Best Opening Songs Live

  • Here’s a toughie for you as my choice changes like the weather, what’s your favourite opening songs on a previous tour ?

    Mine at the moment is from 81..

    Behind The Lines

    Duchess

    Lamb lies down

    The two shows I saw in my hometown Of Birmingham were fabulous, end of the tour nearly Christmas and all that , I can still hear Tonys intro to the Lamb now , can’t believe it’s 37 years this December

  • Motherlode holds a special place for me as the Duke tour opener, my first Genesis gigs.


    After that, the Volcano/Behind opener on the Encore tour was quite special as they'd long established a routine of opening usually with a track off the previous album, so Volcano was very unexpected.

    Abandon all reason

  • Probably Mama which started the shows on the Invisible Touch tour. It created such a strong atmosphere.

    I saw just one show on that tour, London Wembley Stadium, so it was open air and in the middle of summer and the problem I had was the conflict between the atmospheric opening song, and it being bright and sunny, with the light show practically invisible. It just didn't feel right. Abacab perked things up a bit, and the theatrics of the lighting rig in The Brazilian helped, but it wasn't really until the Cage medley that I felt any atmosphere was established.

    Abandon all reason

  • I saw just one show on that tour, London Wembley Stadium, so it was open air and in the middle of summer and the problem I had was the conflict between the atmospheric opening song, and it being bright and sunny, with the light show practically invisible. It just didn't feel right. Abacab perked things up a bit, and the theatrics of the lighting rig in The Brazilian helped, but it wasn't really until the Cage medley that I felt any atmosphere was established.

    You could say the same about any open air gig if you're limiting your understanding of atmosphere simply to the lights.

  • You could say the same about any open air gig if you're limiting your understanding of atmosphere simply to the lights.

    Just because I mentioned lights it doesn't mean that's the "limit of my understanding of atmosphere". The song was, and is, atmospheric but as with any gig the atmosphere involves a combination of different factors (including the subdued lights) and I personally found the song had to battle against most of those factors and it didn't quite work for me, but hopefully it did for others.


    At other open air gigs, I've found for various reasons it's not been a problem.

    Abandon all reason