Porcupine Tree

I drove to Wettingen. I was a tad late, so I got to park in the unlit part of the gravel pit far in the back. I arrived at the venue, got my pass, and was informed that we'd get to shoot the first 12 minutes (since the first song was so long), and by the way, it would be pretty dark in there.



Well by then I'd gotten used to finding my way in the dark, and what can go wrong - I have a Nikon D3. The back of my head reminded me that I also have a Canon 20D, and later the night I noticed that its out-of-focus was really too challenged by the not-light on stage.



I caught the last bit of the set of openers Stickmen, who were playing electric Sitars. Now *that's* something different! A bit esoteric sound-wise, but yeah, for an opener quite cool.

Drum setup for a live band of progressive band Porcupine Tree

Changeover. The carpet covering the stage got a through vacuuming. Then a voice from the off informed us that we shouldn't record the show with anything, including cellphones, as this was destracting the band and other spectators. And if we saw anyone committing such a horrible crime doing so, they would ask us to kindly tell that person to stop. Welcome to the age of Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, and mobile phones with cameras. The band didn't ask us to please not applaud between movements though :-P

Guitar waiting for Porcupine Tree's concert to begin

Then the first song started playing - no band on stage. I waited, since the lights were still more an emergency lighting than "stage lights", and I expected them to take the stage with a "boom". After a while, I got bored and started to shoot "still life" pictures of the various instruments that were sitting on the stage, as obviously this intro/song/... was counting to the 12 minutes we were allowed to shoot.



When the band finally took the stage, the "lights" didn't change at all. Maybe they had forgotten to bring spotlights? Or maybe there was a power shortage in Wettingen, leaving the promoter unable to properly light the parking lot and the stage? Oh the benefit of the doubt.

Porcupine Tree performing live in Wettingen, Switzerland

I would have liked to take some great shots of the band once they were on stage, but not only was there no light, they also kinda didn't do anything - well ok, they seemed to be playing their instruments and singing, but that was about it. At least it now became clear why they had covered their stage with carpet: Singer Steve Wilson was barefoot. Once I noticed that I started to wonder whether Porcupine Tree wouldn't be better off seeking spiritual enlightenment in the quietness of an Ashram rather than at a rock show.

Closer look onto Porcupine Tree's stage during their concert

Well, "rock show", that is. As I said, there wasn't much of a "show", and the first bit we got to cover wasn't very "rock". More towards the sitars. Maybe I'm not enlightened enough, but I was very disappointed by this concert - I love their music and certainly would have expected more :-/