It’s not the years you pass

It’s about the moments that last

Forever in you

Since seeing my first SW show on Valentine’s Day, I knew that I somehow had to see him again this year, and I was willing to travel for it. Dresden ended up being the summer tour date that worked out best, being on a weekend, not terribly far, and a city I’d been meaning to visit for a while – and incidentally, it fell on exactly five months after my first gig!

The show was being held at the Freilichtbühne Junge Garde, an open air venue on the other side of the Großer Garten, Dresden’s biggest and most beautiful city park, built in the baroque style. It’s so big and there was so much to explore, we spent a couple of hours crossing it on our way to the venue, noticing the park’s little train on our walk. It turns out that Steven had quite some fun with that:

We got to the venue about an hour before doors opened, and sat in the grass, listening to the soundcheck – they did Nowhere Now in full, the first part of Pariah up to the climax, and then an instrumental bit of Nowhere Now a bunch of times, after one of which we heard Steven ask “Was that any better? You can be honest“, it was quite funny. Heartattack in a Layby was soundchecked as well, which surprised me as it’s been booted from the setlist on this leg, but even though it wasn’t the whole song, it was beautiful, and it’s one of my favorites, so I was glad to get a snippet! Perhaps twenty people had gathered by the time doors opened – this show hadn’t sold well at all, the venue was over half empty. I really hope he gets a better local promoter if there’s ever going to be a next time in Dresden – I was on the look-out, but did not see a single ad for the gig in the city, he wasn’t even listed outside the venue, and the only poster I saw was at the bar inside. The venue itself looked just stunning though – I’ve never been to a concert in an open air venue surrounded by greenery quite like this.

They didn’t have the new summer tour shirt design as a fitted tee, but I got one despite the awkward unisex fit because it’s amazing; they had the tour programs and signed To The Bone CDs and vinyls, but no other merch. We had center-left aisle seats in the fourteenth row, and the view was actually pretty great – I’d been worried they’d be quite far back since I’d gotten the tickets well after the presale had started, but we were pretty happy with them. The stage was very colorful as well, which I can’t say I had noticed at my last show, but I may have just been too short to see the banners from the front row. They did not have the see-through curtain used for the projections on the first leg this time, but used the screens instead. Since the setlist was virtually the same as at my other show, I’ll try to focus on different things, so I don’t repeat myself too much.

There was no support act, and the Truth film intro started about five minutes after 8PM, when it was still light out, which was a bit odd! The visuals and lights were definitely a bit underwhelming until it got darker. The band got on stage and launched into Nowhere Now, which I’ve come to terms with as an opener – but I just don’t understand why To the Bone isn’t the tour staple, it would go with the intro film so well (…and it’s the better song). It’s worth mentioning that when Steven finds a t-shirt design he likes, he clearly really commits to it – he was wearing the same Comme des Garçons shirt that he wore at our other show (and almost every other one on the tour as well). Pariah was next, which I actually somewhat enjoyed this time around – what helped though was that there were two old school fan couples in front of us (the men wore great matching Porcupine Tree shirts), and one of the ladies was really into it – she went through the entire spectrum of human emotion during this one song, from crying to cheering, it was contagious, and made me see the song in a different light – it will never become a favorite of mine though.

Steven noticed someone in the front row and asked them where they got their t-shirts – it turns out they’d recreated his signature stage shirt, and he said “I’m gonna have to change my t-shirt now, you realize that? I thought this was unique, apparently not“. It turned out to be a family with a kid, which I thought was super cute, and Steven apparently did too, since he got off the stage at the end of the show to take a picture with them, and that must be the biggest smile I’ve ever seen on his face. He continued on (sidenote, all the quotes in this post are verbatim, I have a muffled recording of the show so I can transcribe): “It’s something I like to do, check out the t-shirts in the audience. I think there aren’t many artists – I hope you’ll agree – that can look out into their audience and see a man in a Massive Attack t-shirt sitting two seats away from a man in a Sodom t-shirt. How many artists can say that really? Eric Clapton? No. So I’m very proud of that fact. Talking of Eric Clapton, if any of you have seen me before, you’ll know that I really don’t like the seated audience thing – this is not an Eric Clapton show, as we’ve already established, and we are having fun up here. You know, we’re a rock’n’roll band, so even though you’re sitting down, please do express your enthusiasm at every available opportunity, and we will respond in a very positive way to it, it’s a very reciprocal thing.“

Indeed, it didn’t take long into Home Invasion for me to be tired of sitting down – I don’t know how you’re supposed to show enthusiasm that way, but the audience was still full of well-behaved, boring Germans at this point. Sitting did have the advantage that I really got to take in the visuals during Regret #9 though, which are really nothing fancy compared to some of the Jesse Cope videos, but still so great, and Carrie is a beauty. The band launched into The Creator Has A Mastertape next, and I enjoyed this one even more this time around, if that’s possible. I loved watching him working on the pedals to distort his guitar for the intro, and he had some really aggressive, rough vocals going on during it, which were fantastic. This is where a handful of people got up to stand in the aisle so they could move around, and I nudged A., but he shook his head at me, so we stayed put… for the time being.

Adam provided a stunning extended piano intro to Refuge, which was just beautiful. Steven’s first high note was trembly and weak, he recovered well though, and nailed the falsetto. Vocally, I could tell that he’s been on the road for almost half a year by now, but I don’t think a first-time concert-goer would notice – I was just really struck by how absolutely perfect his pitch and delivery were back in February, so I noticed the difference on the more tender notes, but he really wasn’t having an “off” day in any sense of the word! He went for a bit of a raspier delivery on some of the lines this evening, which I thought worked really well in the context of this song, it added an additional layer of frustrated helplessness. The “here I am“s weren’t quite as dragged out, which gives the line a new, assertive sort of feel, and the following verse about the children of God sounded almost angry in his delivery, it was just perfect. This song has so many layers! The screen was black for most of the song, but showed waves breaking on a shore, bringing toys and family pictures with them for the outro – a really heartbreaking and effective visual.

He reminded us that this wasn’t an Eric Clapton show, asked who was under the age of twenty-five, and the fact that perhaps a dozen hands were raised made him go “oh dear, how very German. I do get young people at my concerts in some places in the world, you know“. He repeated a similar shtick to the one he did in February, but I felt that he was feeling cheekier on this particular day: He wanted to take the opportunity to introduce the youngsters to something called an electric guitar, “it was a very popular instrument in the second half of the twentieth century. It seems to have gone somewhat out of fashion in the 21st century, but I think it will make a comeback very soon. It’s a wondrous thing to behold, and this is a particularly beautiful specimen, a 1963 Fender Telecaster, played by people like Bruce Springsteen, Syd Barrett, Joe Strummer, and lots of other famous people I can’t remember off the top of my head… possibly even Eric Clapton. It’s a wonderful instrument, and the thing about the Telecaster is that it has a naturally very aggressive sound, it just sounds rock’n’roll, and this song was written on this guitar, and it’s a naturally very aggressive song, a very angry song… because of this guitar, not because I’m an angry person at all. It’s just that this guitar had a very bad influence on me“. Reading over it, I realize that his dead-pan British humor really doesn’t translate well to the written word and comes off as somewhat patronizing, but I promise you that he had the audience in stitches. He was clearly in a chatty and playful mood!

He launched into People Who Eat Darkness – his delivery of the angry vocals was fantastic, and we could not sit any longer, so wet went to stand further down the aisle. More people started doing the same, and there was a decent amount of headbanging going on for Ancestral, which is still my all-time favorite song of his, and managed to raise goosebumps on my arms despite the heat. He tried to get the audience to clap along, but prog time signatures are hard, and most people couldn’t figure out how to skip that one beat, it was funny to see him try directing us and amiably shaking his head and finger at us every time the clapping didn’t match up. This marked the perfect conclusion to the first part of the show, which had been the exact same as at my first.

During the first half, I’d noticed that two aisle seats in the sixth row had stayed empty, so we sat down there for a minute, but when the band came back the audience had finally woken up, and a lot more people were standing, so we made our way to the stage. The front row was already taken up, but we easily made it to the second row, and I was lucky I ended up behind a girl my height, so my view was great! We also had plenty of room to move around in, which made it a lot more fun – we’ve been together for almost eight years, and this was the first time I’ve seen A. dance in public! It wasn’t until after we’d finally found our spot at the front that I realized that they were not playing the intro for Arriving Somewhere But Not Here, but rather Don’t Hate Me! I loved getting an unexpected live song I hadn’t heard before – the visuals had beautiful colors and raindrops, and it was the first song people sang along to, and it ended up being one of my highlights. It was a song I never really warmed up to, until I realized that it makes a lot more sense considered from the perspective of a stalker, which has really enhanced my appreciation for the song – we know Steven likes to sing about creepy things he doesn’t understand, so I’m sticking with that interpretation.

“I love that some of you stood up already, because I was going to get you all to stand up for this next song. By the way, that last song we did, Don’t Hate Me, is a very old song of mine, and it was very much inspired by a German band – not Rammstein! Not Nena. A German band called Ash Ra Tempel… who no one in Germany seems to have heard of, but they’re legendary in England. While you were listening to bands like Saga – who nobody in England has heard of, by the way, I had never heard of Saga until I came to Germany, never! But in England, we were listening to Can – Ash Ra Tempel – Neu!… really?! You’ve never listened to Neu!?! WOW. Listen mate – how old are you? The reason I’m asking is that I was not around in the 70’s listening to pop music either, but I went back and I discovered the great music of the past… did you not do the same? Really? Believe it or not, I listen to Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix too, and I wasn’t around when they were making music either. Listen to Neu!, ok? Now, lesson over, I apologize for introducing you to your own music.”

“The song we’re gonna do next – by the way, I saw a gentleman in an ABBA t-shirt, well done sir, thank you very much sir… I refer back to my earlier conversation about the diversity of my audience, which I love. I haven’t found – I’ve been looking in the audience for the exact opposite of ABBA in t-shirt form… *someone yells Black Sabbath* Black Sabbath, maybe… *someone yells Opeth* Not really, because Mikael is massively influenced by ABBA… has anyone here got a Throbbing Gristle t-shirt? I can’t find a polar opposite of ABBA, but it must be out there somewhere. This gentleman here with the green t-shirt, sir, I don’t know this band, but they look very mean and heavy. Havok? They look very heavy. Would I be right in thinking they were the opposite of ABBA? Ok, so ABBA and Havok, there you go. This next song we’re gonna do for you was influenced by ABBA, not Havok, whom I’ve never heard of. This is a very joyous piece of pop music, I would like everyone to please stand up, because this song cannot be performed to people sitting on their bottoms, it is illegal to play this song to people sitting down. I hope you’ll join us in indulging in some joyous music, even the gentleman in the Havok t-shirt… and the gentleman in the Sodom t-shirt.” Of course Permanating followed, which was insanely fun – everyone in my vicinity really let loose and danced and sang along to it, even the guy with the leather vest covered in metal band patches, it was glorious. You can tell Steven’s really proud of this one, and his enthusiasm is definitely contagious – he nailed the high/falsetto parts, too!

I adored Song of I, I really hope he explores this electronic trip-hop sound more in a future record – it’s a really sensual song, and the visuals and his stage demeanor matched the tone perfectly. If anyone had told me that Steven Wilson would stand on a stage and repeatedly pull his shirt half-way up to expose his midriff, I wouldn’t have believed them, because it just seems so out of character, but neither am I complaining, I am a woman with eyes and hot blood rushing through my veins after all. They segued into Lazarus straight away, which was a bit of a weird vibe change, but I’ll take anything off Deadwing and thank you kindly. He chuckled to himself after playing it: “I wanted to apologize for earlier because I just spotted a guy wearing a Saga t-shirt. I’ve never heard them, they may be amazing for all I know, I didn’t mean any disrespect. I never heard the name until I came to Germany – somebody was interviewing me one day and they said “I think I recognize some Saga influence in your music” – who? And that was the first time I honestly ever heard of them, but I gather they’re quite successful in Germany. Canadian band, right? Are they as good as Rush? I doubt it. Anyway, listen! We have to finish at 10:30 sharp, so we’ll try to squeeze as many songs in for you – there’s a very strict curfew here, so I’M GOING TO STOP TALKING. I’m sure you’re really sad about that, aren’t you?“. This time around, I focused all of my attention on the video used for The Same Asylum As Before rather than watching the band, but I still can’t quite make sense of its narrative – the paper mache masks look incredible though!

Vermillioncore was a joy to watch, as ever – the band plays it so tightly, and Nick goes berserk, it’s wonderful, and it flows into Sleep Together really well, which is still the most incredible set closer. The distortion on his vocals during the chorus made it even better, and the keyboard crescendo/climax in this song is one of the single greatest moments in Porcupine Tree’s discography to me. I was very anxious during the encore break though – they had less than 15 minutes to play until curfew, and I realized they hadn’t played Detonation, and skipped Song of Unborn as well, which I’d been desperate to hear, and is usually played during the second set. The whole band came back out for the encore, so I knew they’d cut the acoustic songs, which was a real bummer. I would’ve loved to hear Blackfield and Postcard, and had been looking forward to those ever since seeing the first summer show setlists – which were also open air shows! Fuck curfews and the German’s punctuality. He introduced Sound of Muzak, which was one of my first favorite PT songs and is very special to me, by saying “if you know this, you can sing along, it’s very influenced by Saga”, which got a big laugh from the audience. He let us sing the first part of the final chorus on our own, which was a truly beautiful moment, and he played the guitar solo while nonchalantly walking the length of the stage, my jaw dropped.

A crew member immediately brought a stool back out, so I assumed that the last song would be The Raven That Refused to Sing, but he went on to say that “one of the great things about being fantastically unsuccessful is that I don’t have a hit single that I have to play. I don’t have a Purple Rain. I don’t have an Everybody Wants to Rule the World. I don’t have a Comfortably Numb. And you know what? I’m happy about that. Because it means I can play what the fuck I want to play. So we’re gonna do a song for you now which is not a hit, it’s off the new record, and we’re gonna leave you with this thought now…“, and they played Song of Unborn! It was only tainted by the fact that the drunk middle-aged dude next to me loudly said “oh he’s playing a shitty lullaby, unbelievable”, and then went on to yell “GOOD NIGHT“, which Steven definitely heard, since he glanced our way. I just hope he interpreted it as a “goodbye” sort of comment and not the obnoxiously rude one it actually was. What a fucking prick (he staggered up the stairs in front of me after the show and said to his wife that Steven’s eyes were so small, he must’ve been coked out of his mind. Are you fucking serious?).

I don’t want to dwell on that shithead though, because everything about this final performance of the night was just stunning. Jess Cope’s animation for it was incredible, and unlike anything I’ve seen from her before – it’s absolutely dreamy and not at all what I imagined, but it goes with the song really well, and has everything from space to clouds and ocean imagery with stingrays and jellyfish. I honestly can’t put into words what a gorgeous send-off this was – I cried during Raven at my first show, but Song of Unborn is so hopeful instead, it made for a better closer in my eyes – it made my heart so full.

I honestly thought I might burst from happiness at the end of this show. I felt so elated – despite the cuts due to the curfew, I think I might’ve liked this one better than my previous gig, there was just something about the atmosphere, I don’t know if it was the band, the crowd, the venue, my mood, or a combination of all these things, but it was an absolute dream. I half-jokingly suggested driving to Munich for the next show, and A. actually seriously considered if we could make the drive – I can’t believe I had to be the responsible adult who talked him out of it!

P.S. Steven posted some thoughts and a bunch of pictures on his website.

Setlist » F i r s t P a r t «

Nowhere Now

Pariah

Home Invasion

Regret #9

The Creator Has A Mastertape (Porcupine Tree)

Refuge

People Who Eat Darkness

Ancestral » S e c o n d P a r t «

Don’t Hate Me (Porcupine Tree)

Permanating

Song of I

Lazarus (Porcupine Tree)

The Same Asylum As Before

Vermillioncore

Sleep Together (Porcupine Tree) » E n c o r e «

The Sound of Muzak (Porcupine Tree)

Song of Unborn