Went to my first
Porcupine Tree concert last Tuesday.
My daughter, her boyfriend and I went early to be first in line (general admission) and as we were walking to the building, Richard Barbieri (keyboards) was walking toward us and stopped, pointed to my daughter and said, "Hey, I recognize you". She's never been to a Porcupine Tree concert, but does have a website for Richard's former band "Japan". She was star-struck and slack jawed. When she finally snapped out of it we chatted with Richard and he posed for photo with my daughter. He was very surprised that we had arrived so early for the show since it was only 3:30 pm and the doors didn't open till 7.
As we were hanging around the door watching the crew setup, Richard strolled by again and talked for another few minutes. As it turned out, the show was low attendance (Nashville) and we were "first in line" for about 2.5 hours before anyone else even came. It was a stellar show. The guy next to me was the die-hard head bangin' type and it made the show even more fun. We were right up front and just to the left of center. Not the best place to be for audio, but it's great to see the band. Awesome show. They played all the songs that I hoped they would and are excellent live. After the show, we waited around with a bunch of other people for autographs and Richard again came over and talked to us for what felt like long time.
I have a general rule to not meet the people I admire. Not because I expect them to live up to their personas or I've got them on a lofty pedestal, but simply because I don't have anything to say that they haven't heard many times before and I don't want to be subject to their glassy stare and photo smile. But that wasn't Richard Barbieri, I found him to be a genuinely nice person who was generous with his time, open, friendly and real.
It was a pleasure to meet him.