Date of Performance: November 29, 2004
Venue: Spirit of '66, Verviers, BE
Blackfield In Motion
Although not heavily promoted 
Blackfield nevertheless pulled a respectable crowd for what became the band's very first European tour. Of course a lot of Porcupine Tree fans were present because Blackfield, in a way, is the continuation of PT, where they left off after their Lightbulb Sun album. By putting none other than Richard Barbieri as support slot, of course many PT fans were present. Ever since his days with Japan, Barbieri has always been on the lookout for interesting new sounds. A collection of those were programmed in his array of keyboards, and together with sequencers and loops, he performed some material from his latest album Things Buried. This kind of alternative dance music didn't immediately go down a storm but people nevertheless could appreciate Richard's mixture of Can and Ashra Tempel influences.
Then it was time for Blackfield and with only over 37 minutes worth of material on their debut album, we were all curious as to what to expect. The largest chunk was reserved for Steve Wilson, with Aviv Geffen being rather nervous. Luckily his contributions in both "Pain" and "The Hole In Me" can be rated as the absolute best. Although the band existed of five people (Steve Wilson on guitar and vocals; Aviv Geffen on guitar and vocals; Seffy Efrati on bass, Tomer Zidkhahu on drums and Daniel Salomon on keyboards and vocals), it was a bit of a letdown to see that large parts of the arrangements were programmed. In fact, the keyboard player almost restricted himself to piano with all of the other sounds being stored on his computer. Surely with a five piece these arrangements should have been executed more for the live format.
As could be expected, all of the band's debut album was played, augmented with "Where Is My Love," "Feel So Low," and the Porcupine Tree classic "Waiting." Whilst people were asking to hear some new recordings, the band offered us both "Pain" and "The Hole In Me" as encores. Maybe it's a little early for Blackfield to be accepted the same way Porcupine Tree is. Maybe the band has to concentrate on a couple of great new studio albums first, after which a Blackfield concert will truly be a feast. As long as they forget about the programming and concentrate on playing every single note live that is!
Links: Porcupine Tree, Can, Ashra Tempel
photos: © John "Bobo" Bollenberg
