| Doors: 7 pm | Show: 8 pm | Tickets starting at: 53.85 Euro + fees |

One could say that STEVEN WILSON meanwhile makes a visit on European stages as periodic as a Swiss clockwork. Always in beginning of the year - to raise the bar for the all the shows still to come. Loaded with his latest effort, To The Bone, he already played an extensive and mostly sold out tour (just remember his sold out three-night residency at London’s The Royal Albert Hall) in 2018. Now he rolled out a second and likewise extensive string of dates for 2019. And with every new tour the venues get a little bit bigger and still sell out.
As much as STEVEN WILSON seemingly likes to play live, as much I enjoy attending his shows. He never fails to deliver an exceptional concert evening. On this second leg of the tour he brought the show to the :: RuhrCongress :: in Bochum. Since STEVEN WILSON likes to play special venues, I have some ideas for the shows in the next 2, 3 years in this area. Not as grand as the Royal Albert Hall but nice ;)

As it becomes a standard that bigger concert venues follow strict safety protocols with reduced bag sizes and fussy checks at the entry - the smart concertgoer better arrives earlier. Tonight the inbound traffic was formidable. Next to the RuhrCongress is the Starlight Express hall, with shows too. Luckily the soccer stadium behind was left empty tonight. The show was nearly sold out, so the lines were long and winding around the congress hall. Despite of all those circumstances, the checks went smoothly and I was inside earlier than expected ;)

The RuhrCongress owns a huge telescope stage, so the venue was two-thirds seated and one-thirds a standing room. There was food and drinks offered at fair dough. At the merch I once again could witness the high-levelled pricing we were already nagging about at latest other shows. The thing is: if you would buy those shirts and hoodies from each band’s merch or label store for example, they would be much cheaper. Even with shipping fees from the US or the UK. Though, the “ripped-off” fans still buy at the merch as if there was no tomorrow. Hmm. Odd. At the same time, the same fans do not buy CDs anymore and download music illegally for money reasons…

:: pics :: STEVEN WILSON ::

To retain the Swiss clockwork imagery, exactly at 8 pm the lights went out and an off-stage voice told the audience to lean back and to watch a short movie called Truth that was playing on a transparent curtain in front of the stage. Those, who attended the shows last year, will remember that movie. The curtain remained down when the band entered the stage and kicked off with Nowhere Now behind. The welcome was heartily yet not as enthusiastic as expected. The curtain again was used as a screen to audiovisually showcase Ninet Tayeb for the song Pariah, which was once again beautiful to witness. This song always causes goosebumps.

After a short announcement to Home Invasion, :: STEVEN WILSON :: got to talking before The Same Asylum As Before. He specially announced that he would play a guitar solo. . Because, normally Alex Hutchings does them all. STEVEN WILSON explained that he has a sloppy guitar play, which is not the best for solos. He stated: “I actually love to play sloppy and I hate that fucking technical shit on guitar.” Of course, the crowd was laughing. I’m not sure if I should take him too serious. He is known to be a perfectionist. On the other hand, I have read the one or the other interview with him where he said for example: „I’m not a guitar fetishist. I fall in love with music more than the tools to make it.”. However… He also praised Prince and made witty side blows towards drummer Craig Blundell, before he started The Same Asylum As Before with a falsetto voice and then roughly rocking out a little later. A propos rough… His voice was rougher as I’m used to it. I hope he did not catch a flu or cold on tour.

The band was in high spirits, making jokes or showing respect to each other. Every little while I saw bassist Nick Beggs and guitarist Alex Hutchings smile. I also caught the drummer laughing.
During the 13 minutes monolith Ancestral the band first tried to synchronize the clapping crowd with the mesmerizing drum patterns, which worked moderate at best (and did not trip the drummer up either ;)), and then, suddenly, the string-trio was rolling on the floor for some reasons. For two minutes or three…
That’s the way the first part of the show ended after around 70 minutes. The show was divided into two sets with a 15 minutes intermission for fans and the band.

Also the second part was introduced with a short movie. This time to the song Cenotaph (r), from the homonymous album of STEVEN WILSONs Ambient/Drone side project Bass Communion. That was indeed surprising. And I liked it. Need to deal with that record.
Generally speaking there have been some interesting changes in the setlist. STEVEN WILSON of course still focused on his 2017 record To The Bone, added by some Porcupine Tree crowd pleasers. I would have loved to see stronger changes; the backing catalogue is rich in magnificent music that all too rarely gets a live airing these days. But that is nagging on a high level. In the end, the poor lad would have had to play a five, six hours show and yet would not satisfy half of the audience.
Nonetheless, those, who attended one of the last year’s shows, would not be overly surprised tonight by the set. That might be the reason why the crowd’s response was not that frenetic as I already have experienced it during earlier shows.
During the encore STEVEN WILSON played two acoustic tracks with Adam Holzman, performed the homonymous Blackfield song and closed the show in a classic way with The Raven That Refused To Sing.

To sum up, it was once again a fantastic concert evening. Debaucherous in time, sound and imagery, with some of the finest musicians in show business that demonstrated their brilliance playing in a league of its own. Visually, too, the show was hypnotically fascinating due to its extensive use of short films specifically commissioned from film makers, Jess Cope and Lasse Hoile, which complimented each of the songs.
I’m sure we will meet STEVEN WILSON again early 2020 and I definitely will not miss him. A STEVEN WILSON show is a must-attend-event for every fan of Prog and Art Rock music!

Band: Steven Wilson (git/vox), Alex Hutchings (git), Adam Holzman (key), Nick Beggs (bass/vox), Craig Blundell (drums)

Set 1: Intro ("Truth" short film), Nowhere Now, Pariah, Home Invasion, Regret #9, Don't Hate Me, The Same Asylum As Before, Get All You Deserve, Ancestral

Set 2: Cenotaph (Intro Film), No Twilight Within The Courts Of The Sun, Index, Permanating, Song Of I, Lazarus, Detonation, Song Of Unborn, Vermillioncore, Sleep Together

Zugabe: Blackfield, Sentimental, The Sound Of Muzak, The Raven That Refused To Sing

story & pics © Dajana & Dajana Winkel • Photography