A few feet above Steven Wilson’s head, the universe expands and contracts. His attention, though, is on a bank of equipment, from which he’s attempting to pull sounds that match the interstellar scope of the visuals spread across the gargantuan screen that hangs over him. Across the course of almost three hours, he does so with remarkable regularity.
Appearing initially in profile, all in black and ensconced in a keyboard array that makes it look like he’s fallen to Earth in a pod, Wilson’s opening move during his first solo tour in seven years is to play his recent concept record, The Overview, in full. Its two vast songs (one 23 minutes, the other 18) are musings on our cosmic insignificance greeted with rapt attention by an audience relishing his return to prog after a run of works that tested his mettle in art-rock and bubbling electronica.
