Well, actually there was no roof so the title is not really correct but I will talk about that later… So yesterday morning I walked around in Beverly Hills. Rodeo Drive is pretty impressive with all the designer shops, palm trees and hot cars. Didn’t see any celebrities though, but sometimes you don’t recognize them in “real life” so I might have missed a few.

In the afternoon I got back to my hotel to get ready for the show. Took the metro to Hollywood and went to the Renaissance Hotel where quite a few people were planning to meet up. When I arrived, there was already a dozen of fans sitting in the bar and soon more came in. Again, I met people from earlier shows (one I hadn’t seen since Helsinki!) and new faces as well. A little later Maria from Ultrastar (who run the official Genesis website) joined us. She had a few give-aways for us and as the one who traveled the longest distance I “won” a Genesis tour cap - which I could use very well later that night…

So by 6.30pm I headed up the road to the bowl. Just a ten minute walk up the hill. There were still quite a few people picnicking outside the gates and it was already pretty crowded. For those who have never been to the bowl, you approach the bowl at the bottom where the shell (concert stage) is. So people in the “nosebleeds” have to climb up all the way to their seats. I’ve never been to Berlin’s Waldbuehne but I think it’s somehow similar to that. Maybe a bit larger and with a shell instead of this tent roof. The boxes are very small. There are usually four chairs inside and fold-out tables so that quite a lot of people had dinner in their box. The chairs aren’t numbered so the seat number on the ticket is kind of useless at least in the box sections (garden & terrace). My seat was in a garden box to the upper left of this section (looking towards the stage) which made for a nice total view of the stage and the shell above it.

Somehow the roadcrew had managed to get the whole indoor stage into the small place. The stage floor was even apart from the drum risers and the lights which are usually arranged in a half circle around the front of the stage were positioned on a wall between pool section (the very front area) and the garden boxes. More varilights were spread all over the whole place. There was no camera right in front of the stage as far as I could see due to the very limited space. Phil just had a steady camera for Mama I think. Before the show I talked to sound engineer Michel Colin and he said that the “official” forecast predicted rain from 8pm on. Other forecasts on TV had talked about showers from 11pm until the morning. Not the best for an outdoor show. The main problem could become that for the first time on the tour the band wasn’t covered by a roof. On the other outdoor shows they used the stadium stage which had a plastic cover between the lighting “arms” covering most of the stage. So it was obvious that in case of rain the band would get wet as well.

Shortly before showtime when all the guest came out I saw a lot of Phil’s singers from his solo band (Connie Jackson, Lamont Van Hook and Bill Cantos). By the time the show started it was still dry and the first songs went down without a problem. It was during In The Cage that the rain set in. It was a lighter shower. But still it might have been the reason for first major technical problems during Cinema Show. A large part of the PA didn’t work anymore but came back during Duke’s Travels. And it also seemed to me that the guys had first problems with their gear (mainly Daryl, but I could be wrong with that). After Afterglow the shower was over and Phil said a few comments including the f-word before Hold On My Heart, something like: “Oh, great, Genesis is having an outdoor gig - swoosh!” Throughout the show the roadcrew came out with towels to dry the stage floor a few times.

It was almost dry until Throwing It All Away. During that song Luis Conte apeared on the screens, dancing in a plastic raincoat and obviously having a great time. The rain slowly set in again getting heavier and heavier. Don’t get me wrong there was by far worse rain in Europe and I won’t compare this show to Katowice in any way. But as I said the problem was the uncovered stage getting the band and most of all their very sensitive equipment soaking wet. They had added a few new effects using the unique venue perfectly. One of this being the inner shell being lit in red light during Mama. Simple but extremely effective!

The rain continued and at some point I think during Domino some roadies even put up an umbrella to cover Tony and his gear. Los Endos was one of the highlights of that show. They added a very dramatic effect when they used the red torch pyros they had for Home By The Sea in Europe and sparked them off behind the shell. It seemed like the whole stage was on flames! As the rain got heavier the technical problems got more and worse. The band really had trouble to fight through Invisible Touch. At some point during that song he wiped over the keys maybe to wipe the water off which resulted in a very strange sound. He then bended forward to fiddle about his keyboards which didn’t seem to work properly anymore. So in the end he leaned back folded his arms and the band finished the song without the keyboards!

The band left the stage as usual just briefly waving at the crowd to later return for the encores. But just a few seconds after they had disappeared Phil returned alone. I had a very bad feeling at that time already and he said they were as wet as the audience and they were lucky to have somehow managed to get that far in the set. They simply couldn’t do any more songs. So he thanked everyone and walked off. Right after that Fading Lights sounded over the PA and the show was over. After leaving the bowl I headed straight back to my hotel to get dry again.

A great experience nonetheless I have to say and I’m glad I was there. The gig was great (even with the technical probs) and had some very unique lighting effects. The fireworks at the end of Invisible Touch of course were launched on top or behind the shell. There were no fireworks inside the shell. That’s why the people in the front garden boxes and everyone in the pool section missed some great views. But being close to the band they had a great time as well just in a different way.

So now I’ve almost reached the home stretch! Tonight is the last night of the tour. The weather forecast is way better. At the moment (almost noon in L.A.) it’s still a bit cloudy but it should stay dry and might even get better later today. Tonight there might also be something special coming up (no, not a set change!). But I will only talk about that after the show.

I’m not sure whether I’ll be able to post a review before I’m back home. After the show I will immediately get back to my hotel because I have to leave in the early morning to catch my flight home. It’s not over yet but I’d like to thank Martin at that point - the end of a very long report - for translating all my diary entries into German! A lot of work! So the next update might take until Monday afternoon Central European Time.

Ulli

EDIT: I almost forgot to mention - as far as I know there was no announcement of the Encore Series before the show. So I guess there will in fact be no *official* recording of the two shows in Hollywood. A pity especially with last night’s very special concert.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 13th, 2007 at 8:47 pm and is filed under Genesis: Notes from the Road. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.