I am back from the Steven Wilson concert, and I will repeat what I posted on Facebook. My review of the concert is "...................". I mean, you knew that was gonna be my review, didn't you? I feel a little dumbfounded, or maybe dumbstruck (something with "dumb" in it) whenever I go to see Mr. Wilson, a musical genius if there ever was one. He plays a combination of music that is very advanced - progressive rock of the highest level - but which also has simpler passages where sometimes he is singing to just a piano melody. He plays the hardest, heaviest industrial-sounding riffs you've ever heard, and he mixes them with melancholic singer-songwriter tunes that, in concert, he jokes about.
"I just recently listened back to this next one, and it depressed even me". SW is quite the raconteur live, telling stories between songs, and he is self-deprecating about his penchant for sad songs, of which he has a lot. But his sad songs are always majestic, and even then, in concert he follows them up by either ripping your head off with a monster instrumental, or he changes the tone entirely with a song influenced by 80s pop, or one with Beach Boy harmonies but weird minor chords. It must be incredible to hear what he hears inside his head.
In concert, there are also the production values, which are on the level of Rush and Pink Floyd. Besides his career as a musical artist, Wilson has also long been known as one of the best producers in the business and a legendary remixer of classic 70s material from bands like Yes, King Crimson and Jethro Tull. He is a Soundmeister, in other words - he's got an ear like nobody else - and he brings his studio ability to the live setting. His band gets a live sound that is one of the very greatest I've heard, and like Pink Floyd, he uses state of the art visuals to enhance the sensory experience. One thing Wilson does that I've never seen anyone else do, is to use a "front screen", which is see-through and made out of mesh, onto which all kinds of striking visual effects are projected, from films to lighting effects to holograms. Meanwhile, because the front screen is see through, you can still see the band playing behind the projected up front visuals, and the band is lit in bright liquid colors that either compliment or contrast with the onscreen effects, so you get a dramatic 3D effect a lot of the time.
It is very special to see an artist like Steven Wilson, because you feel you are not only seeing something unique and incredibly powerful and moving, but also because you feel like you are seeing something that won't be approximated any time soon. In other words, there are no Steven Wilson proteges out there. He is one of a kind, as was Frank Zappa, or Todd Rundgren, who is not "was" but "is". And I will be seeing him at The Wiltern in a couple of weeks, with his band Utopia.
I just have to take a step back, as I said last night in talking about David Lynch, but this time it is a step back to reflect on what I have seen and what I have heard.
It is not enough to go to a concert and come home and say, "It was awesome".
That is cool, for sure, and to have such a response is the normal thing to do.
But for me, I have to go a little bit further and reflect on what I have seen, especially after a show like I saw tonight.
The guys who put on that show know how mind boggling it was, and they want the audience to really let it sink in, and not just to say, "awesome show, what's next"?
I feel that at some shows, like a Steven Wilson show - or even many shows that I've seen - that I am seeing something in concert that people 100 or 200 years from now will say was legendary.
Like, "holy smokes!........you got to see Mozart"?
Well, I didn't get to see him, but I got to see Steven Wilson and many others.
These concerts that we go to, and that we are amazed by, are something that will be known in the future by people who haven't even been born yet.
They will read about the history of this music, and they will listen to it, and they will say, "Wow! Imagine having been there".
And we were. :)
See you in church in the morning. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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