Steve Hackett
Wednesday, 3 September 2025, 9:00 PM – 11:50 PM
Vicenza / Piazza Dei Signori / Italy
Maestro Steve Hackett! One and only! A man whose creativity belongs squarely in the category of pioneering significance — today a revered pillar and, let’s say it plainly, a global icon of progressive rock. It’s impossible to picture the unforgettable Genesis of the Seventies without him. Given the storied track record of this exceptional musical artist and innovator, it must be said that creative hunger doesn’t desert him even at 75. He releases a live album nearly every year, since he never stops touring. At the same time, he records and sees to the release of new original music — material for the next one is already in the works.
Over the years, Steve Hackett has long since earned Italian citizenship — in the figurative sense, of course! He’s practically a resident on the concert stages there. Whenever he announces a tour, there’s always a solid batch of Italian dates in the mix. More than once, such a tour has been a standalone affair covering only the Apennine Peninsula. Because demand for the current tour — on which the revered musician presents key passages from the legendary Genesis album “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway” (1974), his latest studio album “The Circus And The Nightwale” (2024, RockLine review), plus a bouquet of tracks from his solo career — has remained unwavering, Hackett extended the current tour by another year. Last year we caught him in Padua, on 2 November 2025 (Gran Teatro Geox, RockLine concert review). And this year, luck smiled on us when the man confirmed a new visit to Vicenza on 3 September 2025 among his fresh batch of Italian dates — a city where we last saw him on 24 April 2013 (venue: Teatro Comunale, RockLine concert review).
The guitar hero finds himself on the threshold of lineup changes this year. The dates he is performing and will perform on this tour will be the last for long-time partner and outstanding keyboardist Roger King, who is leaving Hackett after the tour. But the change in the drummer’s seat came even more out of nowhere — those of us who’d wrongly expected Craig Blundell on stage this time were in for a clean surprise. For the Italian dates, including the Vicenza show, German drumming ace Felix Lehrmann had already stepped into Hackett’s band. Lehrmann has a reputation in his home country as the drummer with the most studio collaborations to his name, appearing on over 300 released albums. Throughout his career he has worked with, among others: Dendemann, Sarah Connor, The Flower Kings, Jon Anderson, Martin Miller, Jan Böhmermann, Aloe Blacc, Jennifer Rush, Gloria Gaynor, Samy Deluxe, Haftbefehl, Torsten Goods, China Moses, Randy Brecker, Paul Gilbert and Dieter “Maschine” Birr. In 2020 he founded his own band Marriage Material, with Thomas Stieger, Raphael Meinhart and Arto Mäkelä rounding out the lineup.
Vicenza is a smaller city set in the middle of the Po Plain, yet graced with stunning architecture dating back to Roman times, for which its old town centre is renowned. At the heart of it all is the beautiful and very spacious square known as Piazza Dei Signori. Getting there this time proved trickier than we’d initially expected. Navigating city centres along narrow Italian streets — topped off by the country’s unique traffic signage — has always taken its toll on RockLine in Italy (including in the form of subsequent letters of unpleasant content that hit your wallet without mercy). We’ve experienced this over the years in Trieste, Verona, Padua, Bologna and, last but not least, Milan. And Vicenza was no exception. Parking a car in the strict city centre requires nerves of steel. Fortune favours the brave, so once again we squeezed through the eye of a needle and arrived in front of the stage with seconds to spare — at least 3,000 seats filled to capacity, where the loyal Italian crowd was already building that special atmosphere so well known for its bubbling, effusive positivity, a hallmark of their extraordinarily curious and ceremonial temperament! It’s precisely because of this kind of audience that Hackett’s concerts in Italy are always something special! Grand, unforgettable. The kind of thing you simply have to experience!
Maestro Hackett divided his performance into two sets with a 20-minute intermission. The first set highlighted the defining moments of his solo (post-Genesis) career and the best of his latest album “The Circus And The Nightwale”. The lineup of Hackett (guitar, vocals), Roger King (keyboards), Rob Townsend (winds, keyboards, percussion), Nad Sylvan (vocals, backing vocals), Jonas Reingold (bass guitar) and newcomer Felix Lehrmann began setting the scene for an unforgettable, one-of-a-kind atmosphere that carries you off into a world of its own — that dreamworld you never want to wake up from. It was going to be a long adventure. Two and a half hours. With the interval, nearly three! And that’s exactly why we keep going back to Mr Hackett’s concerts. These are the gigs where you can recharge your completely drained batteries to the full!
The band is unmissable. Given how much they play and how consistently, that’s no surprise. Felix justified his status as the newly joined member. Given his reputation, that’s no surprise either. Playing with Hackett means you have to be the best of the best. Felix delivered! Any doubts or questions were utterly unnecessary! The yellow headband confirmed his ultimate German commitment to rock, whether that’s Nina Hagen or Electric Callboy.
The opening two tracks from the latest album were handled vocally by Hackett himself, with Sylvan supporting on backing vocals. On the instrumental These Passing Clouds, Maestro Hackett took absolute centre stage with his singular guitar playing, joined by Rob Townsend’s playful soprano saxophone. There was also The Devil’s Cathedral — a brooding track from Hackett’s previous album “Surrender Of Silence”. A full, blazing turning point in the atmosphere is always delivered by the fantastic Spectral Mornings classic Every Day — a track it’s hard to imagine any Hackett concert without. A masterpiece that, thanks to one of the finest solos of Hackett’s career (in its second half), never fails to raise the hairs on your arms. Then came an exceptionally interesting section. A Tower Struck Down, the ultimate dramatic piece from Hackett’s debut “Voyage of the Acolyte” (Townsend switching to flute and saxophone), and one of the biggest surprises — Camino Royale (album »Highly Strung«, 1983). That one has now held its place in the setlist for the third year running. Compared to the original, it takes the setlist in a distinctly artistic detour, and for the aficionados it’s a real musical treat — Maestro Hackett and the band stretched it into an extended improvisational jazz-rock fusion ‘rampage’. The big finale of the first set belonged to another “Voyage Of The Acolyte” classic — Shadow Of The Hierophant. Given how that track is constructed, it’s clear the first set builds to a dramatically theatrical crescendo right at the close! What followed was a towering finale. A repeated motif that builds in intensity with every cycle. This deeply brooding track also delivered a crucial glimpse of what Felix Lehrmann is capable of — right at the close of the first set he got plenty of room to let rip on the drums, and not for a single moment did he let up on his toms!
After the 20-minute break came the second set. Markedly more nostalgic. It launched us straight into the classic Genesis album “The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway”. The band highlighted the essential moments of that album and once again crowned the sheer demands of interpreting it with an incredibly tight, near-perfect performance — both sonically and in terms of execution. Anything less simply won’t do, and can’t be done. We’ve been spoiled — all the way back to that first encounter, the distant 1 August 2010 in Trieste (Piazza Unita d’Italia, RockLine concert review)!
The years don’t show on Hackett. He radiated warmth and energy, helped along by the sheer theatre of it all — moving now towards one musician, now towards another, frequently lining up side by side with Reingold. The front of the stage was strewn with pedals — Hackett’s and Reingold’s! Sylvan more than justified his role in this farewell, his refined and emotive delivery placing his voice right between Gabriel and Collins. And that’s precisely the finishing touch that adds so much to the credibility of Hackett’s interpretation of the Genesis classics! You won’t get closer or deeper to Genesis in this day and age than what Hackett delivers. For that reason alone, attending Hackett’s concerts is an absolute must for any fan of classic Genesis, even today!
Maestro Hackett once again delivered that singular esoteric experience. With refined, delicate technique he shaped and layered sound effects that intensified and magnified the expressive reach of his playing… Occasional theatrical tapping — in that regard Hackett is rightly considered a pioneer — plus the ‘hanging’ off the tremolo arm… Hackett remains a self-made original. And still classically trained! There’s no room for jokes here. Alongside Carpet Crwalers and the title track, we also heard Broadway Melody of 1974 and Fly On A Windshield (last played on tour in 2014), plus Hairless Heart (last played on tour in 2015), then The Chamber of 32 Doors, Lilywhite Lilith, The Lamia and It! Tracks Hackett has rarely, if ever, touched in his solo career. Priceless. These days, the closest you’ll get to classic Genesis is going to a Hackett concert. When you close your eyes, it genuinely feels like the real Genesis are up on that stage.
We moved into the final section of the main set! At this point, Hackett adapted the repertoire. Gone were the Genesis classics Dancing With the Moonlit Knight, The Cinema Show and Aisle of Plenty, but back in was the ultimate prog-rock epic from Genesis album “Foxtrot” (1972) — the masterwork Supper’s Ready! Anyone complaining about that swap? Not a chance. In Hackett’s reinterpretation, the track is stretched to nearly half an hour — at least five minutes longer than the original. You feel it, you hear it and, not least, you see it. No question about it. Everything stands in its place. Every building block. Exactly where it needs to be — including the extended outro. This moment in the musical universe remains something special even in 2025! A good two hours fly by in an instant. With magic like this, it’s not hard to put the listener into a state of hypnosis.
The band took their leave, and the crowd erupted into thunderous applause that seemed to have no end in sight or sound. Of course, Mr Hackett and his crew came back. They kept the fire going for another half hour. The ovations didn’t let up. Hackett and the band had to wait a fair while for the temperamental and visibly moved crowd to settle down. Then came the ‘Selling England By The Pound’ classic Firth Of Fifth! That unforgettable keyboard intro, the work of genius Tony Banks. Another track that ends too soon — especially that finale with Hackett’s esoteric lines, with a motif you don’t want to resolve on its final note to the major, because you know that means the song is over! And Los Endos. Before the encore, the crowd had packed itself in between the stage and the first row of seats. Hackett whipped the crowd up further with sweeping gestures of his arms. There was Hackett’s own Slogans, which they always splice into Los Endos. The final breaths of the concert reached their definitive peak as the band returned to the finale of Genesis classic Los Endos and at last brought an unforgettable, magnificent evening to a close.
And the story continues. A new studio album is in the making. A new tour to follow, and so it goes. Superlatives aren’t enough. Long may it stay that way!
Text: Edita Klemen & Aleš Podbrežnik
Photography: Aleš Podbrežnik & Edita Klemen
Setlist:
Set 1:
1. People of the Smoke
2. These Passing Clouds
3. Circo Inferno
4. The Devil’s Cathedral
5. Every Day
6. A Tower Struck Down
7. Basic Instincts (Bass solo)
8. Camino Royale
9. Shadow of the Hierophant
—20 min. break—
Set 2:
10. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
11. Fly on a Windshield
12. Broadway Melody of 1974
13. Hairless Heart
14. The Carpet Crawlers
15. The Chamber of 32 Doors
16. Lilywhite Lilith
17. The Lamia
18. it
19. Supper’s Ready
—encore—
20. Firth of Fifth
21. Los Endos / Slogans / Los Endos
