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GENESIS LIVE CONCERT REVIEWS
(Updated 7th Jan 2005)

The music of Genesis has always been best appreciated when performed live. Below are brief reviews of recent Genesis, related solo and tribute band concerts that I have attended.
20th Dec 2004 - The Musical Box - Rams Head Live, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Wow, words aren't enough to describe this group. Recreating in every last detail the classic Lamb Tour. The Musical Box now have a new drummer who besides can play and sing like Phil Collins, he even looks like him! I stood near the front and sang along to every word to every song - how often can you do that at a concert:)
Set list as follows:
The whole of 'The Lamb' Album / The Musical Box // Watcher Of The Skies.
21st June 2003 - Peter Gabriel - Camden Yards, NJ, USA.
22nd June 2003 - Peter Gabriel - Nissan Pavilion, Manassas, VA, USA.
Peter continued his US leg of the Growing Up tour by playing the summer "shed" circuit. Gone was the revolving stage but many of the props from the Arena tour were still included.
Set list as follows:
Red Rain / More Than This / Secret World / Games / Mercy Street / Darkness / Digging / Don't Give Up / No Way Out(NJ) / Tower / Growing Up / Shock / Solsbury / Sledgehammer / Signal // In Your Eyes / Come Talk To Me / Father Son.
7th January 2003 - Tony Levin Band - Jaxx, Springfield, VA, USA.
Another great show from The Tony Levin Band squashed between the continuing Peter Gabriel Growing Up tour. The band featured the same musicians that play on Tony's new CD Jerry Marotta (drums) and Larry Fast (keys) who have both been members of previous PG bands and Jesse Gress (gtr).
Set list included Genesis cover 'Back In NYC' and an impromptu version of 'Solsbury Hill'.
17th Nov 2002 - Peter Gabriel - Continental Air Arena, East Rutherford, NJ, USA.
18th Nov 2002 - Peter Gabriel - First Union Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
24th Nov 2002 - Peter Gabriel - MCI Center, Washington DC, USA.

Its been over 8 years since I last saw Peter Gabriel. He's back with a great new album UP and this was the start of his tour to promote this CD. The tour called 'Growing Up' featured a stage 'in the round' with an upper and lower section. Peter Gabriel runs, dances, hangs upside down, rides a bike and rolls around in a Zorb around the stage. the set list features mainly newer material which suits me fine as I love his new work but also features a few hits and classics from yesteryear. DO NOT MISS THIS SHOW.
Set list as follows:
Flood / Darkness / Red Rain / Secret World / Sky Blue / Downside-Up / TBWS / More Than This / Mercy Street / Digging / Growing Up / Animal Nation / Solsbury / Sledgehammer / Signal // In Your Eyes / Family Snapshot (NJ & PA) / Come Talk To Me (DC) / Father, Son.
22nd June 2002 - Steve Hackett - The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA, USA.
Its been 10 years since I last saw Steve Hackett. He had a great band and played an excellent set including many Genesis tracks, often with his own 'twist'. Steve showcased a few new numbers and included many of his classic pieces, my favourites being Spectral Mornings and Everyday. Hope its not another 10 years.
Set list as follows:
The Floating / Mechanical Bride / Medley - Los Endos, Ace Of Wands, Please Don't Touch / Serpentine Song / Watcher / Hairless Heart / Firth / Riding The Colossus / Pollution / The Steppes / Gnossienne No 1 / Walking Away From Rainbows / In Memorium / Vampyre / Spectral Mornings / Darktown / Camino Royale / Everyday / Shadow Of The Hierophant / Los Endos / Moonlit Knight.
5th April 2002 - The Musical Box - Theatre of Living Arts, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
This time we were transported back to 1973 and an amazing reproduction of the classic Genesis, Selling England by The Pound tour complete with slide show, costumes and original stories. This was the first show for TMB for a while and the first SEBTP show for a few years complete with new keyboard player and therefore were a little 'bumpy' at times.
Set list as follows:
Watcher / Moonlit / Cinema / Firth / IKWIL / Box / Horizons / Epping / Supper’s // Knife.
Audience photo taken by Tony Levin - that's me front left, grey shirt - click to enlarge 28th March 2002 - Tony Levin Band - Jaxx, Springfield, VA, USA.
A great show from the master of the Chapman Stick and Peter Gabriel bass player Tony Levin. The band featured the same musicians that play on Tony's new CD Jerry Marotta (drums) and Larry Fast (keys) who have both been members of previous PG bands and Jesse Gress (gtr).
Set list included Genesis cover 'Back In NYC'.
18th Jan 2002 - G2enesis - Moses Gate, Farnworth, UK.
I have wanted to see these guys for some time. They focus on my favorite Genesis period, namely 'Trick of a Tail' and 'Seconds Out'. They played just about everything from these two great albums plus a few surprises from earlier and later albums. There were times when I closed my eyes when I thought I was listening to the real thing. And what a great version of ‘Ripples’, always a great live song.
Set list as follows:
Firth / Squonk / Many Too Many / Watcher / Carpet / For Absent Friends / More Fool Me / Horizons / Rooftops / Unquiet Slumbers / Quiet Earth / Afterglow / Entangled / Ripples / Supper’s / Robbery / Cinema // IKWIL / Dance / Los.
21st July 2001 - Spocks Beard - Jaxx, Springfield, VA, USA.
Spocks Beard feature Nick D'Virgilio on Drums. His connection with Genesis is that he played drums on the last Genesis CD. He is without doubt the most talented guy in the band coming forward on a number of occasions and playing guitar and singing. He is a good singer! I will check out his latest solo effort, Karma. This was a great concert and their music is definitly growing on me.
5th May 2001 - The Musical Box - Music Hall, Toronto, Canada.
I just went back to 1974! The Musical Box performance of the entire 'The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway' was unbelievable. The vocals, music, costumes, stage set and stories were an exact replica of the classic Genesis tour to promote the double album release in 1974. They even used the same slides that were used in the original. The Musical Box are without doubt in a league of their own when it comes to Genesis tribute bands.
Set list as follows:
The whole of 'The Lamb' Album / The Musical Box // Watcher Of The Skies.
28th Oct 2000 - ReGenesis - The Flowerpot, Derby, UK.
Another great show by ReGenesis. I was pleased to see the inclusion of 'Lamia' and it was interesting to hear how a couple of 'Collins' era songs might have sounded if Peter Gabriel had remained in the band ('Dance on a Volcano' and 'Afterglow'). The new drummer played 'Los Endos' great but was not so strong at the end of 'Supper's Ready' and 'Afterglow'.
Set list as follows:
Watcher / SEBTP / Box / Firth / Cage / Lamia / Supper’s / Cinema / Dance /Drum / Los // Afterglow / IKWIL.
5th Aug 2000 - Spocks Beard - 930 Club, Washington DC, USA.
This was the first time I had an opertunity to see Spocks Beard, the Prog Rock group from California featuring Nick D'Virgilio on Drums. He was the guy who played on half the songs from Calling All Stations. The group as you might expect was very tight with a high degree of musicianship. The songs fitted into the Prog Rock 'tag' and sounded very 'Suppers Ready' influenced. I am not going to rush out and buy all their CD's but would certainly give some of their music a listen.
11th Sept 1999 - Supper's Ready, In The Cage and ReGenesis - G99, Guildford, UK.
The G99 festical featured all three tribute bands playing at least one song from every Genesis studio album, The Italian group Supper's Ready played later period Genesis and sounded great, especially Mama. In The Cage focused on the middle period and Regenesis the Gabriel period. Set lists as follows:
Supper's Ready: Mama / Dodo / No Son / Robary / CAS / Home / Throwing / Volcano / Los Endos.
In The Cage: Motherload / Squonk / 11th / Trick / Down and Out / Behind / Duchess / Guide Vocal / Follow / Afterglow / Twilight.
Regenesis: Watcher / Hogweed / Box / Lamb / Fly / 74 / Cuckoo / Cage / Firth / Lamia / Supper / Knife // Silent Sun / I Know.
6th Aug 1999 - ReGenesis - Whitchurch Festival, UK.
This was the first time I had seen ReGenesis who are the UK’s leading Genesis tribute band. The sound was excellent and the lead singer sang the mainly ‘Gabriel’ era Genesis songs perfectly. My only strong negative criticism is the terrible masks and costumes. If they want to replicate Gabriel’s masks then they need to be more authentic. The batwings for ‘Watcher’ were a joke! Either do it right or not at all. The music was perfect!
Set list as follows:
Watcher / hogweed / Box / Epping / Cage / Supper’s / Cinema / Drum / Los // Fountains / Knife.
24th July 99 - In The Cage - London, UK.
This was only the second show that ‘In The Cage’ had performed. It was a good set list mainly drawing from ‘and then there were three’ and ‘A Trick of a Tail’ plus surprisingly ‘Twilight Alehouse’. They sounded great and once you got used to the singers vocals the songs were well done.
18th June 99 - Mike and the Mechanics - Museumplatz, Bonn, Germany.
Its been a long while since I saw MATM (they have not toured the US for years) and we were fortunate that we were passing through the area near the end of Mike's successful european tour. They played a great set - definitly the best I have seen.The set included the Genesis 'classic' "I Can't Dance" and all the popular MATM hits plus songs from their new CD.
31st May 98 - Genesis - Rock im Park Festival, Nurnberg, Germany.
A much better show than the previous night with Genesis coming on stage about 10pm following a great show by Bob Dylan. The set was slightly different from the previous night. It started to rain heavy for the encore - Ray entered the stage singing 'I can't stand the rain...."
Set list was as follows:
Land / CAS / No son / Domino / Congo / Home / Selling / Follow / Suppers / Mama / Dividing / Touch / Turn // WCD.
30th May 98 - Genesis - Rock am Ring Festival, Koln, Germany.
Genesis did not step onto the stage untill after midnight - it had been a long day of live music and the audiance were tired (and drunk in may cases!) and, although Ray tried his best to get the audiance involved, it never really got going. Musically the group were better than ever with Nir leading the band stronger than Phil or Chester! The videos from the CAS tour were used and CAS was use to open the set - great opening number.
The set list was as follows:
CAS / Land / No son / Domino / Congo / Home / Selling / Follow / Not about / Mama / Dividing / Touch / Turn // Throwing / WCD.
26th March 98 - The Musical Box w/Yesterdays - The Electric Factory, Philladelpia, Pa.
A brilliant concert featuring The Musical Box who re-create both visually and musically the 1973 'Selling England by the Pound' tour by Peter Gabriel era Genesis - a must for fans of old Genesis music.
6th March 98 - Genesis - Nynex, Manchester, UK.
2nd March 98 - Genesis - Arena, Newcastle, UK.
27th Feb 98 - Genesis - Earls Court, London, UK.
26th Feb 98 - Genesis - NEC, Birmingham, UK.

Four great shows by (still) the worlds greatest live band (an un-biased opinion!). Their new lead singer, Ray Wilson, sings both old and new songs wonderfully and the band is very well complemented by Nir Z on drums and Anton Drennon on guitar.
15th Oct 97 - The Musical Box - The Electric Factory, Philadelphia, USA.
28th April 97 - The Musical Box - The Living Arts Theatre, Philadelphia, USA.
5th Feb 97 - Phil Collins - US Air Areana, Washington DC, USA.
My taste has drifted away from Phil's solo material in recent years - but he still remains a great performer and I will always go see him live given an opernunity. Interesting to see Ronnie Caryl in his band (who played in Phil's first band in the late 60's, Flaming Youth). Also always good to see ex-Genesis guitar man Daryl Stuermer. Highlight of Phil's show was, as always, 'In the Air Tonight'.




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