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Tag: 2010
Porcupine Tree Live in Athens at Technopolis, 09/09/2010 — Impressions!
I’ve been listening to Porcupine Tree since 2004. I wasn’t even 16 years old then. My first contact with them was by listening to The Sky Moves Sideways… It was just right for me then: I was a developing Floyd fan and I could really relate with their sound as it was when they (him? Porcupine Tree was little more than Steven Wilson’s pet band that early) did it, their prog rock side shining through… It didn’t take long for me to listen to In Absentia in all its glory as well, and a few months later their newest album, Deadwing, was released. And then I started actively following them.
It was July 2005 when they played in Lycabettus Theater together with Blackfield and Van Der Graaf Generator, under a full moon. Back then, they had played 9 songs; some of them I didn’t know. I was there with my friend George. Porcupine Tree hadn’t grown enough on me for me to truly have a great time but I liked it nonetheless. I was a fledgling rocker anyhow (I consider myself a fledgling rocker even today).
It took Porcupine Tree another 5 years to re-visit Greece and Athens. Within those years, there’s been great change inside of me. I was 16 back then, I’m 21 today, that’s obvious enough… But I feel that whatever I like about Porcupine Tree grew up with me as well, it matured. The years passed and I loved them more and more. Their music accompanied me through times happy, sad, hard and carefree. It inspired me, mystified me. Fear of a Blank Planet and The Incident came out within those years and I was there to celebrate. These guys’ music even served as my initial common ground with Maaike and anything that relationship, quotes or no, ever symbolised or tought me. To summarise: Within 6 short years, Porcupine Tree developed into my favourite band.
So of course it was a special moment when I learned that they would be coming this year and what a surprise: they’d be playing in Technopolis, one of the coolest places in central Athens. So the months passed and the night came! I left the day before yesterday from Mytilini to be here in Athens on time for the concert and I’m leaving again for my beloved little island town tonight. ~24 hours worth of hanging around ship interiors, studying and reading The Drawing of The Three. I could honestly take twice as much for what I experienced yesterday. And on my own was great. Neni, of course, in one of her usual bouts of derangement decided not to take the opportunity to even come to the concert on her own, let alone with me. Not that I cared in the end: I was able to take it all in with no distractions in my head. What can I say? Her loss. That’s the least I can say.
The ‘Tree gave a fantastic performance. I wish I could be at the railing but I was just half a meter behind! I would have managed to be at the railing if not for a few friends that I met and gave the extra ticket to, but I didn’t mind at the end, we had a good time after the concert! 😉
So! What did they play?
The Setlist:
-
- Occam’s Razor
- The Blind House
- Great Expectations
- Kneel and Disconnect
- Drawing the Line
- Open Car
- Lazarus
- Russia on Ice (part 1)
- Anesthetize (part 2)
- Time Flies
- Degree Zero of Liberty
- The Séance
- Circle of Manias
- Normal
- Way Out of Here
- Sleep Together
- Stars Die
- Blackest Eyes
- Trains
Encore:
Highlights:
Right when they came out and started playing Occam’s Razor, at one of the pauses it seemed as if there was something wrong with Steven’s guitar, which might actually have been the case. But he just made it look as if it was just dramatic idling. It was suspenseful! And then of course came The Blind House.
Open Car in last night’s show had a brand new breakdown! We were all ecstatic, looking at eachother in crazy disbelief. Check it out in this video that, strangely, has not been taken down. 2:10 marks the spot.
Russia on Ice together with Anesthetize? What an inspiration! Steven did a trick where he played his chords by just kind of slapping the strings there. It was impressive!
I didn’t expect to like the 2nd part of The Incident, that is, the songs after Time Flies, but the band managed to give them some kind of energy that was absent on the recording. I liked that…
After they finished their standard setlist with Way Out of Here and Sleep Together, they left the stage. I always find encores funny, how the artists just leave the stage like that. It’s as if they’re saying “Klain” to everyone! 😀 Anyway, they came back of course and Steven said: “We have some of the older songs for you tonight…” He had already mentioned it at the beginning, but it was really happening! And we were all like: “what might they have in store for us tonight?”, you could smell the anticipation in the air. We hoped their guilt for leaving us with no Porcupine Tree for 5 years would be enough for them to do something special, at least they sounded guilty when Steven said “we hope you haven’t forgot us” or something to that extent… And it begun with Stars Die.
And here’s your proof, the best quality I did find… The song took me back to when I had first listened to PT. It was one of the first songs of theirs that I had come to love. And I remember Giorgos, an old friend of mine, telling me he’d told a girl he was hitting on, drunk of course: “Stars die, stars die…” I dedicate this memory to him. 🙂 Incidentally (pun unintended), he was the one that introduced me to Porcupine Tree. Cheers mate. We need to talk more.
And then came Blackest Eyes and Trains (Fanis would have gone wild with this one). I’ll leave the following do the talking. By the way, you can listen to me cheering and making happy noises and remarks at least at 2:07 and 4:14, that ETSI REEEE!! must be me… I’m not sure! I was somewhere around there. Also notice, at the end of the concert, how Gavin does his magic trick (hard to see on the video) and Richard produces a suitable sound effect and Colin took out his video camera and recorded the whole scene, including the wild crowd (that’s us)! Yeah! I can’t imagine the guys just sitting in a couch, watching crowd videos from the tour and making funny comments. I would actually pay money for such a deep behind-the-scenes.
EDIT!: THEY DELETED IT! THESE ASSHOLES! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT… :'( YOU’RE NOT EARNING ANY RESPECT OR FANS FOR THIS, YOU KNOW…
I sung every song at the top of my voice. I headbanged and rocked with my whole body. I got lost in memories and created even better ones at this concert. I had the chance to see them live again and it was awesome. Gavin is the best drummer alive, Richard is a master of atmosphere, I’d like to have Colin’s coolness and bass guitar skills, and Steven is a bare-foot musical genius with incredible live energy and style. John Wesley, their guest guitarist and backing vocalist for the tour, melted girls’ hearts yesterday in addition to playing superbly… Thanks for a great show, at a great place, with great music.
Have a look at their older setlists in Athens, however, and tell me how awesome it must have been to see them play stuff off Lightbulb Sun, for example…
http://www.setlist.fm/search?query=porcupine+tree+athens
SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!
</fanboy>
Oh, Anathema also played… Meh… These are the songs they played, they really weren’t anything special in my opinion. Don’t know their old songs, of course, nor did I catch them at their hayday.
EDIT:
Maybe not all that much has changed after all… has it?
2005
2010
Blue Moon
Last December had two full moons. Popularly, a second full moon in a single month is called a blue moon, even if that is not the correct definition (check here for more details). This moon rose on December 31st and set on January 1st. It was a full moon that connected two years. Or should I say, it connected two decades? I find it strangely symbolic that the last day of the year and decade just happened to be a full moon day… It was surreal going out to see the fireworks and having the huge light in the sky illuminating everything.
I will not treat the turn of the decade as time to contemplate change, look back or act as if starting today the world’s going to be different in some sort of way. It is still too early for us to even be able to say what the decade we just left behind us will be remembered for, let alone compare it with the fresh new one that’s just a signle day old. I will thus spare with the retrospective craze about how the past decade changed our lives. All I have to say on that is that every change made during this decade was sort of transitional… We ain’t seen nothing yet (sic).
My refusal to look back in sets of tens does not mean that I do not want to see what last year brought, however. It was certainly a full and interesting year for me. I’d like to take you to a sort of new year’s resolution I wrote last year, “More and Less of 2009”. This year’s “More and Less” will consist of all that I did not manage to do during 2009. I’ll give it a go:
More movies, more games, more languages, more activities, more biking, more photography, more people, more travelling, more new experiences, more love, more animals, more beauty, more cooking, more reading, more knowledge, more stars, more planets, more cleaning, more housekeeping, more real working, more specialisation, more subtitles, more cubimension, more music, more peace, more awareness, more spirituality, more science, more history, more dreams, more thoughts, more tea, more vegetables, more cake, more e-mails, more writing, more art, more friendliness, more phone calls, more letters, more enjoying the moment in the right way.
Less procrastinating, less shyness, less lazyness, less internet idleness, less msn, less stupid spending, less sleeping till the afternoon, less caffeine, less absent-mindedness.
These are my personal wishes for 2009.
Alex: You forgot more sex. And more anime. You forgot less facebook too. Less flies too! Yiek!Enloying the moment in a right way eh?..Dunno if you wishing this to yourself ooor you’re trying to tell me something…
More movies: I guess this is kind of a pass. I’m doing the whole kinimatografiki thing together with Garret, I’ve watched my fair share of movies in the past year… There’s definitely a lot more in my”want to see” list on Flixster, but is there anything out there really for which this can’t be said? I mean… not on my “want to see” list on Flixster, generally speaking…
Honourable mentions: Kubrick Month, District 9, Dogtooth, Some Like It Hot, The Shawshank Redemption, Inglourious Basterds
More games: Hmmm… my overall “games played” meter in 2009 is fairly similar to, if not lower than 2008’s. I did sign up for Game 2.0, which is good, but I feel that I haven’t played enough games that I’ve been aching to play. I’m up to the neck in music games, if that’s any development. I even got more of an acquired taste in strategies!
Honourable mentions: Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts&Bolts, Victoria, The Longest Journey, Modern Warfare 2, Peggle Nights, Luxor, StarCraft
More languages: My go at learning Japanese crashed and burned and I’ve made little progress with German…next question!! :/
More activities: That’s a check in many different ways.Theatriki, Kinimatografiki, Fotografiki, being out a lot, I have the distinct impression I’ve been pretty active, thank you!
More biking: um… R.I.P.
More photography: That’s a check as well! Just have a look at my Flickr for the results! :}
More people: Yes, met many new people this year but got to know few. This one’s up in the air as is always has and always will be I guess.
More travelling: Turkey, Peloponnese, Kerkyra, Rodos… Good, but I don’t think it can compare to 2008 in any way, many plans died out or haven’t been realised yet. But there’s much hope for 2010, I’ll tell you that.
More new experiences: Always on the lookout! Many experiences I shall cherish forever.
More love: That’s a tough one. I’ll say check, even though I’m not sure if everything I have in mind is aspects of love or something else entirely.
More animals: Does the army of cats on the watch outside my apartment count? 😛
More beauty: Just like new experiences, always looking for more!
More cooking: FAIL UNLIMITED! 🙁
More reading: Hmmm… I give this one a hearty check. In the past 12 months I read many books that I’ll remember for years to come. Coming in contact with Saramago, Gaarder and Mazower are no small matters.
More knowledge: Yes! I I owe this largely to Despina Catapoti for being the best prof ever and leading me to planes of gnosis I always wanted to visit but I wasn’t aware of. Cultural studies, postmodernism, philosophy were all redefined in my head. I feel like my mind has opened even more.
More stars: I don’t have a telescope… yet… but it’s been a fine astronomical year with many a starry sky and gazing alone or in good company.
More planets: If this is astrology (I don’t remember), I’m now feeling a bit mixed on the issue.
More cleaning/housekeeping: This has reached an all time low… For shame.
More real working: I made my first real money in 2009, which is great. Game 2.0 or my EAA Museum and other uni projects also count and I stand proud!
More specialisation: …hm… nah.
More subtitles: Yes indeed, I did some and I was paid for it. Moar plz.
More cubimension: Another healthy check and it’s getting better!
More music: Not many new bands came into my attention this year, but I’ve been listening to music, yay! 😛 Buying The Incident in Special Edition is something I’m not sure I regret yet.
More peace: No, I wasn’t in peace for much of last year. Good or bad? I cannot tell.
More awareness: Not very successsful, many a time did I let my wandering thoughts cloud my perception of the present. Not a good thing.
More spirituality: I’ve been trying to delve into the secrets of eastern philosophy… Tao and Physics is an excellent book on the subject, but Tao is so deep and mistifying I’m confused and left in awe at the same time. Somewhat healthy.
More science: Web Science Conference?! Hehe, well I’ve been reading some pop science books, if that counts…
More history: Yes yes! Playing Victoria, reading Mazower and looking into alternate histories, listening to Despina talk…
More dreams: After “Counting Sheep”, my take on sleep was briefly something completely different and new. Now I’ve somewhat subconsciously returned to my bad old take of “sleep cuts away from your waking time”… I must make it a point to follow some online lucid dreaming classes.
More thoughts: I’ve been thinking…
More tea: I got this huge bag of tea from Ayvalik (which cops mistook for half a kilo of weed…) and I still haven’t made any of it. Maybe I’m still recovering from the tea overload in Turkey. Or maybe my boiler is kaput. No wait, it is.
More vegetables: uh, I don’t think I’ve been eating any more or any less… I shoud make a habit of making salads a la mama though, they’re downright awesome.
More cake: fail. Or is it?
More e-mails: And all to the same handful of special someones as last year. Pah, no good. 😛
More writing: Judging from my surge of cubimension interest, that’s a positive.
More art: I’ve done my part. That collage for Alex and a lot of digital art tidbits… I know I can do better though.
More friendliness: I think I might be going well with this. Might.
More phone calls: and to whom, I wonder… But you know that I dislike phones!
More letters: I don’t think I wrote a signle one.
More enjoying the moment in the right way: I… think I got that one. Or maybe not. Or maybe both. Or maybe it’s too hard to tell as a rule. Or maybe I’m still trying to do it.
Less procrastinating: No one ever entirely gets away from this one… But it is the goal.
Less shyness: I’ve seen myself be very shy and very not shy. Soooo…
Less lazyness: I think I’m less lazy than usual. Yes.
Less internet idleness: Working on that one but I think I’ve made some progress.
Less MSN: Considerably.
Less stupid spending: …yes, but I still turn out with less money than I calculated. Maybe the definition of stupid has simply jumped around.
Less sleeping till the afternoon: …to which I’ll add: less going to sleep after dawn!
Less caffeine: HAH! Good one!
Less absent-mindedness: Hmmm. Yes.
More sex: Quantity-wise or quality-wise? It makes all the difference in the world.
Less Facebook: I managed to deactivate it. TOTAL SUCCESS!
More anime: Yeah, I’ve seen a lot of One Piece. But where’s my Cowboy Bebop?
Less flies: Less flies, I agree. And less cockroaches please!
~~