Porcupine Tree - A Smart Kid (with Mikael Åkerfeldt). Live in Seattle, August 3rd 2003.

On August 3rd, 2003, Porcupine Tree was joined by Mikael Åkerfeldt (of Opeth) to perform “A Smart Kid.“ This was a one-off performance on the last night of their North America tour that year. To my knowledge, Mikael has never taken the stage with PT before or since. “A Smart Kid“ is reportedly one of Mikael’s favourite songs by one of his favourite bands - so getting the opportunity to join them for a live performance must have felt incredible. I encourage you to listen closely to this recording. Listen to Mikael’s confidence. Listen to how nervous he was when he sang those first notes - and how he builds his connection with both the crowd and the band over just a few minutes. The power and the passion you can feel at the end of the track emits a totally different feel vs. its start. Regarding the recording itself: I unfortunately don’t have lineage info, but the source was a great foundation from which to work. Using this, I’ve remixed (via stem splitting) and remastered with a focus on bass levels, vocal level / position, general EQ, and background noise frequency. By exception, I also added some of Steven Wilson’s vocals from the studio version of this track. This is not something I would usually do - my strong personal preference when curating this stuff is to refer to a single source of material. But it felt right this time. Enjoy. And buy both bands’ official merch here: Porcupine Tree: Opeth: Mikael Åkerfeldt - vocals Steven Wilson - guitar ( added vocals) Richard Barbieri - keys Colin Edwin - bass Gavin Harrison - drums