Saw Steven Wilson live last night

axisus

Alterlifeson said:
He has some big boots to fill though! 

Indeed, but Alex Hutchings is an incredible guitar player. Right up there with the very top tier of technical ability, and he can also play with great emotion. I've been following his music for some years now. In all fairness, Dave K has been playing with SW for a long time so knows what is required, and has handled some BIG gigs as well (3 years of the Wall with Roger Waters)

impmann

Alterlifeson said:

impmann said:

Yes, I was at the Thursday show. Incredible. As ever, SW is just superb.

However, I'm not a fan of Alex Hutchings in SW's band. His playing isn't emotive (at all), whilst technically very demanding - which I find very dull. I also thought his guitar sound was awful - indistinct and muffled for most of the time. His solo on Regret 9 wasn't moving or inspiring, and missed the whole point - I thought Dave K's solos from last tour were *incredible* and the night I saw the hand.cannot.erase tour in London I'd say Dave's solo was better than Guthrie's recorded one (and I consider that to be in the top 10 greatest solos of all time). I'm not saying Alex is a bad player - not at all - but I think Dave was a better 'fit' due to the emotive qualities in his playing. I'm hoping that Steven can persuade Dave to come back in the future, as I'd love to hear an album written with Dave doing to 'stunt' guitar stuff.

On a different note - Steven's new CS Tele sounds incredible. And I'd say sounds 'bigger' than his PRS guitars - obviously for the drop tuned stuff with big amounts of gain, it may not work so well but he looks so much more comfortable with the Tele and I thought his playing was the best I've seen from him.

Interesting! Where were you sat in the hall? I was over on Nick and Craigs side about 4 rows from the front so Alex was a little drowned out for me, I put the guitar sound down to that. Could the lack of emotion be beacuse this is still new to him? He didn't look all that comfortable on stage at this point. This seems to be a huge profile gig for him too, I had only really heard his name in passing before this tour was annouced. He has some big boots to fill though!

Have you listened to the 41/2 album? I think that has lots of Dave K guitar on it. Theres a nice melodic solo in My Book of Regrets, love his phrasing in that.

Totally agree anout SWs tele, sounded mega. Even through that little H&K during Even Less.

I was ten rows back, literally slap bang in the middle - Steven's mic stand was directly in front of me.

It could be that he's settling into the role - I was there with a great friend of mine who is an uber SW-nerd and was there all three nights at RAH, but sat in different places each time. He said Alex's sound just didn't carry anywhere in the hall. He's also a non-player and he wasn't impressed with the contributions to the songs - his quote "he sounds like a session musician sitting in, there's no passion". Another friend described him as "looking like he's having a particularly uncomfortable pooh" whilst playing... harsh, but I can see where he is coming from.

I hope Alex does settle in and really come through. He's clearly *very* technically gifted and perhaps with his sound fixed and his confidence up, it'll work better. The jazz fusion elements really flew with him - but the more 'bluesy' stuff (such as Regret 9) just didn't work so well.

Oh yes, I do have 4 1/2... its awesome.

Teetonetal

I saw the Zürich show, which was in a much smaller venue. Same issue with alex' sound there too. very muffled. but I thought his playing was great. 

Would have loved to have been at night 2 of the RAH shows. 

John_P

I was at the first Manchester show.   Front row right in front of Alex so I guess that’s why we could her him fine.     He played the songs fine and he’s obviously a top player but he didn’t move me in the same way DK and GG have at previous shows.     We thought the same about the drummer though - again an amazing player but felt like he was playing along with the songs rather than being part of them if that makes sense.  

Good gig though and nice to see SW appearing so relaxed and comfortable chatting with the audience.  

Alterlifeson

impmann said:

I was ten rows back, literally slap bang in the middle - Steven's mic stand was directly in front of me.

It could be that he's settling into the role - I was there with a great friend of mine who is an uber SW-nerd and was there all three nights at RAH, but sat in different places each time. He said Alex's sound just didn't carry anywhere in the hall. He's also a non-player and he wasn't impressed with the contributions to the songs - his quote "he sounds like a session musician sitting in, there's no passion". Another friend described him as "looking like he's having a particularly uncomfortable pooh" whilst playing... harsh, but I can see where he is coming from.

I hope Alex does settle in and really come through. He's clearly *very* technically gifted and perhaps with his sound fixed and his confidence up, it'll work better. The jazz fusion elements really flew with him - but the more 'bluesy' stuff (such as Regret 9) just didn't work so well.

Oh yes, I do have 4 1/2... its awesome.

Fair enough, sounds like you were in a better spot sound wise than me. I hope he does too, I've been rewatching the Yahoo stream from the HCE tour with Dave on guitar and I hadn't realised how well he played GGs parts. He's not quite as clean as Guthrie, but who is! His little personal twists on some of the solos were great too.