A Welcome Incident
When Porcupine Tree first played Download a couple of years ago they were still a bit of an unknown quantity to a lot of the metal fraternity but they turned in a great set and made a lot of friends that day. Since then their star has continued to rise and we’ve seen them move from Academy 3 venues to near sell out shows in main Academy size venues. Today they get a good slot on the 2nd stage and despite the fact that it started raining during the preceding set they get a good turn out.
Frontman Steve Wilson amusingly quips "well the weather turned to shit but we’re here to cheer you up with our wrist slashingly cheery music", which of course, it isn’t. What it is though is damn good and the sound is brilliant on this stage today and I don’t think I’ve ever heard them sound quite so powerful. They play a series of sections from last years ‘The Incident’ album broken up by a great version of ‘Anaesthetise’ from ‘Fear of a Blank Planet’.
They only get a forty minute set today so they don’t get much time to squeeze many songs in but they use their time well. Just as last time here they pick songs that have some of their heavier moments it’s no surprise when they launch into set closer ‘Blackest Eyes’, which at the time of it’s release back in 2002 was easily their hardest moment to date. It still stands up alongside the newer material and despite the weather they go down very well with an increasingly wet crowd. Porcupine Tree have come such a long way since their inception and after today’s showing nobody is likely to question their place on the bill here in the future.