Venue: Padova / Gran Treatro Geox / Italy
Date: Friday, 18. 11. 2022
Steve Hackett is very likely the last of his kind today. With his take on the world of guitar playing and his unexpected inventiveness, the former Genesis guitarist left behind one of the most prominent artistic engravings in defining the progressive rock genre, forever. He’s considered one of the most insightful and creative musicians of the generation that got progressive rock on its feet more than fifty years ago. He’s the only one of his generational peers who has stayed active the whole way through, touring, recording and creating fresh original material. Non-stop. From his beginnings in 1968 right up to today, as he slowly creeps toward his 73rd birthday. Just last year he released two albums. The first was “Under A Mediterranian Sky” (RockLine review), an all-instrumental, orchestral-acoustic achievement, and the second a standard studio album, “Surrender Of Silence” (RockLine review). And in between he’s been on the road constantly. This past summer we caught him in Udine, Italy. There he played the whole of “Seconds Out” live (marking the 45th anniversary of that cult Genesis live album), and then in late autumn he returned once more to venues across the old continent with a series of shows combining a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Genesis album “Foxtrot” with the highlights of his long-lived, creatively lavish, multi-faceted musical career.
One of the key factors keeping Hackett going, along with total creative freedom and elusive musical vision, is his classical training, which he so cunningly weaves through different musical genres into a one-of-a-kind musical conglomerate. Commanding all of it is the unique, instantly recognizable character of his playing. Pioneering polish. Hackett set the standards for tapping and sweep picking, and he’s cited as a big influence by, among others, Brian May, Alex Lifeson and of course the guy who pushed the whole guitar-hero show with its heap of tricks to the absolute limit through the eighties, the late Eddie Van Halen. With all that on the record, the only generational peer who might keep pace is someone like Robert Fripp, who hasn’t wanted to record new King Crimson material in more than twenty years. The rest have stopped. Either from years of creative impotence (Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Steve Howe,…) or because their health is slowly fading. Nobody holds it against them. But Hackett is the exception. On top of his incredible studio drive, his stage bounce and agility are still downright astonishing for a 72-year-old.
Maestro Hackett arrived once more at the Padova venue Gran Teatro Geox, where we’d already had the chance to admire him once, on 25. 9. 2015, with his thoroughly well-oiled crew: top musical talent of Swedish-American origin Nad Sylvan, a vocalist considered the ideal crossing point of Collins and Gabriel; his longtime partners in crime, the versatile woodwind player Rob Townsend and keyboardist Roger King; and the younger members who joined four years ago, bassist Jonas Reingold (Kaipa, The Flower Kings, Karmakanic) and drummer Craig Blundell (Pendragon, Steven Wilson, Lonely Robot).
The venue was in fact completely sold out. Here and there a chair sat empty, but otherwise it was a crowd of around 2,500 ‘red-hot’ Italian prog rock fans! As far as the eye could see. Hackett and the gang were running a bit late this time. They hit the stage at half past nine in the evening (the start had been announced for 9:15 p.m.). The first part saw the band playing classics from Hackett’s solo career. The punchy opener, Ace Of Wands from “Voyage of the Acolyte” (1975), which maestro Hackett has always loved to kick off his concerts with, got the crowd up in an instant. “Surrender Of Silence” got just one number, The Devil’s Cathedral. After that temptation of the devil came the ‘birth of the morning dawn’ in another classic, Spectral Mornings, where Reingold picked up a combined twelve-string and bass guitar. The crowd really got into the joyful Every Day, which in the second part gets replaced by a phenomenal mystical instrumental with one of the most striking and recognizable solos of Hackett’s entire career. Then came two surprises. Another “Voyage of the Acolyte” classic, A Tower Struck Down, and a generally interesting pick, Camino Royale from “Highly Strung” (1983), which doesn’t exactly rank high among Hackett connoisseurs and fans.
The band delivered top-notch tightness. It’s a pleasure to watch how calm the members stay while performing such complexly built pieces. Maestro Hackett misses nothing. Not a speck, while his crew builds incredible bridges in the realization of the original compositions, between classical foundations and pronounced genre detours, all the way to outright flirting with elements of jazz. The group closed the first part with Shadow Of The Hierophant, but without (occasional extra vocalist and guitarist) Amanda Lehmann, who accompanied the band on stage this past summer, meaning in a fully instrumental version. Dark and mystical, as always. With motif repetitions played round and round, more and more intensely. Up to a fantastic crescendo that raises every hair on your body. A temptation like no other. If anyone knows how to conjure mysticism into music, it’s British musicians, led by Hackett’s generation.
The first part flew by in a flash. Hackett announced a 15-minute break. The second part of the show delivered what most of the crowd came to Gran Teatro Geox for that night. In the summer of 2019, after a European tour, Hackett and the gang played the whole of “Selling England By The Pound” (1973) – we caught one of those shows in mid-July 2019 in Pordenone, and now it was time for a live rendition of another great classic from the pioneering years of progressive rock, the fourth Genesis album, “Foxtrot” (1972).
The venue goes dark. Silence. Suddenly a giant Mellotron sound floods the whole place. Floods is the word. Watcher of the Skies. Essential. Indispensable. One of a kind. With his concert touring of recent years, Hackett is the only musician who can bring the classic glory days of Genesis to his audience, right into the palm of their hand. Within an inch. A millimeter away. It’s fascinating that Genesis wrote an album like “Foxtrot” when the guys were a tender 22 years old. A giant slab of rock history, along with it. By today’s standards that’s downright unthinkable. Especially when you also look at the cosmic epic Supper’s Ready.
Hackett and the crew are flawless. They actually approach the Genesis material very elementally. Just like Genesis in 1972. Reingold often doubles Hackett on acoustic guitar, the way Rutherford used to do back in the day. On those parts the band doesn’t use bass guitar. Nad Sylvan once again added the cherry on top, without which the whole thing wouldn’t have the right reach of expression and, ultimately, the right point. Several times he appeared on stage like a ghost, to the right of Hackett, or on the platform behind him. Sylvan is also important for bringing a pinch of glam theater into all this endless sonic and creative musical vividness. With his vocal charisma, which blends elements of Collins’s and Gabriel’s singing in its tone, the Genesis songs came to life flawlessly. Hackett really only intensified his live repertoires of Genesis music from around 2013, when Sylvan joined the crew. It matters so much to have a vocalist who gets close to Gabriel or Collins. In Sylvan’s case we can talk about a combination of both, which is an exceptional rarity.
As always, a heap of motifs is lovingly harmonized, and the band creates an extremely dense sonic picture at its shows. Hackett’s guitar is instantly recognizable anyway, and then there’s Rob Townsend loaded up with every wind instrument imaginable, this time especially focused on playing flute, which in the original was Gabriel’s work. Some parts of the originals are stretched out at will. Jazz finesse is woven into them, but above all the re-interpretation of the classic “Foxtrot” reaches its expected crescendo with the symphonic epic Supper’s Ready, which in the hands of Hackett and the crew gets seriously extended, especially in the outro, where Hackett whirls out a furious solo and brings the whole thing to an absolute peak, growing the epic by another three minutes.
A Steve Hackett concert, running over two full hours, remains absolute hypnosis. Even in 2022. No less, no more. A must for fans of his persona and work, and for lovers of classic Genesis music. The classic Genesis material won’t leave the concert repertoire anytime soon, since integrating Genesis classics guarantees Hackett full halls. But Hackett knows that without Sylvan this very likely wouldn’t exist. Or the whole thing wouldn’t sound so damn close to the original as it does with Sylvan in the lineup, which again wouldn’t satisfy Hackett’s perfectionism.
After two solid hours of music, the Italian crowd once again rewarded its hero and his crew with thunderous ovations that just wouldn’t die down. Hackett is at home in Italy, and the musician himself would very likely agree without hesitation that it’s one of his favorite places to play. And he plays there regularly. Let’s hope it stays that way, because the man isn’t slowing down. On stage he once again showed everything (and more) he’s known for, and he’s still very vital, sparkling and fun, and in contact with the audience he gives off that sense of deep gratitude, fulfillment and, in a way, great humility that you rarely meet in musicians (of such stature). Hackett remains a genius of his own kind. An inexhaustible musical creator, innovator and pioneer who regularly delivers great stage shows. If you haven’t seen Hackett live yet, it would be a kind of sin not to treat yourself to one of his concerts. Hackett still plays regularly on every tour, and relatively close to Slovenia’s western border with Italy. Even though there’s less and less sand left in the big hourglass, there’s still an exceptional chance to polish up and enrich your concert experiences.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik & Edita Klemen
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist:
1. Ace of Wands
2. The Devil’s Cathedral
3. Spectral Mornings
4. Every Day
5. A Tower Struck Down
6. Bass guitar solo
7. Camino Royale
8. Shadow of the Hierophant
—15 min. break—
9. Watcher of the Skies
10. Time Table
11. Get ’em Out by Friday
12. Can-Utility and the Coastliners
13. Horizons
14. Supper’s Ready
—encore—
15. Firth of Fifth
16. Drum solo
17. Los Endos / Slogans / Los Endos
