As part of his highly anticipated 2025 Overview world tour, prog-rock legend Steven Wilson returned to India, sending shockwaves through the country’s massive fan base. After stopping in Mumbai, Delhi, and Kolkata, Steven Wilson Live in India multi-city tour finally made its way to Namma Bengaluru.
It was November 2025 where the prog god descended just 5kms away from where I stay and present to us – The Steven Wilson Experience in Bengaluru, and fortunately for a die hard fan like me, it was the best thing to happen this year. With his new eighth studio album – Overview as the main focus, Steven Wilson Live in India tour revolved around the majority of his solo work, and of course due to the popularity of Porcupine Tree, he included a few songs on public demand. The show was a calculated mayhem of some hard core psychedelic music and some good old heavy metal but in Steven Wilson style.
Having attended his last concert in Nh7 Weekender Pune back in 2017, watching him again was something I was really looking forward to. But god damn, every minute of the show was engaging, endearing and orgasmic.
Through this short and sweet blog I’ll try my best to take you through the whole journey of taking part in an unforgettable experience, and with equal emphasis on the goods and the bads, and how the organizers Skillbox can improve lots on.
I got to see Steven Wilson Live in India for the second time 🤩
Having booked the ticket about 5 months ago itself, the only thing I was hoping all these months was the gig to not get called off.
And after an immense amount of anticipation, the day finally arrived. And the venue chosen was Bhartiya Mall. Where back in the days we used to go watch concerts in open grounds, I was skeptical about how the sound and experience is going to be inside a mall. But, Skillbox delivered in this regard. With a few manageable glitches in the sidescreens, the sound was impeccable. The only thing I hoped to achieve was to get a center spot 🙁 which was not possible because of the low civic sense our fellow folk. Eventually I had to find a sweet spot on the Left Wing, which I was pretty happy with, as I got to rave hard without feeling some rando’s breath on me, yet – get a perfect glimpse of perhaps my most favourite music artist to ever exist.
What a setlist!
Without any introduction and shizz, the Steven Wilson band started around 7.20 p.m directly with some hard hitting songs from the album Overview.
The songs played listed below:
Set 1 (The Overview):
Roughly with a 20 mins of constant space adventure, the band took a small break of 10 mins before the real shizz was unveiled. Personally, not having dedicatedly listened to the new album, it was kind of a revelation to me – how this new album is so Porcupine Treeish, which is now a chance for me to binge on the album and master the lyrics and riffs completely 😛
Set 2 of the Steven Wilson Live in India Bengaluru Concert:
- King Ghost
- Home Invasion/Regret #9
- What Life Brings
- Staircase
- Dislocated Day
- Pariah
- Luminol
- Harmony Korine
- Vermillioncore
After that long ass 10 mins which felt like forever, the band was quick to be back and right away started with a song me and my wife love and adore – King Ghost, from the 2021 album – The Future Bites.
When Steve sang –
“Will you help me gather my thoughts?
Will you help me find
Transitions I forgot?”
I literally had tears in my eyes and some major goosebumps.
Nodding/headbanging the whole time, time flew, as the band started playing songs which were already decided well in-advance. And sadly with Steve having a bad time in Mumbai and other cities where folk requested songs and he clearly got irritated, he made sure he’s not engaging in crowd banter, which I felt was for the best.
The second set had its share of some hard hitting metal songs, and my mind melted for sometime when the band started playing – Dislocated Day. A song which I adore and love. From the album ‘The Sky Moves Sideways’, a PT song from back in 1995 when I was just bloody 2 years old, this song is a complete mixture of heavy riffs and major psychedelic rock elements.
Once the set 2 was complete which involved intense manual labor on the stage by the bandmates it was time for the band to lay low and move to the last part of the concert – the Encore part.
Encore:
The Encore started with Lazarus. No points for guessing.
As the crowd consisted of 80% of folk who had to come just to watch Lazarus this decision was worth the money, if not for me – at least for the others. Me being a hard core Steven Wilson/Porcupine Tree fan, any song is a good song for me, so no complaints either.
Post Lazarus, the band started playing Ancestral 😵💫 One of my most favorite SW songs, mostly due to the transitions the song has and some dark dark lyrics.
The song goes:
‘Reason never seems to come to guilty men’
‘Things that meant so much, means nothing in the end’
A perfect anthem to sing, headbang and feel bad, Ancestral has my heart and this is a song I can listen to every day and every night.
And finally before we realized the last song of the evening was played and it was none other than – The Raven That Refused to Sing.
What a lovely, happy song to end the evening on Steve, I must say.
On a note of wanting more, and without a basic thank you and see you soon, the band just got off the stage and left.
Goods and the Bads
There were hardly a few bads when compared to the goods, but let me just list them down, so that if this blog reaches the Skillbox folk, they can work on it.
Bads:
- Entering the venue took forever and was complicated without much information laid out clearly
- The washrooms were shaky and taking a leak felt like an adventure on its own
- Despite the venue being open we were chased off the place once the gig got over, and the guards behaved rudely with us
Goods:
- Sound setup
- Getting Steven Wilson to play in Bengaluru
Overview of the Steven Wilson India Tour
As soon as the Steven Wilson Live in India Tour was announced, through his official website, SW himself shared –
I’m very excited to announce that The Overview tour is coming to India in November 2025! We’re playing four shows: Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Bengaluru. I can’t wait to return, India’s one of my favourite crowds to play for.
Four cinematic shows were planned for:
- Mumbai on 2nd Nov 2025
- Delhi NCR on 5th Nov 2025
- Kolkata on 7th Nov 2025
- Bengaluru on 9th Nov 2025
with tickets which went live on 12th April @ 12 PM on the Skillbox website and Application.
The Evolution of the Steven Wilson India Tour Setlist
While Bengaluru was the grand finale of the Steven Wilson India tour, looking back at his path through Mumbai, New Delhi, and Kolkata reveals how the show evolved. Mumbai’s opening night at the Nesco Center was highly unique, featuring a stunning guest collaboration with sitarist Purbayan Chatterjee on Porcupine Tree’s ‘Voyage 34’. However, by the time the tour hit Delhi, Kolkata, and finally our gig at the Bhartiya Mall of Bengaluru, the setlist locked into an expanded, powerhouse format. While we swapped out the sitar jam, later stops were rewarded with a massive three-song encore package, giving us ‘Lazarus’ and the epic ‘Ancestral’ alongside ‘The Raven That Refused to Sing’ to close out the night.
So its a Late Goodbye
Having created our own vibe, the bads didn’t seem much like a hassle and overall it was a crazy experience for the money paid. I wish the setlist was a bit longer with a bigger break, but considering how complicated is playing prog rock on stage, let’s not behave critical and eat what’s on the plate.
Hoping for another Steven Wilson Experience in Bengaluru very soon or at least wishing to see him or Porcupine Tree on stage very soon, irrespective of wherever it is. But before I conclude the blog, Indian Prog fans are in for treat yet again in the year 2026, all thanks to Opeth announcing a two city tour in India in October 2026, you can read in-depth about this including how and where to book tickets. Coming back to the Steven Wilson Live in India – the Bengaluru concert review, all in all, the Overview Tour of 2025 almost concluded with a few more cities scheduled in Australia. Maybe next year again once he’s done producing some crazy music, SW will be back on the stage, giving back to the world what is indeed an underrated commodity – Good Music 😀
