Vivek’s Blog

So I’ve been looking to buy a new cell phone to replace my aging Nokia 6230. Since the past one year.

Surely that’s too much time to be doing research Vivek? Phones come and go and like any other shiny gadget (or bus or train or girl), there’s always a new one around the corner. But as they say, too much research never killed anyone. Except perhaps Marie Curie and her husband.

Well so anyway, I am a year into my “research” and I am no closer to actually buying a phone than I was a year ago. The number of phones I’ve looked at will drive any sane person, well, insane. A question that might pop into your brains, dear readers, is why haven’t I bought a phone yet? The answer is not brief, but convoluted, and one that needs to be given. Let me warn you, this is long. And painful. Proceed only if you really want to.

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I don’t really know how to start so I’ll dive right in to the concert review. After a little background!

Porcupine Tree were last here in May and I was fortunate enough to catch them back then. Fear of a Blank Planet had just been released and the band all of it. Non-stop. Now, five months down the line, the band have released a new EP titled Nil Recurring and are back on tour. The setlist for this tour has been changed somewhat to accommodate the new material and also sees the return of some old fan favorites. The setlist for my show is featured at the end of post, annotated to indicate album!

So for a change, the show kicked off with What Happens Now? from the new EP. The mood was set and PT were on their way. Boy, did they rock the house! Steven Wilson was in a good mood throughout the concert and the crowd was fantastic. Hearing Dark Matter live was exhilarating! Anesthetize followed a new song, Cheating the Polygraph and some brief chatter from SW. He said, “Some of these new songs are hard to play you know! But this next one’s easy. It’s only 17 minutes long!” That cracked me up.

Towards the end of the main set, SW said, “We’re now going to play the last two songs” to which the crowd responded with a resounding “NOOOOOO.” With a grin on his face, SW shot back, “What do mean NO? We’re going to play the last two songs off the new record, not the last two for the night!” That was a signal for them to indeed play the last two tracks off FoaBP, Way Out of Here and Sleep Together. Both kicked some major ass and Sleep Together was great as a set closer. But I kept waiting and waiting and Blackest Eyes never came.

When the guys came back for an encore, SW said they would have to learn new songs when they return the next time. And then they kicked off the encore with Blackest Eyes. HELL YEAH!!! PT followed up my favorite with Even Less and Halo! What an encore! Sure, they didn’t play Trains, but I got to hear that last time around. This time, I got three tracks off the new EP, The Sound of Muzak, Even Less, Dark Matter, and A Smart Kid!!!

To sum it up, another great show by one of my favorite bands. The sound was probably better at the show in May but this one wasn’t too far behind in terms of quality and sheer energy. I hope they return soon with new songs and maybe play a larger venue! SW said, “We come here every six months but you guys still show up.” We will continue to show up to hear you guys play live!

Oh yeah, the opening band was Head>>Fake Sound System, a side project by Doug Wimbish and Will Calhoun of Living Color. Nothing special but Doug Wimbish was doing some real crazy shit with his bass. It was just the two of them, one on bass, one on drums, with a laptop providing some extra tunes to help them out. They didn’t play for long and PT came on right around 9pm. They finished a few minutes before 11. Tight performance.

SETLIST:

What Happens Now? Nil Recurring EP
Fear of a Blank Planet Fear of a Blank Planet
The Sound of Muzak In Absentia
Lazarus Deadwing
Cheating the Polygraph Nil Recurring EP
Anesthetize Fear of a Blank Planet
Open Car Deadwing
Dark Matter Signify
Nil Recurring Nil Recurring EP
A Smart Kid Stupid Dream
Way Out of Here Fear of a Blank Planet
Sleep Together Fear of a Blank Planet

Encore:

Blackest Eyes In Absentia
Even Less Stupid Dream
Halo Deadwing

I know what you’re thinking: how on earth does this guy get any time to post blog entries? Isn’t he studying engineering? Isn’t that a lot of work?

Sure, it’s fracking hard and it’s also a lot of fracking work. After a month at Columbia, things are the same: do homework, submit it, start again. The cycle of work continues endlessly. I had an exam and I got an 82 on it. That’s 2 points below the mean and two students actually got in the 90s. Better luck next time? You better hope so guy.

Now, coming to the baffling and utterly mysterious title of this post. Why the frack should you care about using a 24-hour format alarm clock? I’ll tell you why. Like right now. It’s coming up. Here it is. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya.

I had to wake up at 6:15am to get ready and board a bus to Philadelphia at 7:45am. It was for an international students’ trip to the wonderful city. Supposed to be a lot of fun. Well you know what, I set my 12-hour format alarm clock to 6:15pm because I didn’t notice the little PM next to the time. If I had switched the format on it to 24-hours, my alarm would have had to be for 0615 hours rather than 6:15am. The only way to screw up is if you can’t tell the difference between 0615 and 1815. Thankfully, I can tell the difference.

I was really annoyed for not checking the time and for not setting a secondary, back-up alarm. I always set two when I really need to wake up on time but this time I didn’t. My cellphone is on a 24-hour clock and so I wouldn’t have screwed up. Well, I missed the bus and there’s nothing I can do about it. I had even taken care of 75% of my homework by Friday evening so that a day of frolicking wouldn’t affect anything. ‘Twas in vain. DAMN IT!!!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get to a corner of my room and weep.