All Tourdates 2007

Fanreviews
Overview

BONN

MANNHEIM

SAARBRÜCKEN

STUTTGART

FRANKFURT

BREMEN

NIJMEGEN

DEN HAAG

MAINZ

BERLIN

DUISBURG

ZÜRICH

ROME

MILAN

MADRID

LISBON

CROYDON

PORTSMOUTH

LONDON

PARIS

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The Musical Box - Berlin 2007

Selling England by The Pound live - Arena Treptow Berlin (GER, 02/02/07)

Extraordinary enjoyable ...

flower For more than half a year the tickets for this year’s dearly expected but probably irrevocably last The Musical Box concerts have been lying next to my Genesis ticket’s for June and July on my desk. What a year: TMB at first and in summer the original Genesis open air. In these past three years I have been spoiled concert-wise like never before: four times Collins live, three times Gabriel live, another four times TMB live, along with other classics such as Gilmour , Fish, Queen, Springsteen, Waters, Who &c. I guess it will now be as good and as massive as now. So I look forward to my fifth TMB concert in Berlin knowing that it is time to say farewell.
Thanks to WIV entertainment we had seats in the first row. I had some misgivings about the familiar Arena in Berlin-Treptow or rather the Berlin public – would it be sould out? It was not, but the tour promoter had made some clever arrangements such as curtaining off certain areas on the bleachers. In the end, all of the available seats were taken.
It was with high expectations that we took our seats some ten minutes before the show. Shortly afterwards the lights went out and the much expected musicians took their places onstage. I shall not mention the whole set list as it is well-known, but let me point out my personal highlights: The Cinema Show, Firth Of Fifth, The Musical Box and, of course, Supper’s Ready. All the musicians where in high spirits and really keen to play. ‘Peter’ whirled across the stage as ever and did some brilliant singing, the others also excelled at their instruments, but I could hardly take my eyes of ‘Phil’. It was miraculous what this guy, Martin, did at his drum kit. Not only does he look like the master, but his whole demeanour and the way he played were exact copies of the original. He enjoyed himself tremendously. He would constantly smile, wink at his fellow musician, arrange fantastic dynamics – and then there’s his voice. The backing vocals for The Musical Box sounded so much like Phil that Mr Collins himself could not have done them any better. The sound was excellent and the volume gigantic. Experiencing these five men playing the music of 1973 in 2007 was a gift from heaven. After the Apocalypse there was the encore. The Knife was played with an intensity and power that simply blew you away.
Though they played for more than two hours, this extraordinarily enjoyable concert was over too soon. I would like to see that the powers that be permit TMB to perform the 1976/77 shows, too, and that TMB still have the energy and motivation to do it. Should that happen I am sure I will be a regular guest at their concerts.

Author: Andreas Möller
Translation by Martin Klinkhardt

Seeing these shows has completed my understanding of early Genesis

flower I was thrilled when I saw The Musical box for the first time when they did the Lamb tour last year. The show that accompanied my favourite Genesis album exceeded all expectations, so it was a foregone conclusion that I would see the Selling show, too. There were only slight misgivings because the Lamb show had not sold very well in Berlin and the Arena in Treptow is not up there with the best as far as atmosphere and sound are concerned. These old factory halls are resized with curtains according to the size of the event. This time it seemed like a concert venue from the 70s. TMB’s place was more compact somehow and it had a better shape, perhaps due to the positioning of the black curtains. A look over my shoulder (we were in row 7) just before the show began told me that the gig was almost sold-out. Good! Anticipation grew as we admired the stage, the setup and the instruments... I felt as if someone had placed me in one of those oh so well-known photos of Genesis gigs in 1974. Though I knew the set list, I still was nervous.
It was an intense mood set by the mighty chords of Watcher Of The Skies. The sound was in my opinion very strong yet transparent. The overall mood and the quality of the performance gripped me from the first moment, though it took me a while to forget that this was ‘only’ a theatre performance of 2007. When the keyboard solo of The Cinema Show began these thoughts had gone and I submerged in the magic of the moment. My personal highlights were:
I Know What I Like – and I am surprised about that, because it was always a nice song, but I enjoy longer songs better. Shivers ran down my spine – I was so excited when they reached the first chorus.
Firth Of Fifth – excitement rose even further for this song, as expected. It is one of my favourite songs, but it really takes a live performance to find out just how high this unending emotional epic guitar solo can make you fly.
Supper’s Ready – this was another obvious highlight, but it came across very different from what I thought it would be like. I was most impressed by the coherence of this mammoth song. Sure, it was made up of bits and pieces, but when it was performed live it grew into a single big rock symphony. Pulling this opus off is one of the biggest feats of The Musical Box; it is only topped by the Lamb show.
Though not exactly a highlight of the show The Battle Of Epping Forest was a peculiar experience for me. I felt as if I were hearing the piece for the first time. The illusion of time travel was perfect – in my mind I was attending a 1974 Genesis show and listening to new, hitherto unknown song.
For me as a ‘latecomer’ (born in 1974) a dream has come true when I attended the TMB shows, the dream of finding out what created the mythical fame of the early Genesis live. Seeing these shows has completed my understanding of early Genesis. The visual side, the atmosphere of the performance, the fireworks of ideas on how to make a show interesting and unique – all these things were an integral part of early Genesis. Now I can feel that, too, and I am thankful for it. It made clearer to me just how groundbreakingly different Genesis were back then.

I can only support what others have said about Martin Levac and his fellow musicians. I noticed that Denis Gagné sounded more like Peter Gabriel than on the Lamb tour, and that his voice was just incredibly good. Sometimes one had to laugh at Denis’/Peter Gabriel’s weird mimics and gestures because they occasionally lapsed into silly walks. I could also understand the frustration the other band members must have felt at the number of costumes. When it did become too much here and there it really distracted from the music. The use of slide projections was very impressive. It fit the mood because the images were beautiful and enhanced the overall experience. It also was something I had not known about before – I had thought that slides were used only for the Lamb show. This unknown thing enhanced my feeling that I had come a bit closer to the innovation Genesis brought on with their stage show.