Location: Vicenza / Teatro Comunale (Salla Maggiore) / Italy
Date: Wednesday, 04/24/2013
The Teatro Comunale hall in the middle of Vicenza is pretty much the ideal concert venue for those prog rock legends who, even decades on, still nurture a prime dose of artistic sophistication, and the loyal Italian crowd has always known how to reward that. We saw this for ourselves two years ago, when the legendary Van Der Graaf Generator played this distinguished theater and ‘set the hall on fire’ while the assembled crowd nearly lost its mind with excitement. The fact is that cult prog rock bands like these still mean something to the old and faithful Italian fans, who sometimes bring younger family members along, while back home those who don’t read Rockline usually have no idea that their favorite artists from their teenage years are still around and touring.
At least as much respect as VDGG and their great vocal patriarch Peter Hammill is enjoyed by our western neighbors for a name no less important in the history of progressive 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 he re-recorded some of the most beloved Genesis standards with a superb crew of musical helpers. Some of those helpers are the musicians who have been his backing band for a while now, and who played an equal part in creating the Genesis magic that evening.
After 1997, when he presented the album »Genesis Revisited« (part one) live, Steve decided to continue his noble mission of reviving Genesis evergreens on a new tour, songs that none of his former ‘fellow sufferers’, the remaining ex-members of that legendary British band, play live. Peter Gabriel, by his own account, was done with his ‘adolescent phase’ back in 1975 and has no intention of going ‘back to the past’, Phil Collins recently retired, Mike Rutherford is more into his own pop rock outfit Mike And the Mechanics than going ‘solo’, and 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 avoided concert stages like the devil avoids the cross. Besides Steve, the one who has shown the most enthusiasm for reviving the Genesis magic is their former singer Ray Wilson, who appeared as a special guest during Hackett’s show in Milan to perform three Genesis classics.
We didn’t get that luck while watching Steve’s show in the middle of Vicenza, but still, everyone in the hall had their heart leap with joy and nostalgic rapture as we witnessed fantastic live interpretations of some beloved Genesis evergreens, in a way no modern Genesis ‘tribute to’ band can pull off. The charismatic American-born singer Nad Sylvan, whose voice strikes the ideal balance between Gabriel and Collins, not only delivered convincing vocal performances but also conjured up some ‘Gabriel-esque’ theatricality with inventive stage choreography, though 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 on organ and mellotron delivered the first dose of epic grandeur of the night, was chosen as the opener. A somewhat expected opening pick, it stayed incredibly faithful to the studio original, except that Mr. Hackett allowed himself a few extra guitar improvisations. As for the slightly more jazz-tinged flavor of individual arrangements that night, credit goes to Rob Townsend, who switched between clarinet, flute and an additional synthesizer.
»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 night. Among them were such relatively obscure standards as the still wildly entertaining and interesting »Broadway Melody of 1974«, »Cucko Cocoon« and »Hairless Heart«. On »Fly On a Windshiled«, drummer Gary O’Toole briefly stepped in as lead vocalist for the first time that night, handling the lower, ‘grittier’ vocal parts, which were perhaps the only ones where the otherwise excellent, hyper-theatrical Sylvan wasn’t at his most dazzling. He more than made up for it, though, completely blowing us away with superb vocal renditions of the »Selling England By The Pound« evergreens »Dancing With the Moonlit Knight« and especially »Firth of Fifth«, where King also got his ‘star’ moment with a monumental keyboard solo. Lee Pomeroy (It Bites), the best-known name in Steve’s band, meanwhile did a great job covering Rutherford’s original bass lines, several times picking up a double-neck bass guitar and, just like the legendary bassist mentioned above once did, occasionally playing seated.
One of the few moments of the night that didn’t come off as convincingly was »Blood On the Rooftops«. Musically it was played at a superb level, which is no surprise since it’s one of Hackett’s favorite Genesis classics, but this time the guitar maestro 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 trying to catch Collins’ original vocal magic. Unlike Genesis from that era (around 1977), Mr. Hackett didn’t neglect the album »Wind and Wuthering« at all in his picks, and from it he delivered the epic medley »Unquiet Slumbers for the Sleepers…«, »…In That Quiet Earth« and »Afterglow« as convincingly as you could ask for. Luckily, Sylvan sang those three, and he stayed on as lead vocalist until the end of the night. In the background, incredibly interesting projections played between songs, perfectly in tune with the lyrics of each track and adding even more to the intense atmosphere in the hall.
Somewhere past the halfway mark of the show, it was 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), were ‘saved’ by Mr. Hackett for the closing stretch of the show, which turned out to be a very good decision atmosphere-wise. The mood in the hall hit boiling point several times, with the applause just refusing to die down, and a few times the hot-blooded Italians even jumped out of their seats uninvited, too early, and kicked up a proper racket like at a football stadium. Luckily they knew when to ‘calm down’ so the musicians on stage could carry on undisturbed reviving the magnificent Genesis legacy.
»The Musical Box« was the only representative of »Nursery Cryme« (1971) that night and thus the oldest piece of the evening. Like most Genesis evergreens, it passed the test of time brilliantly live too, once again convincingly carrying us off to the ‘castle above the clouds’, where the dying, ugly old king fantasized one last time about his underage maid. To close out the regular set they picked the best possible surprise, the one most of the people in the hall had been waiting for most impatiently: the apocalyptic Genesis ‘alpha and omega’ epic »Supper’s Ready«. The theater almost exploded with excitement as Hackett’s crew took everyone on an unforgettable, 20-plus-minute apocalyptic odyssey where walking flowers, the Antichrist and a solemn procession with crosses all meet.
The encore, too, brought a really lovely surprise, as Steve and the gang played the often overlooked »Wind and Wuthering« classic »Eleventh Earl of Mar«, in the middle of which Sylvan briefly transformed into a typical English aristocratic dandy with a cane. That was followed by a short instrumental improvisation into which maestro Hackett wittily wove the main motif from his solo classic »Slogans«, before they slyly slid into the epic closing treat »Los Endos«. That was a pretty much expected finale, since Genesis in their best days often played it as their stage farewell. For the closing and only verse of this instrumentally oriented masterpiece, Sylvan returned to the stage and joined the rest of the band amid the thunderous applause that followed the end of the show.
The mission to bring the Genesis magic back to life on stage, with maestro Hackett in the heart of Vicenza, was more than a success. Over roughly two and a half hours, we got a proper fill of some of the most beloved classics from the musical saga of the British prog rock legends. And all of it 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 recipe still included Hackett’s unforgettable guitar masterpieces, which many people kept missing long after he left to pursue a solo career.
words: Peter Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
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)
