Genesis - Brussels March 10th

marc_van_der_rest@be.coopers.com

Here are my (extended) comments about yesterday's concert in Brussels. If I
remember correctly this must have been my 4th Genesis concert...
... but the first one since the DUKE Tour !

Forest National was quite well filled up which must have meant +/- 4.000
people.

The concert was the classical setlist including Alien Afternoon & Not About
Us. They used the jumbotrons which surprised me for such a small concert hall,
anyway it was a nice addition despite that silly seperation between the
screens.

There isn't a lot to say about the setlist that hasn't been said before.

The highlights IMHO were TLLDOB, Carpet Crawlers, Firth of Fifth, Alien
Afternoon, Domino, The acoustic medley, Mama, HBTS/SHBTS, ...
I was on the other side a bit disapointed by CAS (feels really downbeat
compared to other pieces) and by The Dividing Line (I still think this
pieces is quite weak from a melodic point of vue, and to extend it to 10'
doesn't make it any better. Also the guitar "duel" is lacking a LOT of
energy. It is more a polite gentlemen's discussion IMHO.)
Now about the boys:

Mike was looking quite relax (maybe too much to be convincing). His guitar
work was quite good and some of bass pedals were really impressive !!
Tony was looking as distant as ever (no surprise that the guy doesn't have
the public recognition he deserves) and I thought the keyboards were really
too far in the mix most of the time.

I really liked Anthony D. guitars (incl. FoF) although he didn't seem too
much into it.

Nir brings indeed a lot of energy which is good. He is not Phil
(espescially in its 76-80 period) but for me he matches Chester.
Last but not least Ray is definitely great. I think there is no doubt about
it. IMHO he is excellent in all areas, very sympathetic and probably better
than Phil as a frontman.

So my wish is that they all go together in studio after this tour and dare
to include the ideas of these bright new boys. (Anthony doesnt' seems very
close to the others but Ray and Nir were having some fun together on
stage)

Now the funny bit...

It became quite obvious for me during TIOOA and TIAA that Ray was quite
desperatly looking for a girl to dance with in the front rows. I think it
was 99.9% men in the packed crowd standing in front of the stage.

Now a bit further on the right my friends and I had noticed a really good
looking girl, dancing very well. I thought that she would perfect to go on
stage but that being at least 20 meters away from the stage she wouldn't
make any chance.

But obviously Ray is quite good at noticing nice girls even that far
because when "I can't dance" arrived he went down the stage and with 2
roadies crossed some 30 rows of standing people while talking in his mike.

He announced that he needed somebody, that he had noticed someone who could
help him, and so on.

Now what Ray didn't notice is that at the very moment Ray came down from
the stage the girl went into his direction but probably couldn't reach him
or was pushed away by the roadies. And he missed her !

So there he stood now in the middle of nowhere, announcing that he has
noticed a girl, but that she must be very shy because he cannot find her
anymore !!! So finally after a few embarassing seconds he says... Oh, there
she is and picks up the first, ah..., girl he sees.

I think poor Ray really felt he had made a fool of himself. Going that far
and announcing that he had selected THE girl he really wanted to dance
with, to end up with THAT one.

Those who couldn't follow the whole story must have serious doubts about
Ray's taste. I can tell you that they are excellent !

Anyway all in all, great concert, great line up, ....

Marc, Genesis fan since 1976