Thursday, May 2, 2013

Steven Wilson "The Raven That Refused To Sing (and other stories)"

 
I've had this in constant rotation since the day I bought it in early February.  The week before, I had purchased a ticket for the debut stop on his North American tour.  What, you say?  "You bought a concert ticket before hearing the album?"  Here is my simple rationale...After watching the "Get All You Deserve" DVD, as I wrote at the end of the post, "just come somewhere remotely close to Florida."  Two Southeast stops, one in Atlanta, the other in St. Pete, not quite two hours away.  Then I notice the venue is the State Theater downtown.  One (cranially) foggy evening, maybe fifteen years ago, I attended a private, promotional concert there (for the life of me I don't recall who, just know I didn't have to drive to and from) and vaguely remembered it was a cramped space for the two hundred or so people in attendance.  Why on earth was Steven Wilson booking this place when he's played for thousands before?  It seemed too good to be true, but "Happy Birthday" to me ten weeks early as I bought the ticket ASAP.

Let's begin with the album.  The opening track is the studio version of "Luminol," which was first heard on the live DVD.  I described it as "Yes wrapped in a fusion-jazz jacket."  Track #2 was the first new music to be heard, and people, especially you old farts like me out there, this is as good as anything you remember from three or four decades ago that you loved, be it art, space or prog-rock, manifested in the form of Rush, Yes, King Crimson, Return To Forever, etc..  The audio quality is certainly superior.  Wilson is a Grammy-nominated producer in his own right, but who does he coax out of semi-retirement to turn the knobs for him on "Raven..."?  Alan Parsons, that's who.  Here's the song with a homemade video...

  

How many Pink Floyd similarities did you hear?  This should be on every Rock-oriented radio station, land or air-based. 

The next song is called "The Holy Drinker," and was originally slated to be the albums' title.  This channels Weather Report and Traffic (the bands, not your morning news), and is where keyboardist, Adam Holzman, really shines.  I first saw Mr. Holzman's name on an album in 1983 that for years I could have sold for three figures.  It was Ray Manzarek's (in cahoots with Philip Glass) interpretation of "Carmina Burana."  None too shabby to be hired by the Doors-man to play synthesizer.  Holzman's next employer was Miles Davis.  Let's let that soak in...................  He was appointed Davis' "musical director" at the age of thirty.  He's since worked with Michael Petrucciani, Grover Washington, Jr. and Anton Fig.  Couple this jazz background with that of Theo Travis, the multi-instrumentalist responsible for the flute, saxophone, etc., on this album and you have pairing of immense possibilities.  Travis has been a part of Wilson's various musical identities over the past fifteen years and also played with Jade Warrior, Gong and Robert Fripp to name a few.  I touched on bassist Nick Beggs before and his stint in Kajagoogoo, but he also played with Gary Numan, Belinda Carlisle, Howard Jones, Steve Hackett, and toured with big names like Tina Turner, Michael Bolton and Seal.  And let's not forget guitarist Guthrie Govan.  He was a 21st-century member of Asia and was one of the guests on Lee Ritenour's "6-String Theory" a couple of years ago.  I'll admit it here, his was one of the names I did not recognize.  I do now.  Some guy named Satriani says that "no matter what approach or style Guthrie is playing, he absolutely nails it and sounds natural in doing so."  Just a Wiki peek and you'll see listed under Genres; "jazz fusion, rock, blues, progressive rock, funk, country, bluegrass."  Snicker...  Turns out he was greatly influenced by Mr. Frank Zappa.  And that will lead us to the drummer on the album, Marco Minnemann.  I didn't know him, either (and that's hard to fathom seeing all the credited works), but he's played with a lot of Zappa's musical tree, like Eddie Jobson, Terry Bozzio and Adrian Belew. 

All right, I've lost track.  There is just so much I want to say and I don't have time for it all.  The New York Times recently ran a review about "Raven..." saying,  "this new disc comprises six modern-day ghost stories, swaddled in rich, harmonically sophisticated arrangements and adorned with woodwinds and vintage keyboards."   They liked it.  Every review I've seen is a four or five-star winner.  I wholeheartedly agree.  Wilson takes all his musical influences growing up and creates something very new and relevant.

Now to the concert.  I make the 110-minute drive listening to some of "Raven..." and then the first solo, "Insurgentes," which I dubbed "PT-lite."  On the advice of the venue, I parked in a 3-hour zone just down the street, observed the long line of humans waiting to get inside, grabbed a smidgen of a party favour in preparation, and set off for the slow journey to the door.  Once inside, found the secondary bar with no waiting, ordered up a double JD and cola, snaked my way through the house to a position stage right about twenty-five feet away and planted.  My God, I couldn't believe how small the theater was, so small, in fact, that the band could not hang the gauze they use for the projections in front.  I overheard one patron who had been there all afternoon detailing the band's frustration with the venue.  Guarantee they had no inkling of its lack of size and accommodations.  No matter, they shot the projections on the back wall and it was just fine.  For the thirty minutes before showtime, that wall had the image of moon/face from the album cover (the one above) morphing slowly through clouds and shadows, all to a looped instrumental from "Grace For Drowning".  Anyone in attendance on hallucinogenics was certainly enthralled.  The band sauntered out precisely at eight o'clock and opened with "Luminol."  Wilson was rather chatty for this first show in the U.S., but honestly, he's such a perfectionist, I'm certain even his banter was rehearsed.  He announced that they had 2 1/4 hours of music to play which would include all of "Raven..."  That's 135 minutes.  There was only one short time in which the band left the stage, and while they were off, the projection on the back wall was filled with various time pieces and through the house audio system were the sounds of said watches, etc..  Even in the close confines of the front room, it sounded like a clock was ticking at my feet, another over my right shoulder, a different one coming from behind the guy to my left...it was just like being at the Pink Floyd "Animals" show in the Big Sombrero that night in September of '77 when the band played "Sheep" and I was audioported into the middle of a herd of mutton.  At the end of the brief audiovisual piece, Wilson and crew played this...



As I mentioned in the post about the DVD, I found all the editing to be distracting.  To be able to stand 25 feet away and watch who I wanted to, when I wanted to, and for how long I wanted to was PRICELESS! 

Wilson had announced in early February that he would have to use a replacement drummer for the Americas tour since Minnemann had a prior commitment.  To fill the daunting role, the choice was Chad Wackerman, a friend of Minnemann and the drummer who played the final seven years of Frank Zappa's touring life back in the 80's.  Zappa was probably more of a perfectionist than Wilson, so it was a prudent choice.  I know there was a month-long gap between the European and domestic legs of the tour so I thought maybe they had several rehearsals, but Wilson spoke after the opening song and introduced Wackerman as a true musician, one who had been "thrown into the fire" for this show.  He said, "I heard him make one mistake while I made fourteen!"  As it turned out, they had a grand total of five hours to rehearse the entire set! Throughout the show, Wilson acknowledged the substitute's performance, noting that his music isn't "three-minute pop songs."  I had two percussionists standing around me through the show and they were transfixed on the drum kit.  During "Raider II," a 23+ minute track, Wackerman actually used sheet music on a stand to his left for assistance!  I have never seen that before in a rock concert setting.  Wilson said that Wackerman was probably the only one on stage who could actually read music.  I'm sure that Wackerman studied the songs on his own for the two months, but to play as he did with 300 minutes of group practice is utterly amazing.  I will seek out his work from now on.  In a cruel twist of fate, Wackerman was informed of a family crisis right after the concert and could only do the next night's show in Atlanta before leaving the tour.  What a damn shame.  Hope it all rectifies itself with minimal damage done.  The band was able to negotiate Minnemann away from his rehearsals for Joe Satriani's forthcoming solo tour. 

After two hours of solo tunes, the band encored with an early PT song, "Radioactive Toy."  The first three PT albums were essentially Wilson solo anyway, so it counted.  I never dug those records as they were too self-indulgent for my tastes, but many in the audience were thrilled and sang along when appropriate.  At 10:15 PM, right on schedule, the concert concluded.  As I exited, I stopped to ask a venue employee about the numbers.  "Sold out, 633 tickets."  I'm still shaking my head.

I had "Grace..." playing on the drive home and after hearing some of the tracks live in person, the studio versions seemed less viable.  With the high praise I heaped upon that album, it only means that I had witnessed a concert for the ages, my ages.  It was the best 7 1/2 hour event I've enjoyed in many, many years...

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