March 15, 2007 Ramshead Tavern, Annapolis
Now this was more like it! Didn't have to travel very far for this show. The venue is about twenty minutes from our home. This show turned out to be more like a gathering of friends and musicians from MD, PA, DC and VA. Quite a few of the regulars were there. GK was there. Lucsam and Moonchild came down from NJ. I scored them stage-side seats at the table next to mine. Table?!? Yes, this was a seated event, kind of like a dinner theater. It was quite intimate. And, as far as fans go, everyone knew everyone. Or, if you didn't know them, then your friend did. Some of our friends outside of Porcupine Tree circles were there too. We know a lot of them from a monthly dance party in DC called Blowoff hosted by Bob Mould (ex-Husker Du and Sugar) and DJ Rich Morel. There was actually a whole table of these folks. I saw my friend Steve from Rockville who was also sitting at the Blowoff table by coincidence. Our other very good friend, Donn, was there with his brother Dave who has been a really big PT fan for a very long time. He has a PT collector's site called Pure Narcotic. I had never met him before, but it was fun to talk to him about his collecting hobby, or is that habit, that we both have in common. Jason decided to switch seats with Dave and give him the closer seat to the stage, so he sat with me at my table in front of SW.
The show started with an announcement from Adrian, the Blackfield tour manager, that there was to be no picture taking of any kind and no recording of the show tonight. Anyone caught doing so would be asked to leave immediately. Shortly after that, Jordan Rudess came out and thrilled us with another great set of classic prog pieces. He explained that he was also approaching these performances in a very improvised manner and that he was also preparing to record some of these pieces. He asked us to join in by singing and, in some places, we did and he would smile. The crackling sound that was noticeable in the Philadelphia show had been corrected and Jordan's set went very smoothly.
Next up was another no pictures reminder from Adrian and a few minutes later the lights dimmed and Blackfield came out to the stage. Tomer Z started things off again and the rest of the band came on one by one. SW wore a red T-shirt with Coca-Cola written in Hebrew on the front.
This was a very good show. The band sounded great and really tight. Seffy accidentally knocked over SW's back-up guitar while dancing around. Aviv made an announcement about when they came in and saw that the Ramshead was a table and chair venue, that they were not real happy about it since they are used to playing to standing audiences. He later remarked that he was happy to play for us during his first trip to Annapolis. SW's voice seemed so on key this night. Sometimes, he strains to hit the high notes, but he was very on for this show and there weren't any equipment problems like strings breaking. The set list was basically the same as in Philadelphia with the exception of no "Once" being played twice during the encore.
After the show, there was more good fan/friend interaction. Someone gave me a boot of the Blackfield Philly show from just two days previous. I saw Jane who I had met in Chicago at the PT DVD shoot. I talked to GK a little bit. Adrian was kind enough to give me Tomer Z's broken drum stick. I saw Seffy and he signed my American BFII CD. The word earlier in the night was that Aviv, after seeing the small seated Ramshead Tavern, did not want to play the gig. Supposedly, he had to be convinced by Steven Wilson that he should do it since a lot of people came along way to see the show. Porcupine Tree also has a show booked in May at the much larger Ramshead Live venue in Baltimore, so it was in everyone's best interest to play the show. In protest, I think, Aviv did the show but he did not wear his usual glitter eye make up.
We waited after the show until the crowd thinned out. We were hoping that SW and Aviv would come out of the dressing room and do a meet and greet. But, as the crowd went from 30 people to 20 people and then below, a Ramshead employee came back and said to the small group that was still waiting that he had never had anything like this happen at a show. He said that the band did not want to sign anything and that they were asking for an escort out to the bus. This didn't sound like the often very fan friendly SW that I knew. We decided to leave. It was raining pretty hard, and we had a long drive to NYC and an approaching winter storm to worry about for the next day. Later, we found out that SW did come out and sign a few things for people, but Aviv went right on to the bus.
SET LIST
Once
Miss U
Blackfield
Christenings
The Hole In Me
1000 People
Pain
Glow (Aviv Solo on Keyboard)
Thank You (Just SW and Aviv)
Epidemic
Someday
Open Mind
My Gift Of Silence
Where Is My Love
End Of The World
Encore
Hello
Cloudy Now
The show started with an announcement from Adrian, the Blackfield tour manager, that there was to be no picture taking of any kind and no recording of the show tonight. Anyone caught doing so would be asked to leave immediately. Shortly after that, Jordan Rudess came out and thrilled us with another great set of classic prog pieces. He explained that he was also approaching these performances in a very improvised manner and that he was also preparing to record some of these pieces. He asked us to join in by singing and, in some places, we did and he would smile. The crackling sound that was noticeable in the Philadelphia show had been corrected and Jordan's set went very smoothly.
Next up was another no pictures reminder from Adrian and a few minutes later the lights dimmed and Blackfield came out to the stage. Tomer Z started things off again and the rest of the band came on one by one. SW wore a red T-shirt with Coca-Cola written in Hebrew on the front.
This was a very good show. The band sounded great and really tight. Seffy accidentally knocked over SW's back-up guitar while dancing around. Aviv made an announcement about when they came in and saw that the Ramshead was a table and chair venue, that they were not real happy about it since they are used to playing to standing audiences. He later remarked that he was happy to play for us during his first trip to Annapolis. SW's voice seemed so on key this night. Sometimes, he strains to hit the high notes, but he was very on for this show and there weren't any equipment problems like strings breaking. The set list was basically the same as in Philadelphia with the exception of no "Once" being played twice during the encore.
After the show, there was more good fan/friend interaction. Someone gave me a boot of the Blackfield Philly show from just two days previous. I saw Jane who I had met in Chicago at the PT DVD shoot. I talked to GK a little bit. Adrian was kind enough to give me Tomer Z's broken drum stick. I saw Seffy and he signed my American BFII CD. The word earlier in the night was that Aviv, after seeing the small seated Ramshead Tavern, did not want to play the gig. Supposedly, he had to be convinced by Steven Wilson that he should do it since a lot of people came along way to see the show. Porcupine Tree also has a show booked in May at the much larger Ramshead Live venue in Baltimore, so it was in everyone's best interest to play the show. In protest, I think, Aviv did the show but he did not wear his usual glitter eye make up.
We waited after the show until the crowd thinned out. We were hoping that SW and Aviv would come out of the dressing room and do a meet and greet. But, as the crowd went from 30 people to 20 people and then below, a Ramshead employee came back and said to the small group that was still waiting that he had never had anything like this happen at a show. He said that the band did not want to sign anything and that they were asking for an escort out to the bus. This didn't sound like the often very fan friendly SW that I knew. We decided to leave. It was raining pretty hard, and we had a long drive to NYC and an approaching winter storm to worry about for the next day. Later, we found out that SW did come out and sign a few things for people, but Aviv went right on to the bus.
SET LIST
Once
Miss U
Blackfield
Christenings
The Hole In Me
1000 People
Pain
Glow (Aviv Solo on Keyboard)
Thank You (Just SW and Aviv)
Epidemic
Someday
Open Mind
My Gift Of Silence
Where Is My Love
End Of The World
Encore
Hello
Cloudy Now
posted by The Bald Monkey at
2:06 PM
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