http://first-avenue.com/event/2013/05/stevenwilson
On sale: Friday, January 11 at noon CST
$22.50So, there it is. I still would be surprised if many of those media sources say much about it, or still even list it. And by some chance they do, what are the odds they refer to his band as "Prog"? not a guarantee.
How much 1st Ave is involved beyond that listing is not clear either. But maybe, just maybe, if PT comes back and/or this show does well, those folks will take note and book them in the Main Room next time. But let's see how well this is promoted 1st, and how well the ticket sales go. I worry the ole WALKUP thing may occur and thus, it won't be viewed as well as it should.
Personally, 2 things have come up since in that as well for me:
a) this show falls on my girlfriend who-hates-most-prog 's Bday. But, given how late this and some others factors, hopefully my schedule will allow both celebrating with her and this show.
b) I suggested to Bend Sinister that they open. Joseph Blood of the band actually messaged me on Facebook and sounded intrigued by the idea. Now, whether the others involved are, and the logistics work out are totally unclear. But it certainly can't hurt to mention.
12/28/12 8:09PM
This announcement just came out earlier today, and I posted it on facetwitterbook, but not in here given I was flying home from Arizona just after it got announced.
And of course the big part of this is the fact his band is actually coming to Minneapolis for the 1st time ever, and Steven is coming back to Minneapolis for the 1st time since Porcupine Tree played a 500+ sellout at the Fine Line in May of 2005.
Now of course I'm happy to see his band, even though his solo work has not blown me away like a lot of Porcupine Tree, or even some of the 1st 2 Blackfield records. But he has a different band, different from PT obviously, but also different from the band he went out on tour with a few years ago. But this tour is to support his new album The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories), which if I recall features among others, drummer Marco Minneman and Guthrie Govan who may be worth going to this show alone for,
But, the other thing just to bring up about this show/tour is I am likely WAY OFF BASE here, but for some reason, Steven's band does come here now after the many remarks I've made (along with others online of course) about how the promoters haven't booked Porcupine Tree and now his band in town here. Although, as much as I'd like to believe my online voice did have something to do with that; I suspect some of the reasons why his band is coming here is because it is NOT Porcupine Tree.
1) Whatever the promoters that never brought PT back here thought, in this case, the NAME Porcupine Tree does not exist in this booking, thus it's a totally new artist to test out in our (fly-over-land at times) market.
2) Whoever is promoting this show in Minneapolis, which I don't know yet, but I don't think it's Sue McLean as it's not listed on Sue's website, may not know how often Steven's bands have skipped coming here, nor of course the 2 shows in 2003 (with Opeth) and 2005 500+ in attendance (Sellouts, albeit much due to WALKUPS, but none-the-less, SELLOUTS still)
3) This is not being held at First Ave, The Varsity Theater, and/although thankfully not Station 4, The Cabooze (nor The Entry for that matter) due to Steven's name is not as big as Porcupine Tree. If PT were coming here, I suspect The Fine Line and the promoters WOULD NOT BE OFFERING THEM ENOUGH MONEY (meaning Steven's band, and people who work for his band ala The Agency Group) to play there. In other words, if Porcupine Tree were coming back, they really ought to be paid what a HEADLINER at FIRST AVE or at least THE VARSITY THEATER would get. Perhaps The Cedar Cultural Center as well. Gawd I'd love to see some of those lemming hipsters try and show up to see Steven and his band play those 15 minute epics and have them complain, lol. But in truth, The Cedar would actually FIT rather well for Steven's band. As would a jazz club, although I'm certainly glad The overpriced work of The Dakota didn't try and book his band as I bet the tickets would be like $50, lol.
The venue that would have been ideal for this show probably would have been The Triple Rock (or The Whole Music Club at the U of MN) but maybe given PT did play The Fine Line back 8 and 10 years ago they were the venue Steven's people remembered.
4) One other obvious reason why this show ended up here and not skipping us, is the shear fact Steven's band doesn't have back-2-back shows/nights in Chicago like on 2 or 3 of those PT tours in the past. Why that is, again, might be due to his name not being as big as Porcupine Tree, thus those promoters who booked Porcupine Tree at The Park West back-2-back shows (like Marillion last Summer) were a little gun shy given the name of the act is STEVEN WILSON and not PT. Also the fact Steven's music has not received much distribution in the States, if any. I imagine the KScope folks may have to get some kind of distribution deal with a NA distributor to have that happen. Maybe with the new record that'll happen. But as far as I know, the only copies I've seen of Grace For Drowning and Insurgentes were special orders. And the live albums/dvds? I haven't seen any of them show up at Cheapo or The Electric Fetus at this point.
All in All, it is quite good news about this show and tour, a 17-date tour of North America, which I recall his other North American tours maybe being about 5-10 shows max.
Another point to add, that may be not clear on with myself and Steven Wilson's live shows. I do want to see him, but I HAVE SEEN HIM, with PT 5 times, so this show/tour and seeing him and would have seen PT the past 6 or 7 tours of the US, while it is and would have been nice. I AM MORE PASSIONATE ABOUT HIS BANDS COMING TO MINNESOTA FOR OTHER FANS IN MINNESOTA WHO NEVER HAVE SEEN HIM/PORCUPINE TREE LIVE.
I'll repeat
I AM MORE PASSIONATE ABOUT HIS BANDS COMING TO MINNESOTA FOR OTHER FANS IN MINNESOTA WHO NEVER HAVE SEEN HIM/PORCUPINE TREE LIVE.
But also I am PASSIONATE ABOUT PROG BEING VISIBLE, and BEING VISIBLE IN MINNESOTA.
Because let's be honest, outside of the 1st generation of progressive rock (Yes, Rush, Genesis, Pink Floyd, etc) the biggest progressive rock has become is Dream Theater and maybe acts like Tool and The Mars Volta to an extent. Porcupine Tree and Steven Wilson represent the closest thing to having prog and prog within prog-circles (NOT college prog like dredg, Fair to Midland, The Dear Hunter, Coheed, etc) get mainstream. I mean Steven has been nominated 2 or 3 times for Grammys (5.1 mixes I recall), he's worked with a lot of huge names in Classic and Prog Rock (Tull, ELP, King Crimson..even Rush to a smaller extent), and so if progressive rock ever receives more of a mainstream level of recognition, Steven and PT are maybe the closest it may ever get.
Now will 89.3 start playing his music or Porcupine Tree (or Blackfield even which might be the most accessible)? Pretty much no chance. Radio K? almost no chance as well. But if Steven is going to make his solo band really his longer term focus like it seems, he may by just some freak chance, find he makes music (or even just 1 shorter song) that the mainstream grabs on to. Although his solo music seems extremely far from songs like "Trains" and "Lazarus" it seems rather unlikely. But, I suppose pigs may find themselves flying one day too.
I will predict though the only media source that will list his show at The Fine Line on May 4th will be Vita.mn. Citypages won't give a shit, nor will the music journalists for the Strib and Pioneer Press (although if Ross Raihala did, I'd be less surprised than the likes of the 2 Strib columnists. And this show is being held in Minneapolis too, lol). Nor will 89.3 list it on their calendar, however, perhaps I can try and add a submission manually like I at least tried to for the Coheed/BTBAM/Russian Circles show.
Also tickets? Ticketmasochist has the show listed for sale, but no way in hell am I considering paying those disgusting fees, at least before checking with The Electric Fetus, which I called and they said they should have tickets for sale, but they are unsure when. I'm thinking maybe 1 of the next 2 or 3 Fridays. I may even try going down there tomorrow and asking about them again.
http://stevenwilsonhq.com/sw/tour-dates/
03/01/13 Manchester, Lancashire Academy 1 United Kingdom
Address: Manchester University Union, Oxford Road.
03/02/13 Glasgow, Lanarkshire ABC Glasgow United Kingdom
Address: 300 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow.
03/04/13 London, Greater London Royal Festival Hall United Kingdom
Address: Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road.
03/08/13 Paris, Paris Le Trianon France
Address: 80 Boulevard de Rochechouart.
03/10/13 Cologne, Köln Live Music Hall Germany
Address: Lichtstraße 30.
03/11/13 Melkweg, Amsterdam Rabozaal Netherlands
Address: Lijnbaansgracht 234.
03/12/13 Antwerpen Arenberg Schouwburg Belgium
Address: Arenbergstraat 28.
03/14/13 Hamburg CCH Saal 2 Germany
Address: Am Dammtor / Marseiller Straße.
03/16/13 Stockholm Filadelfiakyrkan Sweden
Address: Rörstrandsgatan 5.
03/18/13 Oslo Sentrum Scene Norway
Address: Arbeidersamfunnets Plass 1.
03/19/13 Copenhagen VEGA Denmark
Address: Enghavevej 40.
03/21/13 Berlin, Hasenheide Huxley’s Germany
Address: Hasenheide 107-113.
03/22/13 Essen, Altendorfer Straße Colosseum Germany
Address: Altendorfer Straße 1.
03/23/13 Frankfurt, Neu-Isenburg Hugenottenhalle Germany
Address: Frankfurter Straße 152.
03/25/13 Stuttgart, Siemensstraße Theaterhaus Germany
Address: Siemensstraße 11.
03/26/13 Munich, Theresienhöhe Alte Kongresshalle Germany
Address: Theresienhöhe 15.
03/27/13 Zürich Volkshaus Switzerland
Address: Stauffacherstr. 60.
03/28/13 Milan, Assago Teatro Della Luna Italy
Address: Via G. Di Vittorio, 6.
04/16/13 Tampa, Florida The State Theater United States
Address: 687 Central Avenue, St. Petersburg. On Sale Soon
04/17/13 Atlanta, Georgia The Variety Playhouse United States
Address: 1099 Euclid Avenue Northeast.
04/19/13 Glenside, Philadelphia Keswick Theatre United States
Address: 291 North Keswick Avenue. On Sale Soon
04/20/13 Washington, Washington D.C. Howard Theatre United States
Address: 620, T Street Northwest.
04/21/13 Buffalo, New York Town Ballroom United States
Address: 681 Main Street. On Sale Soon
04/23/13 Toronto, Ontario Phoenix Concert Theatre Canada
Address: 410 Sherbourne Street.
04/25/13 Montreal, Quebec Club-Soda Canada
Address: 1225 Saint-Laurent Boul. On Sale Soon
04/26/13 New York City, New York Best Buy Theater United States
Address: 515 Broadway. On Sale Soon
04/27/13 Boston, Massachusetts Berklee Performance Center United States
Address: 136 Massachusetts Avenue. On Sale Soon
04/30/13 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Mr Small’s United States
Address: 400 Lincoln Avenue. On Sale Soon
05/02/13 Cleveland, Ohio House of Blues Cleveland United States
Address: 308 Euclid Avenue. On Sale Soon
05/03/13 Chicago, Illinois Park West United States
Address: 322 West Armitage Avenue. On Sale Soon
05/04/13 Minneapolis, Minnesota The Fine Line United States
Address: 318 North 1st Avenue.
05/06/13 Boulder, Colorado Boulder Theater United States
Address: 2032 14th Street. On Sale Soon
05/09/13 San Francisco, California The Fillmore United States
Address: 1805 Geary Boulevard. On Sale Soon
05/10/13 Los Angeles, California Club Nokia United States
Address: 800 West Olympic Boulevard. On Sale Soon
05/14/13 Mexico City Teatro Metropolitan Mexico
