Porcupine Tree

So on friday I paid a visit to the HMV Apollo in Hammersmith for one good reason. To watch one of the most innovative and underrated bands this country has given birth to. But before all of that, first to come was support from Engineers, a very visual and interesting alternative act. Their music transformed much better live than on record considering the sound was incredible it almost made my phone drop out of my pocket.

But now for the opening act Porcupine Tree who prepared a lot of suprises in advance. First of all no recorded footage was allowed resulting in automatic ejection if anyone was found using such property. Secondly one noticeable feature was this was an all seated gig dating back to the days of Pink Floyd where you take in the music without the hassle of being injured. And finally we had the privilege of watching a performance of latest album "The Incident", a progressive masterpiece.

Following that, they took a 10 min break whilst hypnotising us with a digital countdown. They came back to perform a handful of tunes from their extensive discography. Personal highlights included "Anthesize" and "Normal". Their frontman Steve Wilson seemed to provide a suprisingly good sense of humour when declaring the tree does not take song requests from fans. The set closed with "Trains" rounding off perhaps one of the best gigs of this year so far.