Earl's Ct + A Few Thoughts

Earl's Ct + A Few Thoughts

earl's ct 27/2/98

all in all a great show - this was the 5th time i'd seen genesis live -
the first being @ wembley arena on the abacab tour

music wise my favourite albums are ATOTT, W&W, Duke, LLDOB, SEBTP & CAS -
at least the latter half of this selection were well served by last night's
show

the first 3 songs suffered from an echoing sound (although the new ending
LLDOB was great) - CAS (song #4) was the first time where it all started to
come together - however "Carpet Crawlers" was the first real standout - a
big hush across the arena + ray wilson really making sense of it all

it took a few extended nos, domino, firth of fifth (drennan excellent) and
home by the sea for the band to begin to relax and stretch out. congo was
an unexpected highlight - blowing away the album version - if they can keep
this line-up together this is destined to become a live staple

the acoustic set was wonderful - from where i sat (about one-third of the
way back downstairs), earl's court become a more intimate venue - all the
songs were rapturously received - espec. lover's leap

mama was outstanding - ray really tkes this one over (it's interesting to
see mike + tony list this as their favourite genesis song in the £8!!
programme - i've always viewed it as a collins no.)

next song was the dividing line - this was awesome - it must have been a
real justification for carrying on when the audience rose as one at the end
of this song (for the first time all night) to applaud

there on in it was stand up party time - invisible touch (never one of my
favourites) worked very well (ray put his own stamp on it) and turn it on
again never fails to push all the right buttons

encores : throwing it.. + i can't dance worked well - i especially like
ray's bluesy hamonica on the latter song

all in all a great concert - they fit together very well as a band and ray
wilson is doing a very difficult job very well - nir was readily accepted
by the audience but responses for ray + ant were more muted

this is naive of me, but i wish they could keep this momentum going - keep
together as a 5 piece writing together and knock out another album in the
next 12-18 months rather than wait 5 years - the new recruits (espec ray +
nir) have given genesis a touch live that they've been lacking for some
time - oh for a repeat of the times when creativity and enthusiasm ran so
high that ATOTT + W&W came out in the same year - a tour of medium sized,
more intimate venues (eg Hamm Apollo, Royal Albert Hall. M/cr Apoillo
etc..) would work wonders perhaps combined with an unplugged style set..

ah well, i can but dream - ray's doing a great job and i hope that he get's
a good (and quick) second shot to make this line up work

i look forward to receiving other paperlater's thoughts

over (inside) + out

stephen