Porcupine Tree – Octane Twisted

“This tour has not been as much fun as it used to. If we sound tired on stage it’s because we are. With “The Incident”, it feels for the first time like, artistically, we are treading water, frustrated with not being able to come up with enough good songs, in desperation I had instead linked several half-songs together into a 35 minute suite in the hope that doing so would give it some compositional weight. That way everyone might overlook the fact that the material wasn’t as strong as it has been”

These are Steven Wilson's own words on Porcupine Tree’s “The Incident” and the following world tour to be found in his autobiography.

I for one found “The Incident” to be a little disappointing, blaming that on the comparison with the stellar “Fear Of A Blank Planet”. “The Incident” is not a bad album by any means, but it was obvious that it can be considered a lesser work compared with other albums Porcupine Tree had released.

So, its live counterpart “Octane Twisted” is not usually counted among PT’s best live albums, as “Arriving Somewhere…” or “Anesthetize” are.
Yet there are brilliant moments in it, like PT’s staples such as “Hatesong”, “Stars Die”, “Even Less” and my favourite “Arriving Somewhere But Not Here”, but PT being the otherworldly musicians they are, even their average moments are outstanding and the main corpus of the recording- the integral performance of “The Incident”- has also plenty of great moments. “Occam’s Razor” and “The Blind House” give the opening blast setting the mood that will be kept up by “Drawing The Line” (Wilson’s most annoying chorus?), while “Kneel And Disconnect” or “The Séance” brings the more intimate and atmospheric side. The pop is represented by “I Drive The Hearse” and the title section brings the electronic PT to the main stage once again. And while “Time Flies” is far from being Wilson’s finest long song, it’s equally true that it has an interesting development and I think it's a solid central piece.

If not essential, “Octane Twisted” testimonies the end of an era for PT, showing how even when not at their peak, these extraordinary musicians could pull off a worthy show