Steve Hackett and Another Wonderful Night of Genesis’s “Foxtrot” and Solo Career Highlights! (2023)
Steve Hackett
Palmanova / Piazza Grande / Italy
Thursday, 13 July 2023
Steve Hackett is, when it comes to rock music in 2023, something of a phenomenon. The man who turned a handsome 73 this year carries himself, unlike his generational peers, as though he were at least half that age. He remains inspired and creatively driven, still writing original music while keeping up a relentless touring schedule. When you look at his solo body of work and all those bold artistic moves he was pioneering as a twenty-something throughout the seventies — weaving them into the timeless fabric of prog-rock giants Genesis — his quiet, inexhaustible creative and live energy is, frankly, astonishing.
On the very last day of the summer leg of his new European tour — when the run of shows under the banner “Genesis Revisited – Foxtrot At Fifty + Hackett Highlights” wrapped up in Katowice, Poland, on 15 July 2023 — the man announced a new live release capturing one of the concerts from that same run. Hackett has been lovingly working this tour since last autumn, and it still isn’t over: there’s a fall leg still to come, across the Atlantic. “Foxtrot At Fifty + Hackett Highlights: Live In Brighton” will be released on Insideout Music on 15 September 2023!
It’s no secret that Hackett simply loves performing at the Mediterranean end of Europe. Italy is, in that regard, practically his second home. So the towering musical artist made another stop close to the western Slovenian border — this time genuinely close, in Palmanova, for the penultimate show of the summer run. The gorgeous venue at the heart of the city — its spacious main square — held up to 2,500 people when the legendary guitarist walked on stage at exactly 9 p.m., flanked by his backing crew. That crew has held the same lineup since 2019: Roger King (keyboards), Rob Townsend (winds, keyboards), Nad Sylvan (vocals), Craig Blundell (drums) and Jonas Reingold (bass guitar).
You could feel this leg of the tour winding down. The lavish lighting rig was noticeably scaled back, and the band has been playing somewhat shorter sets on this tour than we were used to last autumn, when we caught up with Hackett and his crew on 18 November 2022 in Padua, Italy. The time pressure this evening wasn’t Steve’s fault at all — it was the heavy clouds that had been massing over the venue before the show, relentlessly threatening a downpour. Already about 20 minutes in, the stage crew stripped all the curtains from the rig — not just the rear one, but the sides too — and carefully covered all the stage equipment in plastic sheeting.
The band is outrageously tight and well-oiled in performance. No slip-ups. Okay, there’s no such thing as a slip-up-free concert, but to both Hackett’s devoted faithful and the less initiated, everything on stage seemed genuinely flawless. They have a packed string of shows behind them, and being tight is simply part of the trade — the thing that puts bread on the table. If I can wax philosophical for a moment: given the complexity of the compositions, the tightness Hackett and company achieve is all the more staggering. From the moment Hackett and his crew opened the show with the Voyage Of The Acolyte (1975) classic Ace Of Wands, right through to the closing Los Endos, the band had the audience firmly in their grip from start to finish. The first half saw Maestro Hackett work through selections from his richly varied solo career. He’s trimmed that section for this tour — Spectral Mornings and A Tower Struck Down, two Hackett seventies classics, have been dropped, and Shadow Of The Hierophant has been cut roughly in half (Hackett retained the instrumental portion — the piece’s second half), which also means that Amanda Lehmann, who occasionally joins as vocalist and guitarist, is not along for this leg. The bass guitar solo has also been moved from this section to the encore. Fortunately, Hackett kept the gorgeous Every Day in the set — thanks above all to its exceptional solo, still one of the most distinctive moments anywhere in his discography, it delivers an intensely emotional experience every single time. After performing that classic, Steve Hackett voiced some concern about the looming clouds and wished the audience to “Stay dry and stay hot.” The setlist surprise Camino Royale (from the album Highly Strung, 1983) gave Steve and the band a chance to flex their jazz chops, lending this part of the set its own special character. The extended instrumental passage — during which band members indulged in a series of improvisations — was followed by the closing theatrical section of Shadow Of The Hierophant, whose distinctly dark nature — its predatory mood building with every passing cycle — instantly raises the hairs on your arms. Jonas Reingold also deploys bass pedals during this piece.
This time there was no break before the Foxtrot set. As mentioned — things were being hurried along by the strengthening wind gusts, and a few fat, heavy drops of rain had already fallen from the sky. Luckily, it stayed at that. Just a few drops.
Then came the full performance of the Genesis classic Foxtrot. In all its spectacular grandeur. Front to back, start to finish. From the soaring opening on the iconic mellotron sound — when the band launched into it with Watcher of the Skies — all the way through to the final serpentine moments of Supper’s Ready. Right from that opening Watcher Of The Skies, Nad Sylvan climbed up onto an additional riser (positioned stage left, slightly set back between Hackett and Townsend). Up there he moved like a ghost, as his astonishing mimicry began evoking the vocal character of Peter Gabriel to an almost uncanny degree of resemblance. You simply have to experience it to believe it. And Nad is, in all likelihood, entirely unique in the world for this ability. That’s exactly why Hackett can approach the revival of Genesis classics — and in recent years whole albums recorded with them in the seventies — with such ease and confidence: with Nad on vocals, he’s always on solid ground. Alongside the flawless instrumental execution of the Genesis album, Nad deserves special mention and praise in this part of the show. Without him, none of these iconic Genesis songs would land, grab you, or seduce you in quite the same way in Hackett’s reinterpretation. That effect extends to the audience at large. Many could barely stay in their seats — which tells you that order and discipline in that regard is not exactly a strong suit of our western neighbors. Plenty were singing the lyrics out loud, full melodies, clapping along with the rhythms of the classics. If you wanted to surrender fully to flawless enjoyment of what Hackett and company create on stage, all of that was, frankly, a little distracting.
The Foxtrot performance (at the album’s 50th anniversary — well, 51st by now, to be precise)? In a word: brilliant. The Genesis songs aren’t just brilliantly interpreted with faithful attention to every original detail — the band also treats itself to some additional instrumental flourishes, with Townsend frequently harmonizing and doubling Hackett’s guitar lines, giving the Genesis material an even richer, fuller sound and a more theatrically heightened mood, as Townsend deploys primarily soprano and alto saxophone. Naturally, the flute also makes an appearance (once an obligatory Gabriel prop). The two high points were the opening Watcher Of The Skies and the closing multi-part prog-rock epic Supper’s Ready, though it’s also worth singling out Hackett’s particular precision and delicacy on the gentle, caressing Horizons, played in textbook classical guitar posture. The exceptional cohesion and unity across the Foxtrot reinterpretation only reinforces how locked-in this band has become. Another special highlight is the extended instrumental outro in Supper’s Ready, where Hackett’s guitar turns gloriously loud (sonically ‘cranked’, let’s say), and the prog epic gains a further three-minute extension through the guitar wizard’s vivid solo turns in all their theatrical grandeur — bringing the total to over 26 minutes. All of it in service of one goal: to let this whole approach to performance simply cast a spell and, in its own way, hypnotize. And once again, Hackett pulled it off.
The audience erupted, and the ovations just kept on coming. More than that — everyone was on their feet, and getting them back in their seats was a lost cause. Then came the encore. It opened with another Genesis classic, Firth Of Fifth — where even the opening keyboard motif alone qualifies as a new peak, let alone the composition itself, the chord progressions and the way the piece develops, the band once again building a towering theatrical atmosphere. Then came that less thrilling stretch — the drum and bass solos — which somewhat thanklessly kills all the mystique of the timeless Genesis world that Hackett and company had conjured up that evening in Palmanova. But that’s the set list for you. On to the closing Los Endos, yet another iron Genesis staple you wish would never end. But, alas, it did this time too.
It’s hard to be sparing with words when you’ve just experienced a Steve Hackett concert. That remains a fact. Even in 2023! The man has meanwhile already hinted that he’s working on material for a new studio album. Given the freshness, the incredible stage agility and the spark he radiates with his crew on stages across the world — even now that he’s been well into his eighth decade for quite some time — it’s clear that Maestro Steve Hackett is nowhere near saying goodbye to his audience. Not creatively or artistically, and certainly not in the live arena. As stated. Words are never in short supply, yet in that sea of them it’s hard to find the ones that could briefly and concisely capture a concert experience as rich and lavish as what you get at a Steve Hackett show with his extraordinary stage crew. In the hope of another meeting as soon as possible, all I can do is sign off with this: “Unforgettable and priceless!”
Authors: Edita Klemen & Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik (no. 1–49) & Edita Klemen (no. 50)
Setlist:
1. Ace of Wands
2. The Devil’s Cathedral
3. Every Day
4. Camino Royale
5. Shadow of the Hierophant (closing instrumental section)
6. Watcher of the Skies
7. Time Table
8. Get ’em Out by Friday
9. Can-Utility and the Coastliners
10. Horizons
11. Supper’s Ready
—encore—
12. Firth of Fifth
13. Bass solo
14. Drum solo
15. Slogans
16. Los Endos
