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Porcupine Tree and Opeth
The Cleveland Agora
07-24-03
Opeth have been moving in more of a progressive rock direction for some
time now, and with their most recent release 'Damnation' they've pretty much
left all traces of heavy metal behind (at least for now). So it was
the perfect opportunity for the band to hit the road with Porcupine Tree,
the British psychedelic band that includes Opeth's producer Stephen Wilson.
Opeth played mostly songs from 'Damnation' like "Death Whispered a Lullaby"
with a few mellow oldies like "To Bid you Farewell" and a cover of Deep
Purple's "Soldier of Fortune" thrown in for good measure. While I
admire the guts it took for the band to potentially alienate a large portion
of their audience, I have to say an hour and a half of laid back tunes gets
a little boring. A couple heavier numbers thrown in the mix would have
made for a more interesting and dynamic set, and considering that
co-headliners Porcupine Tree have been moving in a heavier direction
themselves recently it wouldn't have been all that out of place.
Porcupine Tree delivered a similar set to the one they played last time.
Once again the band opened with "Blackest Eyes" and drew mostly from their
recent 'In Absentia' album. However, the band did make a couple of
concessions to long time fans by playing "Waiting" and "Moon Touches Your
Shoulder". They also debuted a new song called "Futile" which
continues taking the band in the heavier direction they've been exploring of
late. Although the band were in the big room this time around, their
stage show was actually stripped down somewhat from their previous stop back
in November of 2002. The video screen was still there, but the over
the top light show got left at home. It wasn't necessarily a bad move,
since it focuses attention more on the songs. The band played a
flawless set that pleased both their own core of fans and won over a few new
ones from Opeth's crowd as well. I was a bit disappointed that they
didn't play "Fadeaway", an older song that's shown up in their set in a few
other cities on this tour, but this was still a great show.
Unfortunately my pictures from
this show turned out really bad. I saw a number of amateur shutterbugs
in the audience, though, so if anyone wants to email me a few of their shots
it would be much appreciated.
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