ATLANTA

Yes, It is essential to all that love great music and charity. All of the proceeds of this wonderful US performance will go to helping Mick Karn (Japan, no-man) pay for his cancer treatment, That a band like PT decided to do this, with music that was already mixed and ready for an actual CD release, is truly astonishing in this world. All we ever hear about are the self-centered musical dimwits trying to climb to the top over everyone they can. True artists and humanitarians like PT should be applauded for this!

Now to the music: Brilliant! Another phenomenal performance, this time from the states. This is a wonderful companion piece to Anesthetize DVD/Bluray with a varied set list in comparison. Yes, you still get all of the FOABP tracks, but there are plenty of other gems in here, including Smart Kid, Dark Matter, Even Less, and a beautiful re-working of Half-Light (miles ahead of the DW bonus version). All expertly played by a band at the top of their game. You get it all for $10us and can download it from the PT store at their website. It also comes with printable artwork. A brgain that will make your ears and heart sing with joy.

This is my first review, so I'm not exactly sure how to start this but here we go.

This live album is interesting because of its release time. This was released shortly after a DVD made on the same tour, so this naturally has a very similar set. But there are a few songs that make it worth it for us hardcore PT fans.

Now, if you have ever heard PT live or heard one of the live albums/DVD's you should know that they do not mess around. The sound quality of the recordings are amazing, it sounds very clear and beautiful, it sounds like you are there. The quality of songs (how they played, wasn't sure how to exactly phrase that) is, as always, amazing. They play everything just like the albums (unless of course they mean to improvise or shorten) so there should be no worry of "well I don't know how it will sound". It sounds better than any live album any band has released.

Ok, if you have the Anesthetize Red/Gray cover with the 2 CD's, then Atlanta isn't really that big of deal, its mostly the same set. The few songs that I feel make it worth it are "Even Less" (because I love that song) and most importantly, this album contains the first officially released live version of "A Smart Kid". This song is somewhat old, and its surprising that it took this long to release a live version, but it was very worth it. This is a beautiful track and the live version has all of the atmosphere you could want. This song made the entire CD worth it for me (for the record, Atlanta is only available as a download from the PT website, so there are no CD copies of it) and it should be worth it to any hardcore fan.

Another very interesting part of the set is the inclusion of older/unreleased/promo/unknown songs, such as "Dark Matter", "Drown With Me", and "Half-Light". Those are also songs that make this worth it, despite them being on Anesthetize.

The only reason I give it 4/5 stars is because the set is, in my opinion, not as good as the Anesthetize DVD/CD. It is a beautiful addition to the PT live catalog otherwise. This is also a perfect buy if you are only getting the standard Anesthetize DVD, and you want an audio only version of a show from this tour.

Flawless live performance by the good guys of Porcupine Tree from the Fear of a Blank Planet tour; features the usual top notch mixing and mastering job of Porcupine Tree's albums.

Highlights: Sound of Muzak, Anesthetize, A Smart Kid, Way Out of Here, Even Less, Halo

One thing that makes me prefer studio albums to live performances is the fact that it's not hard to get sick of live albums. Fortunately, this is not the case with PT. The interaction between those amazing musicians here (and especially the slamming rhythm section) is so fun to hear.

PS: Major props to the band for helping out the late Mick Karn with this one. b

4.5 stars. Well I am a huge PORCUPINE TREE fan and have seen them in concert a few times including the North American tour that this show in Atlanta was taken from. Funny but when I got "Fear Of A Blank Planet" I really felt it was a step down from "Deadwing" and "In Absentia" the two that came before it. Even if Fripp and Lifeson guest on here I had a hard time getting into it. Then I saw the concert. Something just clicked seeing and hearing this live. Each song became more meaningful in part from the videos they were showing but the band was so passionate and Gavin Harrison was just a beast. Next time I spun it it was like it went from black and white to colour. Weird but true.

Man this live record along with "Arriving Somewhere..." and "Coma Divine" create a killer trilogy of live music touching on my some of my favourite periods of this band. Disc one is all about "Fear Of A Blank Planet" and man it gets my juices flowing. It doesn't hurt having "Sound Of Muzak" an all time fav on there either. Disc two is surprising for having older cuts like "Dark Matter" and "A Smart Kid" on it. Man the latter track has been such a long time favourite that I felt emotion hearing and seeing this live. "Way Out Of Here" just smokes and then there's the sentimental favourite "Even Less". Bumping this one up to five stars. For the memories!

Recorded on the Fear of a Blank Planet tour, this show from (as the title implies) Atlanta was one of several considered for a live release, before the band eventually settled on the show from Holland to form the basis of the Anesthetize live album and blu-ray.

Eventually, Atlanta would see release on a download basis (initially to raise some money to help Japan bassist Mick Karn's family during his final illness), and whilst its set list has much in common with Anesthetize, the atmosphere here is so absolutely electric that many Porcupine Tree fanatics will want to have both shows to hand, and the slightly shorter track list makes the thing more digestible to boot.

This is absolutely the sort of thing you could put on to instantly hook a curious listener on the late 2000s sound of Porcupine Tree, with an excellent group of songs drawing heavily on In Absentia, Deadwing, and Fear of a Blank Planet, with a pinch from Nil Recurring and some archival dives into Stupid Dream and Signify to round out the running time.

By this point, Porcupine Tree had honed their sound wonderfully, intensive gigging having refined the Blank Planet material to perfection. Whilst prior phases of the band could be pigeonholed as space rock or indie-prog, here the group were in a sonic realm all of their own, following no bandwagon or genre and guided only by their own inspiration. The result is marvellous.