Home > Jazz & Avant, Metal, Rock & Pop > REVIEW: Porcupine Tree w/ That1Guy @ Roseland (Portland, OR – 9/16/09)

REVIEW: Porcupine Tree w/ That1Guy @ Roseland (Portland, OR – 9/16/09)

17th Sep 09 (Thu) Leave a comment Go to comments

Rarely do two bands you like happen to tour together.  Porcupine Tree is touring with King’s X on this U.S. Leg… well… ok, starting in a week in Ohio.  This West Coast leg, though gets That1Guy (another musician I like a lot).  I’m bummed I’m missing a KXC/PT show, but That1Guy is a fun live act as well.

I guess I’ll have to get used to the Roseland, as I imagine I’ll be seeing more and more shows here over the years.  It’s an “OK” venue… a basic stand-y rock club.  They do have a nice food menu, though… and I got as Zappa veggie dog (I heart the PacNW).  The band had a ban on cameras, outside of the officially selected photographer for the Incident tour blog; so no photos from me this time.

That1Guy played a short set.  Pretty much the same set as the last time I saw him in Feb, but just cut short. I was kind of bummed that he didn’t play “Buttmachine” or “Mustaches.”  Maybe he was trying to be “more serious” for the prog fans.  I don’t know.  I think “Buttmachine” is one of his catchiest songs, regardless of its ridiculous lyrics.  Watch the video here.  Overall his set & jams were a bit redundant / repetitive, but he’s still fun to watch.

Setlist: about 40 mins

  • Intro Jam
  • Jigsaw
  • Weasel Potpie leading into Instrumental Jam
  • Heaven or Heck
  • Dig (with the magic boot)
  • Outro Jam (T1G’s credit card jam with snippets of “Smoke on the Water”)

That1Guy’s 2007 album, The Moon is Disgusting, aged well.  I’m still digging it a bunch, and wish he would have played more off of it outside of “Jigsaw” and “Dig.”  You can listen to samples of the album HERE.

Next up, Porcupine Tree, whose new album, The Incident, arrived to my earbuds last weekend (thanks to Demonoid) but also hit my hands in a the lush limited edition on Tuesday.  Wow… it’s freakin’ excellent.  Great packaging in the deluxe edition.  I think the limited edition is sold out, but the standard CD is available worldwide now.

Porcupine Tree hit the stage around 9:15 and played a first set entirely made up of The Incident‘s 1st disc.  They didn’t stray from the album in scope or sound.  It was very great being in the same room as Steven again.  He’s truly a great musician and songwriter, which is a hard moniker to assign to a progressive rock musician (most of them can’t write a song to save their lives).  Their set…

Setlist:

  • The Incident (in its entirety)
    I – Occam’s Razor
    II – The Blind House
    III – Great Expectations
    IV – Kneel and Disconnect
    V – Drawing the Line
    VI – The Incident
    VII – Your Unpleasant Family
    VIII – The Yellow Windows of the Evening Train
    IX – Time Flies
    X – Degree Zero of Liberty
    XI – Octane Twisted
    XII – The Séance
    XIII – Circle of Manias
    XIV – I Drive the Hearse
    2nd Set
  • The Start of Something Beautiful
  • Buying New Soul
  • Anesthetize Part 2
  • Lazarus
  • Strip the Soul
  • .3
  • Bonnie the Cat
  • Encore: Way Out of Here
  • Trains

Great show for their fantastic new album.  They played right around 2 hours total.  The Incident is easily the best album they’ve done since In Absentia, IMO.  This was only the 2nd show of their tour, and it didn’t really show.  I mean, they were on top of their game.  Steven mentioned that they were a little nervous at the Seattle show the day prior.  Somehow I’m skeptical of that.  They probably roll out of bed and could play these songs blindfolded. :)

The Appropriate Linkage:

~Dan – np: Patton OswaltMy Weakness is Strong

Further U.S> Porcupine Tree Tour Dates (as of now)

Tue 15 Sep SEATTLE, WA MOORE THEATER [opener: That1Guy]
Wed 16 Sep PORTLAND, OR ROSELAND [opener: That 1 Guy]
Fri 18 Sep SAN FRANCISCO WARFIELD [opener: That 1 Guy]
Sat 19 Sep LOS ANGELES CLUB NOKIA [opener: Big Elf]
Mon 21 Sep CLEVELAND, OH HOUSE OF BLUES [opener: King’s X]
Tue 22 Sep CHICAGO, IL VIC THEATER [opener: King’s X]
Thu 24 Sep NY, NY TERMINAL 5 [opener: King’s X]

Fri 25 Sep BALTIMORE RAM’S HEAD [opener: King’s X]
Sat 26 Sep PHILLY ELECTRIC FACTORY [opener: King’s X]
Sun 27 Sep BOSTON, MA HOUSE OF BLUES [opener: King’s X]
Tue 29 Sep MONTREAL METROPOLIS [opener: King’s X]
Wed 30 Sep TORONTO QUEEN ELIZABETH THEATRE [opener: King’s X]

  1. kram231
    17th Sep 09 (Thu) at 10:59 am

    Nice review! Here’s mine: http://is.gd/3nW74
    I linked to yours as well.
    :)

    Hope you’ll check out The Adrian Belew Power Trio at the Aladdin on Oct. 13th. They are an amazing live band! Adrian has played with Porcupine Tree, NIN, Bowie, is in King Crimson etc!

    • 17th Sep 09 (Thu) at 12:41 pm

      Thanks, I’ll link to yours above.

    • 17th Sep 09 (Thu) at 12:47 pm

      Oh, yeah, I’m familiar with Adrian. I used to live in Cincinanti, where he’s from. I also had his trio albums with Tool’s Danny Carey from a few years back. Good stuff. Doubtful I’ll drive up for the show… October is rough for me for work stuff, etc.

      Re: your review & That 1 Guy… haha… yeah, I get that. I mean, I dig him a lot (saw him way back in 2001 for the first time). Last night’s set was pretty damn repetitive, though. I can see why people, especially P.Tree fans, wouldn’t like him. I would have rather seen the King’s X opening show, but alas, luck of the draw.

      ~Dan

  2. 18th Sep 09 (Fri) at 11:04 am

    Hey – great review! I posted mine at , and linked to yours at http://isorski.blogspot.com/2009/09/more-porcupine-tree-reviews.html.

  3. 18th Sep 09 (Fri) at 11:04 am

    Whoops hit send too soon – my review is at http://isorski.blogspot.com/2009/09/concert-review-porcupine-tree.html

  4. 18th Sep 09 (Fri) at 11:37 am

    After the PT show at the Roseland I went around the corner where two guys were playing at Backspace Cafe and Those Two Guys were far better than That One Guy. ;) Don’t know who they were (a drummer and double neck guitarist). The new Adrian Belew Power Trio, with the 22 year old siblings really kick ass. Oh, and I did the art for their new album “e”.

    Belew art: http://is.gd/3qbfD

    The CD: http://adrianbelew.net

  5. mark
    1st Oct 09 (Thu) at 7:38 pm

    Anybody seen a review of the Seattle show? I was there and would like to hear what folks thought. I haven’t looked too hard to find that review and just came across this site by accident.

    Anyway, first time I’ve seen this band live. I’ve enjoyed their albums In Absentia, Fear of a Blank Planet, Dead Wing and the live Chicago DVD and was expecting a great show.

    The Incident, their first set, didn’t really do a lot for me. One, due to the poor sound at the Moore Theatre, two, because I didn’t have any context about The Incident and had not heard any of it prior to the show (it released that day, I think)

    The second set was more familiar and I enjoyed it a lot more, but again, the sound was not good. Much too heavy on the percussion.

    • 1st Oct 09 (Thu) at 8:46 pm

      I’ve only seen one band at the Moore Theatre, and it was a noise metal trio – John Zorn’s Moonchild (with Mike Patton). So that show was blistering loud, and if there was feedback, I couldn’t tell. :)

      Re: The Incident material, I like it better than Fear of a Blank Planet. That album left me kind of cold (outside of the Nil Recurring EP from the same sessions). I DL’ed The Incident about a week before the show (as my copy was en route from Burning Shed; so I got a good few listens in. In fact, I think I like it more than Deadwing. In Absentia and Stupid Dream are probably my faves of theirs, though.

      Re: Seattle reviews… I found a few…
      http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=61309

      Documentation


      http://www.therealmusician.com/porcupine-tree-live.html

      ~Dan

  6. mark
    1st Oct 09 (Thu) at 10:03 pm

    hey – thanks for the pointers to the seattle reviews!

    “noise, metal, blistering loud” yeah – those terms fit together well!

    Mark

  7. 6th Oct 09 (Tue) at 8:13 am

    I was at the seattle show just before you.

    “Way Out of here” was just their last song, and then they played “Mother and Child Divided” for the encore.

    Haha, and this link

    “http://www.therealmusician.com/porcupine-tree-live.html”

    Is from my website, awesome that you found it!

    • 6th Oct 09 (Tue) at 9:58 am

      Cool… I wish they would have played M&CD for us. I dig that song…

  1. 16th May 10 (Sun) at 10:40 am

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