The Musical Box - Bremen 2007

Fantastic Concert with great musicians...

For quite a while have I been a big fan of Genesis in general and the Gabriel era in particular. Perhaps this is nothing special, perhaps it is if you consider my tender age of 21 years. For obvious reasons I have never been able to see my idols live in their hey-day. In the forum of the German Genesis fanclub ‘it’ I learned that there is a way to make up for it. There is, I was told, a cover band called The Musical Box who perform the old concerts with utmost authenticity. Initially, I was a bit sceptic. A cover band?
All the ecstatic reports about the concerts made me curious and I decided I wanted to see them too. I planned to attend the Lamb Lies Down On Broadway tour 2006, but it did not work out for various reasons. Fortunately this was not to be the final TMB tour. In 2007 they toured again with the Selling England By The Pound programme from 1973. At the end of January they played a night at the Glocke in Bremen, close to my home town in northern Germany…
So there I was on January 26, standing with a friend in front of the old venue Die Glocke in the old part of Bremen to experience my first ‘real’ concert with a friend. When we entered the lobby at about half past seven we immediately realised that we would be among the youngest in the audience, most of which consisted of middle-aged men and older couples, with a few people under 30 dispersed between them. We did not tarry and took our places in row 21 on the right-hand side. Though they were at the back sound and sight were very good, as we were to find out later. Let me say a few words about the hall itself: It is a very pretty design and features not only good acoustics but also comfortable seats. Concerts like this one should take place here more often!

At a quarter to eight we began to hear familiar sounds from the PA: Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield! This was one of our favourite pieces, so it could have been louder. But on stroke 8 the lights and the music went out and the audience began to applaud and cheer. The band snuck onstage and, yes, there they were, the famous mellotron chords of Watcher Of The Skies! At a perfect volume coupled with clear sound. So this is what a rock concert is like, I thought, excellent. The band did a perfect performance of Watcher. I was stunned by the simple yet so effective visual effects, the black light and the ‘Gabriel’s’ great costumes. After the opening song there was a brief introduction and the story for Dancing With The Moonlit Knight that made everybody laugh. Dancing really rocked and I was fascinated with ‘Gabriel’s’ vocal performance. After that it was one of my all-time Genesis favourites, The Cinema Show. After the lyrical intro and shortly before the famous instrumental part there was the big surprise: ‘Gabriel’ and ‘Hackett’ left the stage. Only ‘Collins’, ‘Rutherford’ and ‘Banks’ (often mockingly dubbed ‘Genesis light’) remained on stage. This trio demonstrated what they can (could) do: ‚Banks’ did a perfect version of his biggest solo, ‚Rutherford’ gave us some great bass runs and ‚Collins’ performed miracles at the drumkit. The bass sound for The Cinema Show could have been stronger, though, I must say. But we are of course spoiled by the Seconds Out version.
By this time the band (and me, too) were really ‘in’ the concert and I could enjoy it fully after the initial burst of emotions. Firth Of Fifth marked the first highlight of the evening. The piece was performed so perfectly and movingly as to delight everybody. The bass sound also worked out for the first time and occasionally caused the whole hall to vibrate. While very attentive during the song the audience burst into loud applause and cheers after its end. The next highlight was already about to begin: The Musical Box. The song was played in a very hard, rough and aggressive fashion, pure fun. Horizons and The Battle Of Epping Forest offered a break to calm down a bit. It was still very interesting to see Battle…, which, after all, is rather rich in lyrics, performed live on stage. Instead of the usual More Fool Me the band ‘only’ played Horizons, which was a bit of a disappointment because I would have loved to hear Martin Levad do his perfect Collins clone number on the lead vocals.
Then the big moment we had all been waiting for had come. The story of Old Henry indicated that Supper was Ready! What followed can only be described as PERFECT! Hardly ever has such a powerful and evocative version of Supper’s Ready been heard. Particularly the final hymn part marked by pyrotechnical effects made shivers run down my spine – it was so beautiful and touched something deep. After that the band left with a brief “good night”. The ecstatic audience, however, demanded more and so they returned to perform the obligatory encore, The Knife, in a way that left everybody breathless. ‘Collins’ brought so much power to bear on the drums that when the audience left the hall after two hours’ worth of music they were happy and deeply impressed.
What remains? I have seen a fantastic concert with great musicians. I was so impressed that I simply had to see it again. So I bought a ticket for the Hannover gig a week later. I would like to commend Martin Levac, who does not only live up to Collins’ terrific drumming, but also to his gestures and facial expressions. The visual and acoustic experience of this concert has pointed out many things in the context of Genesis music that I would never have found out otherwise. Hence my hearty recommendation to all friends of Genesis who have not yet seen TMB: Attend The Musical Box’s Black shows in autumn!

Author: Sebastian Wilken
Translation by Martin Klinkhardt