Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Vicenza / Teatro Comunale (Salla Maggiore) / Italy
Concert date: 04/24/2013
Attendance: 930
The Teatro Comunale hall in the heart of Vicenza is pretty much the ideal concert setting for those prog rock legends who, even decades later, still nurture a hefty dose of artistic sophistication, something the loyal Italian crowd has always known how to reward properly. We saw that for ourselves two years ago, when the legendary Van Der Graaf Generator played this venerable theater and ‘set the hall on fire,’ while the assembled folk nearly lost their minds with excitement. The fact is that cult prog rock bands like this still mean something to the old, faithful Italian fans, who sometimes bring younger family members along, whereas back home those who don’t read Rockline usually have no idea that their favorite acts from their teenage years still exist and are out on tour.
Our western neighbors hold at least as much respect for VDGG and their great vocal patriarch Peter Hammill as for another name that’s no less important in the history of prog rock: former Genesis and GTR guitarist Steve Hackett, who has been more active than ever in his career over the past decade, both in the studio and on stage. At the end of last year Mr. Hackett released the album »Genesis Revisited II«, on which, with a first-rate crew of helpers, he re-recorded some of the most beloved Genesis standards. On some of them he got help from the musicians who have been making up his backing band for a while now, and who played an equal part in conjuring the Genesis magic that evening.
After 1997, when he presented the album »Genesis Revisited« (part one) live, Steve decided to carry on with his noble mission of reviving Genesis evergreens on a new tour, songs that none of his former ‘fellow sufferers’, i.e. the remaining ex-members of that legendary British band, play live. By his own account, Peter Gabriel was done with his ‘adolescent phase’ back in 1975 and has no plans to go ‘back to the past’, Phil Collins recently retired, Mike Rutherford cares more about his own pop rock outfit Mike And the Mechanics than about going ‘solo’, while Tony Banks has long been more interested in scoring obscure films and working with a philharmonic orchestra. Anthony Phillips, Hackett’s guitar predecessor in Genesis, has always dodged concert stages like the devil dodges the cross. Besides Steve, the one who has shown the most enthusiasm for reviving the Genesis magic is their former singer Ray Wilson, who showed up as a special guest at Hackett’s show in Milan for three Genesis classics.
We weren’t that lucky at Steve’s show in Vicenza, but still, everyone in the hall had their hearts leap with joy and nostalgic rapture as we witnessed a fantastic live take on some beloved Genesis evergreens, in a way no modern Genesis ‘tribute’ band can pull off. The charismatic American-born singer Nad Sylvan, whose voice strikes the ideal balance between Gabriel and Collins, added, on top of convincing vocal performances, some ‘Gabriel-esque’ theatricality with inventive stage choreography, although, as expected, he didn’t put a fox mask, a box or a flower on his head. The monumental »Foxtrot« energy catalyst »Watcher of the Skies«, where keyboardist Roger King delivered the evening’s first dose of epic grandeur on organ and mellotron, was picked as the opener. A somewhat expected opening choice, it stayed remarkably faithful to the studio original, except that Mr. Hackett allowed himself a few more guitar improvisations. Rob Townsend, switching between clarinet, flute and an extra synthesizer, added his bit to the slightly jazzier look of some of the arrangements that evening.
»The Chamber of 32 Doors« took us back to the cult concept album »The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway«, from which they played five songs that evening. Among them were such relatively obscure standards as the still very entertaining and interesting »Broadway Melody of 1974«, »Cucko Cocoon« and »Hairless Heart«. On »Fly On a Windshiled« drummer Gary O’Toole briefly stepped up as lead vocalist for the first time that night, handling the lower, grittier vocal ranges, which were perhaps the only spot where the otherwise excellent, hyper-theatrical Sylvan wasn’t at his shiniest. Sylvan, on the other hand, completely won us over with two superb vocal renditions of »Selling England By The Pound« evergreens »Dancing With the Moonlit Knight and especially »Firth of Fifth«, on which King also had his ‘rock star’ moment with a monumental keyboard solo spree. Lee Pomeroy (It Bites), the best-known name in Steve’s band, meanwhile did a superb job covering Rutherford’s original bass lines, often picked up a double-neck bass guitar, and a few times played seated, just like the legendary bassist mentioned above once did.
One of the few moments of the night that didn’t come off all that convincingly was »Blood On the Rooftops«, which was musically performed at a first-rate level, no surprise, since it’s one of Hackett’s favorite Genesis classics, but this time the guitar master made the wrong call by leaving the lead vocals to drummer O’Toole. Just like the last time we saw him, in Trieste, he wasn’t up to the task and struggled way too hard to catch the original Collins vocal magic. Unlike Genesis in that era (around 1977), Mr. Hackett didn’t neglect the album »Wind and Wuthering« at all in his picks, performing from it, as convincingly as can be, the epic medley »Unquiet Slumbers for the Sleepers…«, »…In That Quiet Earth« and »Afterglow«. Fortunately, Sylvan sang those three, and he stayed on as lead singer until the end of the night. In the background, extremely interesting projections ran between songs the whole time, in perfect harmony with the lyrics of each song and adding to the intense atmosphere in the hall.
Somewhere past the halfway point came the time for the best-known Genesis classic of the Gabriel era, the ‘gardening’ hit »I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)«, where Steve, Nad and the rest of the gang especially impressed with excellent vocal harmonies and fun extra bits on clarinet. The eruptive »Dance On a Volcano« and the ethereal ballad »Entangled,« classics from the masterpiece »A Trick of the Tail« (1976), Mr. Hackett ‘saved up’ for the closing stretch, which proved a very good call atmosphere-wise. The mood in the hall hit boiling point several times, with the applause just not wanting to end, and a few times the hot-blooded Italians even jumped up from their seats uninvited and too early and made a proper racket, like at a football stadium. Luckily they knew when to ‘calm down’, so the musicians on stage could carry on undisturbed with reviving the glorious Genesis legacy.
»The Musical Box« was the night’s only »Nursery Cryme« (1971) representative and thus the oldest piece by year, which, like most Genesis evergreens, passed the test of time just as well live and once again took us convincingly toward the ‘castle above the clouds’, where the dying, ugly old king fantasized one last time about his underage maid. To close the main set they picked the best possible surprise and the performance most of the crowd had been waiting for most impatiently: the apocalyptic Genesis ‘alpha and omega’ epic »Supper’s Ready«. The theater nearly exploded with excitement as Hackett’s gang took everyone on an unforgettable, 20-plus-minute apocalyptic odyssey where walking flowers, the Antichrist and a solemn procession with crosses all meet.
In the encore, too, Steve and company came up with a lovely surprise, playing the often-overlooked »Wind and Wuthering« classic »Eleventh Earl of Mar«, in the middle of which Sylvan briefly morphed into a typical English aristocratic dandy with a cane. That was followed by a short instrumental jam in which maestro Hackett wittily wove in the main theme from his solo classic »Slogans«, before they slyly slid into the epic closing treat »Los Endos«. That was a somewhat expected finale, since Genesis often played it as their stage farewell in their best days. For the closing and only verse of this instrumentally oriented masterpiece, Sylvan came back out too and joined the rest of the band amid the thunderous applause that followed the end of the show.
Maestro Hackett’s mission of reviving the Genesis magic live in the heart of Vicenza was more than a success, meaning that over roughly two and a half hours we gorged ourselves on some of the most beloved classics from the musical saga of the British prog rock legends. And with an almost authentic sound of the ‘good old days’, just with a distinctly jazzier aftertaste thanks to Townsend’s woodwind contributions. Anyone who closed their eyes for a moment during the show could easily have thought they were back in the years between 1971 and 1977, when the Genesis musical recipe still included Hackett’s unforgettable guitar mastery, which many missed long after his departure and move to a solo career.
Setlist
1. Watcher of the Skies
2. The Chamber of 32 Doors
3. Dancing With the Moonlit Knight
4. Fly on a Windshield
5. Broadway Melody of 1974
6. Cuckoo Cocoon
7. Hairless Heart
8. Firth of Fifth
9. Blood on the Rooftops
10. Unquiet Slumbers for the Sleepers…
11. … In The Quiet Earth
12. Afterglow
13. I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)
14. Dance on a Volcano
15. Entangled
16. The Musical Box
17. The Supper’s Ready
—encore—
18. Eleventh Earl of Mar
19. Los Endos (incl. Slogans)
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