Steve Hackett – At the Edge of Light, Genesis, Spectral Mornings and a Lunar Eclipse (2019)
Location: Pordenone / Parco San Valentino / Italy
Date: Tuesday, 16.07.2019
This year’s Pordenone Blues festival, already its 28th edition, brought a legendary guitarist, innovator and, not least, a true musical pioneer to the Italian town of Pordenone: Steve Hackett, a great guru of the guitar craft, who hardly needs saying was the lead guitarist of prog rock giants Genesis back in the seventies, helping build the towering, indelible musical monolith of great rock classics. Of all the members of that colossal musical fortress, Steve Hackett has remained, in the post-millennium years, surely the most creative and productive artist, forever running on artistic fuel. This year he put out yet another new studio album, “At the Edge of Light” (RockLine review HERE). Despite his mature years, with the big seven-oh fast approaching, Hackett is still an artist who regularly delivers excellent studio albums, at intervals of two to three years. The ideas clearly never dry up. Neither does the touring. Next to him, his former Genesis buddies are real creative and live “slackers”. Then again, unlike the hardworking Hackett, they can afford it, being incomparably more successful money-makers.
On top of giving birth to a new studio album this year, Hackett also came up with a live celebration of two anniversaries: the Genesis album “Selling England By The Pound” from 1973, and his own third studio album “Spectral Mornings” from 1979.Both rank among Hackett’s personal favorite studio creations (Genesis and solo). So he decided that the new tour would feature a concert in two parts: the first with the most striking moments of “Spectral Mornings” plus the new album, and then, after a 20-minute break, the second part with the complete Genesis album “Selling England By The Pound”. Encore included, of course.
This day was truly something special. It wasn’t just the monthly phenomenon of a full moon, the moon in all its fullness was also going through an eclipse. The eclipse began at 22:01 and peaked at 23:30, while the concert started at 21:15 and wrapped up at midnight. That means the moon, with its magical power, surely influenced the intensity of the concert itself and gave it a special touch. The Parco San Valentino venue was very well attended.
This summer Steve Hackett is again playing a fair number of shows in our western neighbor’s territory, where, by his own words, he always likes to play best. Luckily, he again stopped close enough to the Slovenian border. So we simply couldn’t turn down another visit to one of his current shows, in Pordenone, where he already performed in 2014.
For the new tour, which he has been on since this April, Steve Hackett adjusted his lineup of supporting musicians somewhat. Bassist Nick Beggs (The Mute Gods, Kaja Goo Goo, Steven Wilson) dropped out because of too many commitments and was replaced by Jonas Reingold (The Flower Kings), and drummer Gary O’Toole was replaced by Craig Blundell (Steven Wilson), while the guitarist’s backing band is rounded out by the usual familiar names: Rob Townsend (woodwinds, percussion), Ned Sylvain (vocals) and Roger King (keyboards).
At exactly a quarter past nine the legendary guitarist greeted the crowd, and the band tackled one of the strongest creative moments not only of “Spectral Mornings” but of Hackett’s entire career, the unforgettable Every Day, which Steve has always loved opening his shows with, on past tours too. The sound from the very first second was like something out of a dream. A superb rhythm pairing, with Reingold capturing down to the last detail the rattling, piercing Rickenbecker sound of the old school of prog rock pioneering, alongside the colorful, inventive playing of the brilliant Blundell and the well-oiled masters Townsend and King, together with the ever-present sound of Hackett’s guitar, they create a mystical, tight and utterly distinctive mood that, in the atmosphere it delivers, sends shivers down your spine. That mood hits its peak right at the start, of course, in one of the most beautiful solos ever created in the whole era of rock and roll, one that puts the whole unique mastery and incredible fine mechanics of a singular guitar genius like Mr. Hackett on display in one place. Who defined tapping, and who did Eddie Van Halen learn from? You find that out, among other places, in this very song. A one-of-a-kind, instantly recognizable sound of an esoteric guitar, vibrating fully with the support of the sustain effect. Hackett’s vocals, accompanied by the other musicians, above all Ned Sylvain, are as always carefully backed with extra effects, vocoder included, which strengthens that peculiar atmosphere gazing into mystery and esotericism. The first part was mostly devoted to the most striking moments of the unforgettable “Spectral Mornings”, where, as mentioned, one of the peaks was the unforgettable solo of the opener Every Day, but Master Hackett also touched on the new album “At the Edge Of Light”, lining up three tracks from it in a row. More punchy in nature, led of course by the awakening and whirling Under the Eye Of The Sun. Hackett delighted his audience, which has of course turned gray-haired over the years (the sight of three youngsters from Slovenia in the front row gave some hope), especially by including moments he hasn’t played on the setlist for a long, long time. That goes especially for The Virgin and The Gypsy, the instrumental Tigermoth and The Red Flower of Tachai Blooms Everywhere. Exceptional tuning, sound and performance. The creation of a unique musical world that sucks you in instantly. As always, Hackett didn’t forget to work in the excellent title track of his cult album, which, alongside Every Day, brought a new thrilling experience that gave you goosebumps, and the first part, lasting 50 minutes, was closed by Clocks – The Angel Of Mons. A song, then, that Hackett liked to put in the closing stretch of the repertoire on past tours.
After a twenty-minute break, Ned Sylvain took on an almost dominant position. He transformed into Peter Gabriel, while Hackett and his gang started playing the Genesis classic “Selling England By The Pound”. Sylvain, who didn’t forget to dress up theatrically in the manner of his famous predecessor for the occasion, nailed the opening vocal lines of Dancing With The Moonlit Knight, sung a cappella, with incredible success. Flawlessly, really. His timbre is amazingly close to Gabriel’s, that is, the original, and in this singer Hackett has found a truly credible solution for reinterpreting all the Genesis classics from the time when Peter Gabriel was singing with the band.
Throughout the concert there wasn’t a hint of anyone missing a note or being less than confident in the performance. In his usual style Hackett wandered off to the side a few times to rub his hands with “smukec” (a grip aid), which he always does so his hands don’t slip while playing. The band freshened up the arrangements of some parts of the songs a bit. Where Gabriel’s flute stands, it can also be replaced by Rob Townsend’s soprano saxophone. The latter worked a proper jazzy tenor sax interlude into one of the tracks, which the original doesn’t have, and it was also impossible to expect, let alone demand, that Sylvain be a perfect copy of Gabriel, since he adapted especially the higher and highest vocal lines. Particularly extended and further livened up with refreshed arrangements was the performance of I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe). Sylvain proved he is a top-class vocalist, especially in the vocally more demanding numbers like More Fool Me and above all in the exceptional performance of the demanding The Battle Of Epping Forest, which brought one of the peaks of the performance of the cult Genesis album. Then there’s the neoclassically yearning “medieval” After the Ordeal, where Hackett conveys his sensuality of refined fine mechanics and makes happy everyone who perhaps missed Horizons this time. Firth Of Fifth remains a chapter of its own, as an epic symphony, in its very approach to composing and of course the incredible atmospheric grip its performance unleashes. Aisle of Plenty is here too, closing out with a farewell to the main motif of the opening Dancing With The Moonlit Knight. “Selling England By the Pound” slowly tips toward its ending. Too quick an end. But Master Hackett had one more surprise to deliver at the tail end. A lost track from the time this album was being made, which didn’t find its place on the album, called Deja Vu. The song was written by Peter Gabriel and Steve Hackett. The latter first recorded it for the compilation “Genesis Revisited I.” in 1996, with the unforgettable Paul Carrack stepping in on vocals in the studio. An exceptional number. A superb finish. Drama theater, yearning melancholy, mysticism, Celtic melos, vibrancy backed by the rustling sound of the mellotron. Grandiose.
But then comes a leap to the “A Trick Of The Tail” album and the opening Dance On A Volcano, which once again brings on the goosebumps, and the crowd goes wild with excitement. Hands in the air. With this number the band said goodbye and left for backstage, only to return to the stage a few minutes later. The tremendous enthusiasm didn’t die down. After a quiet anticipation, the band stuck with “A Trick Of The Tail” and played the “second part of the album’s opening track”, namely the closing Los Endos, into which Hackett and his gang worked parts of Myopya and Slogans. A superb final crescendo of the unique Genesis theater, directed by the incredible Steve Hackett.
And as always. In the end it takes your breath away to realize how incredibly close to the original Master Hackett and his gang get through the magic of flawless performance. Plenty of people were moved to tears that night by the sheer intensity of it all, as Steve Hackett used his magic to stir up, in the corners of their souls, the days when they were teenagers listening to prog rock led by Genesis and dreaming their dreams.
Steve Hackett remains a superb, unique and one-of-a-kind musical hero who, with his inexhaustible hunger for playing and creating, and with incredible credibility, keeps the evergreen world of Genesis music alive. An inimitable sorcerer. Let’s hope fate grants him many more years of creative inspiration and plenty of will and energy, with which he makes us happy again and again every year. Both live and in the studio!
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist:
“Steve Hackett Solo” (first part)
1. Every Day
2. Under the Eye of the Sun
3. Fallen Walls and Pedestals
4. Beasts in Our Time
5. The Virgin and the Gypsy
6. Tigermoth (Instrumental)
7. Spectral Mornings
8. The Red Flower of Tachai Blooms Everywhere
9. Clocks – The Angel of Mons (Craig Blundell drum solo)
“Selling England by The Pound” (second part)
10. Dancing With the Moonlit Knight
11. I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)
12. Firth of Fifth
13. More Fool Me
14. The Battle of Epping Forest
15. After The Ordeal
16. The Cinema Show
17. Aisle of Plenty
18. Deja Vu
19. Dance on a Volcano
—encore II.—
20. Los Endos (includes parts of Myopya and Slogans)
