Steven Wilson “Solo” in Vienna (2013)

Arhiv Arhiv Last updated 3 October 2026

Author: Primož Novak

Location: Gasometer, Vienna, Austria
Concert date: November 2, 2013
Ticket price: €31

Steven Wilson is a name many people know as the vocalist/guitarist of Porcupine Tree. But plenty of folks also see him as the guy carrying the legacy of seventies progressive rock into the 21st century. As in, the real deal prog rock that changed more than a few minds about how music gets made. Porcupine Tree have a pretty big reputation, one that could in principle have been even bigger, but Steven Wilson went for a solo career, and as part of it he released his third solo record this year, The Raven That Refused to Sing, which he’s now promoting on a world tour. The first European leg took place in the spring, and now the second one is underway, with a stop in Vienna, specifically at the Gasometer hall, which holds up to 3000 people.

When you walked into the hall, everything was already set up. Wilson’s carpets had been vacuumed, and on the screen a projection was looping of a street guitarist tuning his guitar, while the speakers played ambient music by Bass Communion, one of Wilson’s side projects. At exactly eight o’clock the street musician finally got his guitar in tune and started playing Trains by Porcupine Tree, and right then Steven Wilson walked onto the stage and kicked off tonight’s set with that very song. Sadly, Trains was played only acoustically, despite hopes that the rest of the band would join in later and give the song that epic touch.

After a pleasant acoustic intro, the band that accompanied Wilson on the tour took the stage and launched into Luminol from the current album. At first you couldn’t quite hear every detail, but that glitch was fixed in no time. Steven Wilson played this time without the charismatic drummer Marco Minnemann, who showed off his versatility once again on the latest album. In Minnemann’s place behind the drum kit sat Chad Wackerman, who has played with Frank Zappa, Steve Vai and other renowned musicians, among others. Wilson really couldn’t pull off this show any other way than with a jazz drummer, since the music demands a lot of skill and experience from whoever sits behind the kit. Already during Luminol it was clear that Wilson has nothing but professionals around him. Bassist Nick Beggs stood out first, serving up some interesting bass lines, and then everyone else got their moment too. Of course, most of the attention went to Steven himself, who strolled around the stage and directed the other members when to jump into a part of the song. At times Wilson himself got a bit too egocentric (some of his gestures looked downright narcissistic), but in a way that makes sense, given that Wilson produces the albums and has to keep everything under control at the shows too. Besides handling vocals and playing guitar, Steven also sat down at the mellotron now and then, where he only provided the backing layer, while the heavier keyboard lifting was done by Adam Holzman the whole night.

It’s hard to say who stood out more with their chops. Still, plenty of eyes were on guitar virtuoso Guthrie Govan, who is today one of the most acclaimed guitarists around, as you can see in many guitar magazines. With songs like The Holy Drinker, Drive Home and many others, Govan proved himself a guitarist who really knows how to squeeze the maximum out of his guitar and amp. Even more fascinating was how well Govan communicates with the rest of the band. Many solos were worked out together with keyboardist Adam Holzman and flutist Theo Travis. At times it seemed Govan managed to catch the same sonic frequency with his guitar as Travis’s clarinet, so the melody gained another dimension and a more epic feel. During Holy Drinker, bassist Nick Beggs stood out too, picking up a chapman stick while Steven grabbed the bass guitar. That gave the song extra dynamics thanks to yet another standout instrument.

The first part of the show focused on songs from the current album at first, but then came a surprise with no title. It was a new song, and Wilson mentioned that it gets a different title every time, and for this show he’d named it A Death in the Shadow. The new piece, he said, will appear on a new album that’s already in the works. The 15-minute song was full of surprises and unusual turns. At first it seemed Wilson had taken the early psychedelic period of Porcupine Tree as his model, and the atmosphere was pretty morbid, but as the song went on it turned out he’d also looked to the latest Porcupine Tree albums, which lean more toward metal. In the second half of the song there were heavy distorted guitars and drums at a faster tempo. In short, the new song showed that Wilson still has fresh ideas despite all the albums he’s put out so far. And it’s worth stressing that Wilson’s ideas still sound progressive.

For the new song a curtain dropped, with various projections playing on it, while the band played “in the background.” The crowd then got The Watchmaker, which is calm at the start and later develops nicely, and here Adam Holzman’s piano obviously stood out, as he laid down excellent foundations all night with various keyboards like the mellotron, Hammond organs and minimoog. Holzman seemed to be in his own world the whole show. As if that pill he swallowed sometime in the seventies still had a hold on him. The curtain with its projections gave the concert extra atmosphere, sometimes downright morbid and melancholic, especially during the songs from the first two albums, which are a lot harder to listen to than the current one. That’s probably down to the heavier use of atonality and all sorts of weird King Crimson-style melodies.

The fun part of the show was Wilson’s announcements to the crowd, which were full of sarcasm and cynicism too. In the first one, Wilson said he has no musical education, that he can’t even read notes, but that his head is full of ideas, which he tells the other members, and then they try to explain his ideas with their instruments. He gave the example of a lost little sweetie that wandered into the forest at night, with guitarist Guthrie Govan trying to describe the lost sweetie with a melody on the guitar. In the second announcement he pointed out that the mellotron keyboard turned 50 this year. According to him, musicians used the mellotron to recreate the sounds of classical instruments without having to hire a whole London orchestra, even though the mellotron sounded anything but good. The music lesson with Adam Holzman was undoubtedly both instructive and fun.

In one way, the peak of the show came with Raider II from the album Grace For Drowning, which is very long but very interestingly structured. The melancholy peaked with the title track The Raven That Refused to Sing, accompanied by a projection of the animated video.

After two hours, Wilson still wasn’t done. The crowd looked tired, and in the band Theo Travis looked the most worn out, constantly switching between the transverse flute, saxophone and clarinet. Still, they had to dig up a bit more strength for Remainder the Black Dog, again from Grace For Drowning.

Wilson finally announced they were wrapping up the show and told us not to expect any hit from him, because he’s never written one (though Porcupine Tree’s discography does have quite a few potential radio hits). Wilson went for a different ending, which was undoubtedly a surprise: another new song was played, called Happy Returns. Wilson said that maybe this one will become a hit … In a parallel dimension. But somehow it turned out in the end that the song has everything it takes to be a hit, with a catchy melody, lovely singable vocals and emotional lyrics. As if he wanted to offer something similar to Trains, which he opened the show with.

It was a bit hard to imagine Steven Wilson playing two new songs, even though barely a year has passed since the last album. And here the main controversy came up. It was clear that Wilson doesn’t plan to revive Porcupine Tree anytime soon, yet on the other hand, with the two new songs he moved quite close to PT based on the similarities.

Steven Wilson didn’t disappoint. He showed up in the most professional light possible, backed by outstanding musicians you don’t get to see every day. Even though the attention was often on Wilson himself, the rest of the band weren’t pushed aside. The crew was tight, and you couldn’t detect any missteps. Just like with Porcupine Tree, the same can be said of his “solo” shows. You got to see top-notch musicians with excellent stage production. You could write a truly extensive analysis of this concert, but even that wouldn’t capture the essence. The essence is that a Steven Wilson show, just like Porcupine Tree, is something you simply have to experience.