Genesis In Dortmund
Genesis are back. The band which claims to be live better than
in the studio played a gig in Dortmund, Germany on the 10th of
February 1998, all Genesis-Fans wondered how old
Genesis-Songs would sound with Ray Wilson. Second
Newcomer was Irishman Anthony Drenan. "Old members" Tony
Banks and Mike Rutherford seemed to habe problems to cope
with the new situation. They didn´t look very comfortable. Ray did
a good job, keeping in mind , that he is the follow-up for a
superstar. Nevertheless I was surprised, that most songs
sounded very good with Ray´s voice. The coolest guy on stage
was new drummer Nir Z. He did a great deal in Dortmund ( and
filmed the audience with his own camcorder during the show).
The stage seemed very small to me. The only interessting were
the 4 big reflectors and the 3 "Little Jumbotrons", which
unfortunately could not move. They were only used during half of
the show. A disadvantage to my opinion
It began with a 20 minutedelay. A Tic-Toc introduced the 1.
Song: No Sone of Mine. Genesis continued the tradition to begin
a concert with the biggest hit form the last CD. The light-show
was good, but not spectacular. NSOM was played good and
served as a warm-up, like the second Song "Land of Confusioin".
After that, the 1. Climax followed: a full version of "The lamb lies
down on broadway". Although Tony hit some bad notes, the
Piano-Intro started cheers in the audience, especially the "older"
fans. Then Ray welcomed the audience. He read some german
sentences from a piece a paper, which was colored like the
german flag. "Calling all Stations" was the next song and the 1.
Time the jumbotrons were used. Radio waves and lonely people
described the dark side of this song. Then a wonderful version of
Alien Afternoon was played. Certainly better than on the album
because the instrumental-part was much longer. The screens
showed a spaceship and a virtual flight through space, earths
atmosphere and the ocean.
Ray introduced now "The Carpet Crawlers". Again a full version
of a song form 1975 and the whole audience sang along " We
got to get in to get out". The first lighters were put out. After that
Ray told the audience about his first Genesis audition. Mike and
Tony said he should just sing along a little instrumental, they
wrote. The words which came to his mind were: "There must be
some other way". This version was also much longer and more
powerful than on the album. A further climay followed: Domino
was just brilliant. They used the video of the 92 WCD-Tour and
again the huge Dominos had a great effect. Like Phil Ray sang
the second part from a little pedestal in front of the
screens.
Unfortunately they failed for 3 seconds. "Shipwrecked" doesn´t
belong to my favourite songs Ray had a little hand-held Radio,
like the original Intro and searched for some Genesis and forund
Sh. After that they played Firth of Fith. To my mind Anthony
played sonehow lieke Daryl in 1992. Although the lights did not
change much , the music was really enjoyable. They continued
with a song of "CAS": Congo. It included an Jungle-Intro and a
longer part in the middle of the song. The screens showed a
cartoon, which unfortunately was hard to understand, as sthe 3
Jumbotrons were seperated. Ray then told the audience about a
Genesis problem: Women. He introdiced the 4 reflectors on the
stage as the mand-members girl-friends (Every time he was
mentioned, Tony got big cheers) Ray asked which girl wants to
spend long romantic weekens at his "Home by the Sea" Again
the same videos as 1992. Beautyful! Ray claimed then that both
Unplugged-Shows in Berln and Cape Caneveral were very
successful. He introduced the "Genesis-Brothers and all except
Nir played the guitar. "Dancing with the moonlt Knight" was
wonderful and so were "Follow You Follow Me. While Lovers
Leap many people hoped they would play the whole of "Suppers
Ready", but they didn´t. Nevertheless this was a climax at the
gig. After that some 80es Top-Hits followed. "Mama" was
great,although you could see a little bit lac of self-confidence
while Ray did the laughs. Then they played my personal
favourite after CAS: The dividing line. Wonderful videos and a
superb drum solo by Nir. I hope on the next album he will be
fully
integrated into the group. All sang along at Invisible Touch, but
for me this is Phil Collins Song and it will be forever. Ray said,
that this ist the last song and a long desert road appeared on the
screens. Time for "Turn it on again" This one seemed to be
written for Ray. Just Beautyful. He introduced all the band
members and Tony gor the biggest cheers! (Presumably for the
first time in Genesis History!)"Clap your hands for Mr. Tony
Banks!" After some minutes of "Zugabe-"Cries (which means
Encore in german) they came back and played "Throwing it all
away". Again this is an Phil Collins-Song to my opinion and
unfortunately there were no Jumbotrons for this one. The
Drum-Pattern of "I can´t dance" started. Ray came down to the
audience and got a girl which should dance with him (At this
moment I touched the singer of Genesis!) The girl was called
"Sabine" and Ray danced with her for about 1 minute singing
ICD at the same time. After that he did the 1st move of the "Walk"
and the audience was going wild, but that was all. He did not do
the "Walk! Perhaps he does not want just to replace Phil. He
again said goodbye and they went off the stage. The lights of the
arena ended our "Zugabe"-Cries.
After all it was a wonderfull show. Sometimes it could habe been
more spectaculer. A big disadvantage to my mind was, that there
were only few Jumbotrons. Nevertheless: Go to the Show and
hope they will come back in the future.