Like any good love story, this one has the kind of beginning that seems poetic in retrospect. I was standing in line outside the Congress Theater in Chicago one cool March afternoon in 2006, waiting to get in to see my favorite band, Dream Theater. It was a long wait, and I did a whole lot of people watching. One guy, in particular, caught my eye. He had a concert t-shirt from a band called "Porcupine Tree", and I wracked my brain trying to remember where I'd seen it. The next day, I realized where - the liner notes to Dream Theater's Metropolis Live CD. Porcupine Tree had opened for Dream Theater on some of their dates (along with another band I had discovered earlier that winter, Ozric Tentacles).
I ended up at a music store and bought the latest release from Porcupine Tree, entitled Deadwing. I cruised through the liner notes, discovering the album was the result of a failed screenplay the band's leader, Steven Wilson, had written. As I sat and listened, I realized I had discovered something new and different.
In the years since then, I have managed to purchase quite a lot of Porcupine Tree's back catalog as well as keep up with their latest releases. In September of last year, I had the chance to see them live at the Vic Theater in Chicago. Without a doubt it was the best musical experience I have had in a long while.
Wilson is the principle song writer, the arranger, lead singer, producer, and probably leads the mixing team. The band is his baby. Yet, the musicians - keyboardist Richard Barbieri, bassist Colin Edwin, and drummer Gavin Harrison - all contribute their individual styles, as well as combine to form a sound that is as unique as it is powerful. Wilson may be a musical auteur, but even a casual listen to his other projects makes one realize that Porcupine Tree is the product of the four members working together to realize Wilson's vision.
The best thing I can say is there is no "Porcupine Tree Sound". Even a casual perusal of their various releases over nearly two decades and one comes to discover the music ranges from electronica to Pink Floyd-style psychedelia to heavy metal to simple contemporary prog (although I doubt the band would accept such a simplistic label). Just considering their most recent releases, starting with Deadwing, then moving through Fear of a Blank Planet to The Incident (as well as the EP Nil Recurring, which recapitulates lyric themes from Fear) the sheer range of music is breathtaking. Unlike Dream Theater, which has settled for a particular sound that is instantly recognizable, or other "new" progressive bands, Porcupine Tree exemplifies that most hard-sought virtue - the pursuit of mew sounds each and every time they set down a piece of music.
Lyrically, the band follows in a long line of British bands whose outlook is, to put it mildly, gloomy at best. Songs such as "Blackest Eyes" - the tale told from the perspective of a murderous psychopath - and "Heart Attack in a Lay-By" could be considered cheery next to, say, "Don't Hate Me", the thoughts of someone who seems to be the last survivor of some horrid holocaust-like event, or "Let's Sleep Together", a plea for a suicide pact.
For all that, the band has become far and away my current favorite of any number of groups out there. While I wonder how they will survive their current tour - they have been on tour for The Incident for well over a year, twice through the US alone - my hope is they continue to work together producing their astounding sound.
This is "Time Flies" from The Incident.
