fanboydom

Yesterday was wonderful.

Andrew and I drove down to Chicago to see our favorite band, Porcupine Tree. On this tour they have been selling out all of their venue’s so far, and this one was no different, so it was a far different show from 2+ years ago when I saw them in a half empty(or full) small theater in Detroit. It’s odd to go to a concert where half of the people in the audience are around my Dad’s age, and there also seemed to be an unusually high number of very tall people…this bothered Andrew more than me.

Porcupine Tree opened by playing the 55-minute song cycle off the first disc of their new album in one straight shot. It was unbelievably well performed and beautiful. In a word: epic.

The second half of their show consisted of older hits (Trains), obscure tracks (Russia On Ice), and a phenomenal shortened version of their 17-minute track from their last album (Anesthetize), and plenty of other goodies. The second half was a lot more fun simply because all of the songs were fully beautiful and great by themselves, unlike the the first set which was essentially one song (albeit a mind-blowingly good one).

We also got to see them perform possibly my favorite track off disc 2 of their new album, ‘Remember Me Lover’, for the very first time. It was incredible!

…goodness, I am such a fanboy…

Despite all of this, possibly the coolest part of the show was Steven Wilson’s new guitar (look at it!) that he played on Russia On Ice. It had this cool brushed aluminum tele body with a 3+3 headstock (so I have no clue who made it) and a huge screen in the middle of the body. It was this super bright screen with constantly changing patterns and colors. If the bassists beret caught on fire during that song not a soul would have noticed because every single eye was on that guitar during the entire song.

OK, I think I’ve made my point by now. That concert was amazing.

Sadly I have yet to find any good photos of the show (using a camera is a no-no at their shows), but I’m hoping a few good ones will turn up on Flickr sometime soon!

Great Expectations

In 2 days:

I will be in Chicago, watching my absolute favorite band.

In 3 days:

I will be cramming for exams.

In 4 days:

I will still be cramming for exams.

In 6 days:

I will be be back home in Grand Rapids!

It simply does not get better than this

…and if you don’t believe me, join me in Chicago a week from today.

Sep 22. I shall count the hour….

I am currently very excited about two things:

1. Ultimate Club

Last week some gentlemen at my school finally threw together an Ultimate frisbee club for A-section. I played last week and had a great time, there’s quite a few solid players here. We even play twice a week, which is fantastic! (although it happens to always be right before my soccer games)

2. Porcupine Tree

I spent most of last week giggling and clapping my hands like a schoolgirl while listening to the preview for Porcupine Tree’s newest album. Today I stepped up my fanboy-age even further. I bought a pair of tickets for Andrew (one of my roomates) and myself to go see them on September 22 in Chicago. Sure that’s the week of my exams, but for my favorite band….I’ll make it work. I cannot wait.

Please do give the album preview a listen, really good stuff y’all =D