It takes a brave man to open a show with the whole of their new album and when that comprises only two songs with the first clocking in at over 23 minutes and the second a mere 18 minutes. Then you must be either mad or a total genius.
Steven Wilson is of course the latter and his new album The Overview sounded magnificent in glorious surround sound made all the better by a phone/photo band meaning the whole audience were focussed on the music and not their phones. The beautifully constructed music backed with an ethereal lightshow and video backdrop was an absolute feast to the senses.
A second set featured songs from across Wilson’s career with the beautiful “Pariah”, “Harmony Korine” and the exquisite three part vocal harmonies of “What Life Brings” evoking Crosby Stills & Nash at their most melodic, being real highlights. A run through Porcupine Tree’s “Dislocated Day” was a nod to his day job and “Impossible Tightrope” displayed the jaw dropping musicianship on display.
Wilson jokingly proclaimed himself as the ‘worst musician in his own band’. With Kajagoogoo’s phenomenal Nick Beggs on bass locking in with Craig Blundell’s supreme drumming aided and abetted by Adam Holzman on keyboards adding the colours and atmospherics and Randy McStine shining on guitar this was a world class performance.
Closing the show with “Ancestral” and an incredible “The Raven That Refused To Sing”, complete with its scintillating video took the show to unreachable heights.
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