Review and Photos by Fred Kuhlman
Promoter: Live Nation (https://www.livenation.com/
Venue: The Van Buren, Phoenix, AZ (https://www.thevanburenphx.com )
Date: Sunday September 12th, 2025
Tour: The Overview Tour 2025
It was 2018 when I last saw Steven Wilson here in Phoenix. It was one of my favorite concerts that year, but I will explain that later in the review. I was stoked when I heard that he was coming back to Phoenix. He usually has a fantastic visual show and amazing sound setup. He also brings with him a fantastic set of musicians.
For those that don’t know who Steven Wilson is, he was born in England in 1967. He is an accomplished composer, song writer, producer and sound engineer. He has been the lead person in a number of rock bands including Porcupine Tree, Blackfield, Storm Corrosion and No-Man. But IMO his best work has been his solo works. At the same time, he has been selected to redo or re-master a number of 70s great progressive rock albums. To this date he has redone albums by YES, Jethro Tull, Gentle Giant and King Crimson to name just a few. His re-mastering of Jethro Tull’s iconic Aqualung is spectacular and one of my favorites. If you liked the original, you really need to hear Steven’s re-master. It will blow you away.
This time around, Steven’s band consists of himself on keyboards, guitar and lead vocals, Nick Beggs and a number of different basses, Adam Holzman on keyboards, drummer Criag Blundell and new comer guitarist Randy McStine.
I first got introduced to Steven’s work when he was with Porcupine Tree and their album, The Incident. But for me his best works are The Raven That Refused to Sing, Hand. Cannot. Erase. and To The Bone.
The tour this time is divided into 2 sets. The first set consists of 2 songs from his newest album The Overview. Then after a short intermission, they come back to perform songs covering his many other albums.
The first set consisted of 2 songs, “Objects Outlive Us” and “The Overview”. For most concert goers, this might seem like a very short set. But we are talking about compositions by Steven Wilson. These 2 songs spanned over 40 minutes. This might seem extremely long for most people, but with the visual effects on the screen behind them, it made the songs seem to be the perfect length. For this show, I had to photograph from the soundboard. Most of the time this isn’t the ideal spot to photograph from. But for this show, it was perfect because I was able to include the visual displays with the musicians. A large number of my photos show this amazing visual display.
After the second song of the second set, Steven made a joke about the wives, partners, significant other or friend that came to the show and are now wonder “What the Hell is going on, the first 4 songs took up 1.5 hours of the show (included 15-minute break)”. This is typical for a Progressive Rock/Metal concert so be forewarned if you are ever invited to one of these shows. The one thing I thought was different were the number of people from foreign countries. I also heard someone in the crowd had attended prior shows on this tour and this was the 5th show for this person.
One of my favorite songs is “Pariah”. In 2018 I was lucky enough to see Steven’s tour where he had Ninet Tayeb as the opening act. Ninet sang on a number of songs on his To The Bone album. During that show, when Steven performed “Pariah”, Ninet came out and sang with him. It was mesmerizing to hear them both perform this song. So, this tour I was wondering how they would perform “Pariah” without Ninet. At first, I thought they might bring out another singer. Once Steven and band started the song, when Ninet’s part was coming up, the screen behind the band displayed Ninet and she sang her parts. It was the next best thing to having her there. Steven and the band blended perfectly with her video.
After a very short break they came back and performed 2 more amazing songs, “Ancestral” an instrumental song and finally “The Raven That Refused to Sing”. During the “The Raven That Refused to Sing” a video played that told the story.
This might be the best show I have seen this year. I have a Dream Theater concert coming up in less than a month and it will be interesting to see if it will out do this concert. I love both bands. If you get a chance to see Steven Wilson, I very highly recommend it.
Steven Wilson Social Media sites:
Website: https://stevenwilsonhq.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StevenWilsonHQ/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stevenwilsonhq/
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@StevenWilsonHQ
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@stevenwilsonhq
Photos © Fred Kuhlman 2025, All Rights Reserved
Steven Wilson Setlist: (Album)
Set 1:
Objects Outlive Us (The Overview)
The Overview (The Overview)
Set 2:
King Ghost (The Future Bites)
Home Invasion (Hand. Cannot. Erase.)
Regret #9 (Hand. Cannot. Erase.)
What Life Brings (The Harmony Codex)
Staircase (The Harmony Codex)
Dislocated Day (Porcupine Tree song)
Pariah (To The Bone)
Impossible Tightrope (The Harmony Codex)
Harmony Korine (Insurgentes)
Vermillioncore (4 ½)
Encore:
Ancestral (Hand. Cannot. Erase.)
The Raven That Refused to Sing (The Raven That Refused to Sing)
