Well, well, well, what can a lad say about this show? I'd let the smilies do the talking, but that's too easy.
Porcupine Tree is now the band by which I will judge all other bands by when it comes to live performances. They were absolutely flawless, I couldn't believe what I was hearing, and Steve Wilson's vocals, fuckin' a, they were spot on, the man hit every note. Trains was my easily my favorite followed by Hatesong and Strip The Soul, those Brits can flat out fucking play, I can't say it enough, see them if you can or die a horrible death.
As for Opeth, I have no complaints at all, after seeing Porcupine Tree give the best performance I've ever seen I knew it would be hard for me to be impressed, but fuck, it's Opeth, I'm not sure about them being off at other shows, but other than Peter hitting the wrong pedal at one point during In My Time of Need and Mikael struggling with a note here and there, they were flawless. The stand out moment of the night for me was the six or so minute extension of Closure, Mikael was so into it and the crowd responded, that will go down as one of my greatest moments at any concert. The reason I was there above all others though was of course, To Bid You Farewell, which to keep a long story short blew me away, and I was very near to tears. I was so into it they probably could have started playing some other song and I wouldn't have noticed.
Face of Melinda was a great selection to close out the show, Mendez went fucking nuts, you could tell he had been saving up his head banging all night.
A fine show indeed, fine, fine, fine, if you have an opportunity to see this show, suffice to say, GO!
