Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Vienna / Ottakringer Brauerei / Austria
Concert date: 04.04.2015
Attendance: 800
Ticket price: €25.00
You couldn’t dream up a stranger, more awkward location than the Ottakringer Breaurerei brewery in Vienna for a show by Steven Wilson, the prog-rock innovator, multi-instrumentalist, singer and head honcho of cult band Porcupine Tree. Wilson, a sworn ascetic, probably never expected to find himself playing in the middle of an old section of the big Vienna brewery, converted especially for all sorts of concert events. The only date of Steven’s band on the current tour, and a standing one at that, was stuck in a hall way too small for it. In the middle of the sold-out room, packed in with the crowd, you could barely breathe, and every last drop of pumped-in oxygen got precious as the gig went on. Getting a good view of the band wasn’t easy, thanks to awkwardly placed pillars that kept the screen from spreading out fully (and so dulled the impact of the studio projections), and to the two-meter giants, of whom there were enough that night to field a basketball team.
But if you set aside all those negatives and focus on the positives, of which there were far more, there’s no reason to sulk. Steven’s incredibly tight band delivered a fantastic show on every level and fully lived up to, if not exceeded, the high expectations of his loyal fans, who showed huge support throughout the night. Steven’s crew of musical grandmasters played nearly the entire new album »Hand. Cannot. Erase« (2015), which, through various projections, also told the harrowing story of a lonely, forgotten girl from Wilson’s concept.
Barefoot maestro Steven and his backing crew took the stage after an extremely long ambient intro that grew into the instrumental »First Regret« and then »3 Years Older«, one of the best songs on »Hand. Cannot. Erase«. Steven spent most of the show at the mic and behind an electric guitar, with virtuoso maniac Guthrie Govan (The Aristocrats, ex-Asia) keeping him company as lead guitarist. Even in the more technically demanding sections of individual songs, Govan didn’t stretch out half as much in his guitar improvisations and variations as he usually does in his wacky solo projects. Once the US tour kicks off, Govan will be replaced by Dave Kilminster (Roger Waters) because of his commitments to The Aristocrats. On bass and chapman stick, Steven was backed by cult bassist/singer Nick Beggs (Kajagoogoo, Steve Hackett), who also helped Wilson out very effectively with backing vocal harmonies.
Wilson only takes the best available drummers into his bands, and Marco Minnemann (The Aristocrats, Joe Satriani), who will be replaced later on the tour, for the US dates, by Craig Blundell (Pendragon), is definitely among the most exciting drum grandmasters around right now. Minnemannn, the would-be successor to Mike Portnoy in Dream Theater (at the audition he came in second among the main candidates for the new drummer), took your breath away with his energy and technical superiority at nearly every turn. Keyboard virtuoso Adam Holzman (over his career he’s worked with a whole heap of esteemed names, led by Miles Davis) used his jazzy approach to the keys to prove again and again that switching between mellotron, Hammond organ sounds and electronic textures is no problem at all. Given how eclectic Wilson’s body of work is, he had plenty to do that night.
The title track, »Hand Cannot Erase«, gave us the first pop-rock moment of the night, while one of the highlights was »Routine«, Steven’s favorite song on »Hand. Cannot. Erase«, where besides the excellent performance we were also wowed by an innovative, harrowing animation. Though Steven played nearly the whole new album that night (only »Transcience« got skipped), he of course didn’t forget the past achievements of his career. He showed that first with an excellently played version of the »Grace For Drowning« (2011) standard »Index«. The first surprise of the night was the unexpected performance of the moving Porcupine Tree classic »Lazarus« (album »Deadwing«, 2005), since almost nobody down by the stage expected Steven to play anything from his ‘mother’ band, which he’s put on ice for a while.
The hall went wild again with the next song, the »Insurgentes« (2009) treat »Harmony Corine«, which Steven introduced as a creation partly inspired by the eighties new wave he loved listening to as a teenager (and still does). Among the bands he listened to a lot back then, he also mentioned Beggs’ Kajagoogoo, which coaxed a big smile out of the great positive thinker and bass master, who’s also an excellent singer. Steven’s crew had lovely surprises in store in both encores, too.
In the first, they caught us off guard with the »The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Short Stories)« (2013) standard »The Watchmaker«, where a downright phantasmagorical mood took over for a while. Then the performance of the Porcupine Tree treat »Sleep Together« (album »Fear Of a Blank Planet«, 2007) sent the whole hall wild again, especially the female half of the crowd, who busted out a few dance moves to the electronic rhythms at the first chance. That’s not something you see every night at a show by a progressive rock act (Wilson, who hates musical ‘labeling’, actually prefers to call most of his body of work conceptual rock).
Maestro Wilson and his virtuoso buddies closed the show with the epic chiller »The Raven That Refused to Sing«, which was another highlight of an evening of total ambient indulgence. A harrowing graphic projection deepened the dark closing act even further, though I have to grumble a bit here: on both »The Raven That Refused to Sing« songs, you missed the instrumental contribution of Theo Travis (Soft Machine Legacy, Gong), the woodwind player who’s absent from this tour. Of course, that was far from denting the very positive final impression, which lingered long after the end of this wonderful evening. There was quite a bit of regret that Steven’s band’s set, in its constantly wonderful mood, flew by in express fashion, even though we’d been treated to a good two hours.
Steven Wilson and his seasoned crew of super-virtuosos took us on a wonderful journey through the many sonic twists and turns of Wilson’s current studio masterpiece during an outstanding Vienna show. Along the way they threw in a few unexpected surprises from (let’s call them) the older chapters of his musical career, even though the oldest piece they played came from the not-so-distant year of 2005. Throughout the show we also got to enjoy fantastic sound, one of the trademarks of all Wilson’s concerts, which can serve as textbook examples of how to create dream sound in a hall. Next time Wilson comes to town, the Viennese will have to move the show to a bigger, classier hall, because judging by attendance at his shows, Steven has clearly outgrown venues on the level of Ottakringer Brauerei, no matter how much assorted ‘beer buddies’ grumble about it.
Setlist
1. First Regret
2. 3 Years Older
3. Hand Cannot Erase
4. Perfect Life
5. Routine
6. Index
7. Home Invasion
8. Regret #9
9. Lazarus
10. Harmony Korine
11. Ancestral
12. Happy Returns
13. Ascendant Here On…
—encore I.—
14. The Watchmaker
15. Sleep Together
—encore II.—
16. The Raven That Refused to Sing
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