Saturday, September 30, 2006

Porcupine Tree

My ears are still ringing from attending an excellent gig by prog rockers Porcupine Tree at the Astoria last night.

The first half of the set was new material which they plan to record as part of their new album at the end of the year, the second half being better known material - mostly from the two most recent albums.

Porcupine Tree are one of a batch of bands producing a modern take on prog rock and remind me a lot of classic bands like Pink Floyd as well as being influenced by more recent bands such as Marillion and Dream Theater.

If you like Floyd or prog rock visit the site and listen to the clips from their most recent album Deadwing.

The biography of the band also makes interesting reading.

The keyboard player in the band is Richard Barbieri who was one of the founders of the art pop group Japan.

6 comments:

Will said...

I hear that the Astoria is to suffer the same fate as is planned for the Electric Ballroom :-(

Liberal Neil said...

Conversion to shops, flats and offices I understand.

Which is a bit sad. I've seen Marillion, Deep Purple and Magnum, amongst others, there, over the past couple of years.

But it is also a bit of a toilet!

Tristan said...

Porcupine Tree are great, should really go and see them sometime, but they've never quire recaptured the days of Voyage 34 or Coma Divine for me... (on record at least).

Liberal Neil said...

Ah - the voice of the 'I prefer the early stuff' fan!

One of the new tracks they played on Friday was a 20 minute opus.

They are going into the studio at the end of the year and plan to do a full new album tour in the Spring.

The Lone Beader® said...

Porcupine Tree is my favorite band. I can't go a single day without listening to them. Also, I saw them play in Boston last week. They were unbelievable. I love their long piece in the first half of the show - the one that Steven said was their 'Side 6'. LOL! Anyways, I can't wait until they come back:)

Liberal Neil said...

If you love PT you'll probably like Marillion too.

You can get a free sample here:

http://www.marillion.com/music/racket/crash.htm