Location: Lignano Sabbiadoro / Beach Arena / Italy
Date: Wednesday, 05.07.2017
Guitar maestro Steve Hackett, who has done by far the most of any (former) member to keep the musical legacy of the legendary Genesis alive, stopped by our western neighbors on his current summer tour, where he has always been welcomed with open arms. His music generally speaks to the Romance soul, which is hardly surprising in the country that invented the subgenre of “Italian progressive rock”, even in modern times. Lignano is a small Italian resort town that, besides its sandy beach right by the sea, also has a concert venue. The fact that admission was free this time drew in a whole bunch of curious passersby, families with small kids and other unlikely visitors who had never listened to Hackett’s body of work before. As expected, plenty of those folks left before the show was over. The stadium by the beach was almost completely full, but down on the sand there was still lots of room left for the crowd, so there was space aplenty. You just couldn’t get up to the stage, since that area was reserved for seats for well-heeled guests with special invitations.
Steve hit the stage at roughly the announced time. If you wandered around the area near the stage, you could spot him long before the show started, chatting with his wife and manager Jo. Once again, Steve was joined by his longtime crew of thoroughly seasoned musicians: the cult bassist / occasional vocalist Nick Beggs, keyboardist Roger King, wind player Rob Townsend, drummer / occasional vocalist Gary O’Toole and vocalist Nad Sylvan. The latter only showed up on stage in the second half of the gig, when it was time for the Genesis classics. The first-half setlist was nicely balanced between old and new Steve solo standards. So we got to enjoy classics like the opener “Every Day”, “The Steppes” and “Shadow of the Hierophant” alongside material from the new album, “The Night Siren” (2017), led by “El Nino”, “In the Skeleton Gallery” and “Behind the Smoke”. Steve and his gang once again floored us with the incredible tightness with which they tossed off some of prog rock’s biggest delicacies like it was nothing, and the sound was very solid too. With the epic “Shadow of the Hierophant”, which of course didn’t have the female vocals of the original version, Steve wrapped up the solo standards for the night and turned to the Genesis evergreens.
Even before the first Genesis classic, the charismatic singer Sylvan joined the band on stage, once again impressing with his outstanding vocal interpretations and the vocal kinship he shares with both Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins. This year marks the fortieth anniversary of the cult album “Wind and Wuthering” (1977), which has always been very close to Steve’s heart, so he decided to play most of the songs from that masterpiece. So besides the “standard” treats like “Blood on the Rooftops” and “Afterglow”, which Steve has played many times in the past, we also heard gems like “Eleventh Earl of Mar”, “One For the Vine” and “…In That Quiet Earth”. The biggest surprise of the night was the performance of the gorgeous ballad “Inside and Out” from the rare EP “Spot the Pigeon” (1977), which later also came out on the second part of the Genesis archives. From the Genesis classics of other chapters of their career, we then heard “Dance On a Volcano”, “Firth of Fifth” and the obligatory “The Musical Box”, with which Steve’s crew closed out the main part of their set.
Before the encore, Steve apologized for missing the closing introduction of the band members, explaining that he’d cut his finger while scraping the strings during “The Musical Box” and had to go get a band-aid in a hurry. For the big finale, the maestros played a medley made up of two Hackett solo standards, “Myopia” and “Slogans”, plus the Genesis masterpiece “Los Endos”, which has become the traditional closer of most of Steve’s shows. It’s incredibly hard to find enough superlatives to sum up the impressions of this fantastic concert event. Mr. Hackett and his admirable crew of musical masters proved once again that the test of time hasn’t dented the quality of his live shows in the slightest. What’s more, Steve gives the impression, over and over, that he’s never played with such zest as in the last few years, and on top of that he looks the youngest of all the (former) Genesis members. His show in Lignano was insanely good, and it would be completely pointless to look for individual highlights of the night, since the whole concert was one big top-notch experience.
author: Peter Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Set 1 (Hackett Old & New):
1. Every Day
2. El Niño
3. The Steppes
4. In the Skeleton Gallery
5. Behind the Smoke
6. Serpentine Song
7. Rise Again
8. Shadow of the Hierophant
Set 2 (Genesis Revisited):
9. Eleventh Earl of Mar
10. One for the Vine
11. Blood on the Rooftops
12. …In That Quiet Earth
13. Afterglow
14. Dance on a Volcano
15. Inside and Out
16. Firth of Fifth
17. The Musical Box
—encore—
18. Myopia intro / Los Endos / Slogans / Los Endos conclusion (medley)
