with “Occam’s Razor” and “The Blind House,” before lead singer Steven Wilson announced that the band would perform The Incident straight through in it’s entirety. Richard Barbieri’s innovative keyboard and synthesizer movements stood out on the title track, and the ethereal passages of “The Yellow Windows Of The Evening Train.” Wilson had the denizens on the floor shouting the lyrics of “Drawing The Line” back towards the stage. Colin Edwin’s bass fills rumbled through the old walls of the aging facility, and reverberated to the back of the balcony bar on “Octane Twisted.” “Your Unpleasant Family” was an amusing yet moving track that pulsated with odd time signatures, and the wicked back beats of drummer extraordinaire, Gavin Harrison. Bogarts’ crowd was galvanized by the strumming guitar lines on “Time Flies,” and, with a little push from Wilson’s onstage theatrics, the composition became a live epic destined to be etched into memory. “Degree Zero Of Liberty,” “The Seance,” and “Circle of Manias” followed in quick succession, only to be topped by another monster tune, the ten minute plus jam of “I Drive The Hearse.” Porcupine Tree’s visuals on screen were breathtaking, particularly on the selection from their Fear Of A Blank Planet disc, “Anesthetize.” As they accelerated towards the end of the performance with the eerie metallic improvisations of “Bonnie The Cat,” Porcupine Tree put on an event for the ages, the equivalent of seeing Quadrophenia, The Wall or 2112 inside a small club.
