Porcupine Tree Celebrate Success of ‘The Indicent’ in New York

Several months ago, Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy told Noisecreep that the state of progressive music was as healthy as it has ever been. Porcupine Tree are living proof that he knows what he's talking about. Earlier in the week, the band's 10th studio album, 'The Incident,' debuted in the top 25 of Billboard's album chart, selling 17,500 copies. And in the midst of an 11-date North American tour, the quintet played to a full house at New York City's 3000-capacity Terminal 5.

Not surprisingly, the show was centered around 'The Incident,' an epic 55-minute-long song divided into 14 parts. The evening was divided into two sets. The first featured the entire song, which translated well live. Porcupine Tree mastermind Steven Wilson kept the onstage banter to a minimum, letting the music do the talking.

In addition to singing, he also played guitar and some keyboards. Augmented by a large video screen and impressive but stark lighting, Wilson and his backing band -- who have had the same lineup for seven years -- did an admirable job of bringing the ambient, atmospheric album to life. The appreciative crowd held their applause until the entire song was finished.

After they finished 'The Incident,' Wilson informed the crowd that there would be a 10-minute intermission, at which time a countdown started on the video screen. As promised, the band came out as it ended and proceeded to play for another 70 minutes. Although the band has plenty of driving and aggressive songs, they chose to focus on the more mid-tempo side of things, complementing 'The Incident,' the least heavy album they've released in a while.

With so much material to choose from, the band played truncated versions of several of their songs, with a shortened version of the sprawling 'Russia on Ice' giving way to the middle movement of 'Anesthetize.' After promising that they would return to the next year, likely as part of a more extensive tour, both Porcupine Tree and the audience left satiated, knowing they did their part to help fuel progressive music's renaissance.

Porcupine Tree set list
'The Incident'
'Start of Something Beautiful'
'Russia on Ice'
'Anesthetize'
'Remember Me Lover'
'Strip the Soul'
'Mother and Child'
'Sound of Muzak'
'Trains'

Porcupine Tree Tour Dates
on TourTracker.com