Porcupine Tree – Live Review (Manchester)

Thursday 29 June 2023

Castlefield Bowl, Manchester

****

You wait 12 years for a Train… then two come at once

For 12 years between their gig at the Royal Albert Hall in London in October 2010 and their next London gig at Wembley Arena in November 2022 it appeared that Porcupine Tree would never play live again. Following their 2022 tour in support of their new album Closure/Continuation, the band announced a festival tour in the summer of 2023, and Thursday night’s gig, part of Manchester’s Sounds of the City series at Castlefield Bowl, was the only UK date on that tour.

The gig began with some parish notices from lead singer and songwriter Steven Wilson. He expressed mild disappointment at the weather – the combination of outdoors, Manchester and the music of Porcupine Tree would surely have led to rain rather than the glorious sunshine that graced the allegedly ‘rainy’ City. Only the sight of a Joy Division tee-shirt in the audience restored some sense of normality.

On a more serious note, Wilson announced that sadly the band’s touring bass player Nate Navarro wouldn’t be able to appear due to a ‘serious family emergency’ which had forced him to return home. Wilson apologised, saying Navarro’s parts would be played on tape, and introduced the ‘invisible bass player.’ The crowd duly clapped the invisible man.

The other technical issue was that the sound of Gavin Harrison’s drums, at least from the verdant slope at the back of the Bowl, was quite boomy at first, threatening to dominate the rest of the band. This could be attributed to the acoustics of an outdoor bowl. It was certainly no reflection on Harrison’s playing, which was reliably excellent throughout. Fortunately, the problem was fixed only a few songs in to the two hour set.

Much of the set was the same as the Wembley Arena gig, although the shortened time available in Manchester meant that some tracks from the new album were dropped. A welcome new addition was Mellotron Scratch from the 2005 album Deadwing which was recently re-released in a Deluxe Edition which Wilson, with typically wry humour, said came as an ‘overpriced package.’ The rhythmic fervour at the start of the track was almost danceable, then a dreamlike mellotron choir joined with gorgeous backing vocals, leading to a funky verse section. An atmospheric glockenspiel led to heavy metal riffs which would have pleased the many audience members sporting heavy metal tee-shirts – more than Wilson himself said he had expected to see.

Heavy metal fans would also have been pleased by another highlight, the epic longform song Anesthetize from 2007’s classic album Fear of a Blank Planet. Wilson teased the audience by saying that there is an album of that name, just by way of a public service announcement and that didn’t necessarily mean the band was going to play any of it; but he soon obliged by launching into the song. Some fans mouthed the words in awestruck reverence. Others pointed towards the stage with heavy metal gestures. Tour guitarist Randy McStine matched the virtuosity of Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson who played a solo on the original album track, but in his own unique style. Wilson provided funky electric piano at one point, and keyboard player Richard Barbieri brought piercing guitar-like sounds and warm synth washes. Perched magisterially above the band on his drum throne, Harrison’s brought loose-limbed but disciplined dexterity to his huge kit. Another highlight from the same album was Sleep Together, in which Wilson played a syncopated keyboard solo. The crowd continued to clap along to the main beat, and weren’t put off by the syncopation. Only a prog/metal crowd can do this (probably).

But Wilson also demonstrated a different side, more contemplative, a 21st century folk troubadour in versions of the songs which were sometimes gentler than the album versions, such as the opening section of Chimera’s Wreck and the final section of Harridan, both from the new album. He joked, ‘Thank you, Glastonbury!’ after the latter and later invited the crowd to join him in a Glastonbury-style sing a long in an old song – The Sound of Muzak – written by a ‘visionary’ (one Steven Wilson) The audience cheerfully obliged, joining him in the chorus that, ironically, bemoans the commodification and devaluing of music.

The previous concert in London had ended with fan favourite Trains, which at the time of writing has had very nearly 30 million plays on Spotify. Appropriately, a train track runs high along one side of Castlefield Bowl. ‘Wouldn’t it be amazing if a train would come now’, opined Wilson. When one failed to appear the crowd managed to conjure one up by helpfully shouting, ‘Train, train, train’. When the ’60-ton angel’ of the song appeared there was a huge cheer, which must have puzzled the passengers. A magical end to an excellent evening.