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Porcupine Tree - Arriving Somewhere... CD (album) cover

ARRIVING SOMEWHERE...

Porcupine Tree

 

Heavy Prog

4.57 | 579 ratings

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AtomicCrimsonRush
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
4 stars Porcupine Tree's first DVD is a real favourite of mine with some of their finest material. The setlist is compelling but could have been improved with more heavier selections from "Deadwing" such as 'Shallow', but this is still a terrific concert document. The lighting is effective though nothing like Pink Floyd; the band tend to allow the music alone to take centre stage though they like to screen some scenes from their clips and some psychedelic lighting. Steve Wilson is the centre of attention and is excellent on both vocals and on his PRS Custom 22 guitar, though all the band members shine in their own way.

The band rarely smile and look very serious as they crank out one track after another. The crowd are simply hypnotised by the music. The best songs are certainly 'Slow Car', 'Blackest Eyes'. 'Lazarus', 'Hatesong', 'Don't Hate Me', 'Arriving Somewhere but Not Here', 'Start of Something Beautiful' and 'Halo'. There are a few B sides that could have been omitted in favour of some better material. I have to mention 'Trains' as a showstopper too with the acoustics and crowd pleasing riffs. The rarely heard 'Buying New Soul', unreleased in the studio, is a good addition and I liked some of this material better than the studio tracks such as 'Mother and Child Divided' and 'Sound of Muzak'.

The editing of the footage is high quality and there are no cheesy effects to spoil the band performance. The sound is of the highest quality and the picture has excellent resolution, though is edited a bit fast at times flashing from one band member to the next that can be a bit tiring on the eyes.

The menus and part of the concert have grainy sepia toned footage that give it a dark edge as if this is a horror movie. It is effective but I felt unnecessary as the music is more beautiful than horror based. The bonus DVD is an excellent addition with great performances of 'Futile' and 'Radioactive Toy' from the Rockpalast sessions. I also enjoyed the concert screen films for 'The Start of Something Beautiful', 'Halo', and 'Mother and Child Divided' that are difficult to see in the actual concert. The promo for 'Lazarus' was a pleasant surprise with wonderful direction by Lasse Hoile, as were all the screen films incidentally, though they are rather bleak and contain horrific nightmarish imagery that are not my taste. Wilson would return to Hoile of course for his solo material, especially "Grace For Drowning", continuing this dark Gothic imagery.

An added special feature is available of Gavin Harrison's 'Cymbal Song', which is basically his cymbal solo montaged with split screens to show how he played each cymbal to form a sound wall of cymbals clanging. The slide show of photos is very good and can be viewed as a package rather than the need to scroll through them. Overall the DVD has enough to satisfy any Porcupine Tree fan and is well worth checking out, along with the band's more recent DVD "Anesthetize".

AtomicCrimsonRush | 4/5 |

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