Steven Wilson’s particular brand of moody progressive rock can be challenging. Not challenging in the way of, say, Animals As Leaders, where you need to put in a good dozen listens before you can wrap your head around rapid jumps in tempo and time signature. Nope, Wilson’s music is challenging on an emotional level: you kind of need to factor in a good hour or so after listening to an album just so you can be alone with your thoughts and take it all in, after being transported to the often dark, sparse, emotionally raw yet sophisticated world in which he populates his characters. To capture this in a live environment Wilson ties the music together with intricately timed visuals and a quadraphonic sound system, and he also surrounds himself with some of the best musicians on the planet, such as guitarist Guthrie Govan (The Aristocrats) and drummer Chad Wackerman (Frank Zappa), the latter filling in for Marco Minnemann who is currently on the road in the States with Joe Satriani.
Wilson’s solo performances lean almost exclusively on material from his three solo albums, Insurgentes, Grace For Drowning and The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories), with only a little time devoted to his most famous musical framework, Porcupine Tree. And while PT often employs heavy metal as a texture, Wilson’s solo material goes to complex instrumental orchestration and pure emotion for drama. It’s a big ask to get an audience to go along with you for two and a half hours of pretty dark, bittersweet material, and honestly, the set could have benefited from a moment of relief in the form of something a bit more upbeat, but that wouldn’t really be in keeping with the mood narrative that drives the set through to the perfect conclusion of the title track from Raven.
With Wilson switching instruments throughout the performance (and often just singing), the brunt of the guitar work is borne by Govan, a supremely inspired guitarist who drifts through complex jazz fusion lines as easily as he dwells on ponderous Radiohead-ish melodies. Bass player Nick Beggs provides a solid foundation on which the rest of the band can build, with Govan, keyboard player Adam Holzman and flute/sax/clarinettist Theo Travis each having their way with the material. But really, despite the generous room for improvisation, it’s Wilson’s show, and definitely one that carries forward the atmosphere and creativity of his recordings into the real world.
BY PETER HODGSON
LOVED: Drive Home
HATED: Drunken jerks towards the end
DRANK: Asahi
