This was going to be a treat if you were a fan of Steven Wilson, the main brain who is not only behind the Progressive Rock band Porcupine Tree, but also a rather prolific Producer and Engineer when it comes down to it.  Tonight the musician was going to be bringing his solo material to the fans over at the Best Buy Theater but that is a narrative for a different blog posting.  Right now we were going to celebrate the fact that Steven Wilson was going to take some time out of the busy day to head down to J&R Music World where he would entertain fans with a short acoustic set and then sign copies of his newest album “Grace For Drowning”.  I snapped a lot of photos of the performance and wrote up a piece on it that you can enjoy in full by clicking the logo below.  As you readers know this will take you over to the main PiercingMetal.com site but then please scroll down for some visuals that I am only presenting here for you.

I’ve covered about a handful of these kind of special events at J&R and as usual they had a very welcoming display.  This time around would be no different.

I always love capturing the shots of the signage.  I guess advertising is in my blood.

The stage that was once downstairs on the main floor appeared to have been moved up to the second floor and was now slightly larger.  At least to my eyes.  I liked it up here and look forward to seeing a number of artists on it going forward.

As you can also see there was quite a bit of Steven Wilson’s new CD “Grace For Drowning” available for sale.  They had the standard edition and the vinyl for the hard core collectors out there.

The fans were lined up along all the aisles that this part of the store had opened for them to use.  You cannot really tell from the images but there were a few hundred people here ready to enjoy Wilson’s music and to get the new CD signed by him.

and even some more of them.  I guessed that there were a couple of hundred fans in the store waiting on Wilson.

Shortly before 1pm, Steven Wilson was here for the fans.  He was at the Best Buy Theater and had the luck of dealing with Friday afternoon Manhattan traffic.  That is always a fun thing I tell you.

He quickly had the guitar in his hand and began to perform for the fans.  He would be joined by flautist Theo Travis and keyboardist Adam Holzman.

After the brief acoustic renditions it was time for Steven to meet with his fans and sign what they had brought out for them.  The employees of the store had to move everyone through quickly though so all could be met by Steven.  He didn’t want to disappoint anyone but he did have to get back uptown for the gig and any other final details.

I snared a copy of the new release myself and had to slip out to get ready for the evenings performance.  Those details and images will come via an article of their own.  Thanks once more to J&R Music World for doing this kind of stuff.  Keep it going please as you definitely excel at it.

Official Website: http://www.stevenwilson.com