Monday, November 26, 2012

Steven Wilson "Get All You Deserve"

 
I can count the number of music videos I've purchased in the past ten years on one hand...and it's three more than the number of movies I've bought.  About eight years ago, I paid for Phish "It" and in early 2010 it was Joe Bonamassa at the Royal Albert Hall.  The moment I heard "...Deserve" was available, I searched for a teaser and found this...



Did not know the song but it was a helluva track!  But dammit, one of the main reasons I don't buy concert videos is the overuse of edits.  I can't stand it when there are thirty a minute!  I actually had to look away while I listened to the audio.  Found another clip and felt the same way.  Caused me to reconsider the purchase. 

A couple of weeks go by and my wife gets a coupon from one of her membership retailers, hands it to me and says "get something for yourself."  As soon as I bandage my chin I head to the retailer's website and find that the deluxe version is still available (Blu-Ray, DVD, 2 CD's).  Ahhh, why not?

The first thing I did was pop the CDs into the car player.  Most everything is from his two solo records, and since his last release is one of this century's best, I was prepared for disappointment.  Had no faith in the ability to recreate much of it in a live setting.  And, honestly, I wasn't blown away, but it was the car environment and I recalled that "Grace For Drowning" did not translate well in those surroundings, either.  So I waited a few days till the wifey was out of town for the evening, closed the blinds, dimmed the lights, cranked up the surround system, poured a TN whiskey, indulged in a small amount of party favours, and popped the DVD in the player...

...if I had seen this concert in the flesh I would have had to change my shorts afterwards!  I heard Yes, Rush, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Phish, Chick Corea/Return To Forever and Billy Cobham, to name a few.  To pull that shit off live is impressive.  More so is the fact that Wilson spends a large portion of the show basically conducting the band.  He struts from musician to musician, all around the stage, punching the air and stepping to the rhythm.  Then he'll sit at a keyboard for a few noodles, get up and walk to the mic to sing a few lines, go back to the rear of the stage and strap on a guitar for a power chord or three.......the rest of the band KICKS ASS!  It's as if Elgar was conducting his own "Pomp and Circumstance" and jumped down from the stand to grab a cello to start wailing away!  Yes, all the visual edits were a bit tedious, but they make more sense in the context of the whole program.  Wilson's imagery partner of the past ten years or so, Lasse Hoile, puts on a show for your eyes while the band plays on.  There had to be subtle differences between the sets night to night as no click tracks were used and as Wilson said about his guitarist, "...he can't play the same run a second time, so why should we?"  Speaking of band members, I did not know most of them, but I can tell you that the keyboardist played with some guy named Miles Davis and the bassist was a member of Kajagoogoo.  Never in a million years would I have thought to use those two names in a sentence, and they are in the same band...wow.

Wilson liked this group so much that he employed the lot of them to do his third solo, which has finished recording and is set for a late February drop.  Check out the guy manning the board...



For Wilson to employ Alan Parsons is a sign that he is focused on the music this time, saving himself from double duty on the knobs.  Wilson has already remixed King Crimson and Jethro Tull back catalogs, so to get Parsons off his considerable laurels says much about the respect each has for the other.  I eagerly await "The Holy Drinker."

Only European tour dates announced so far, but I know he's scheduling North America again.  Please, please come somewhere remotely close to Florida...

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