A couple weeks or so ago I went down south to see The Musical Box, the Canadian band that recreates Genesis shows from the 1970s. Just like last year, they were doing '74-'75 shows in support of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. I've seen them 6 or 7 times now and it's gotten to be like going to church for me with Lamb shows being the equivalent of a High Mass. But instead of incense, more prayers and homilies, and extra communion wine, audience members get a fog machine, more slides on the screens in back, and extra crazy costumes.
I've become accustomed to the cadences of these shows. I love how slow songs sit next to faster ones - think "Cuckoo Cocoon" into "In the Cage" - and how some pieces build in tempo and power until they reach a climax, such as "The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging". There are peaks of intensity scattered throughout and I can imagine that liturgies are the same way - you listen to the priest and then sing in communion with your fellow churchgoers.
As showtime is reached and I wait for the lights to go down, there is a palpable magic in the air. I am about to go on a musical journey and engage with a story. Then I am suddenly cast into darkness and some piano notes emerge from the speakers. It has begun.
A shiver runs down my back when the band play "Fly On a Windshield". This time I closed my eyes as our Canuck Rael sang the last few syllables of "on the freeway" as tears welled. Then I opened them just as the band came crashing in. Simply magical!
"Lilywhite Lilith" has only gotten creepier for me over the years with that woman's face that slowly comes closer until you can see close-up that her pupils are oddly triangular becoming more unnerving with every performance. Those are three very disconcerting minutes and then the song gives way to the evil jam that is "The Waiting Room" where I get blinded by the footlights. No death this time, though.
"Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats" was very intense even though it's a mellow tune. There's something primal and almost hallucinatory about having that Mellotron chorus sound wash over you at near max volume.
The band were great but, sadly, there was a drunk guy a couple of seats away who talked very loudly through a lot of the show. I had to wonder why he was recounting the airplane at the Roger Waters concert he attended as The Musical Box were performing. It's like he ignored them for large stretches. Then he'd turn on his phone light occasionally. One time he was looking at some pills in his hand.
While the concert would have been much better without his presence, there were still several magical moments to be had. I love that anxious feeling I get just before the show when it's like I'm strapping myself in and then, when the light go down - "Here I go!" There's intense, kinetic rock (the drumming is always pure genius) plus uncanny moments that are genuinely eerie. And "Counting Out Time" always makes me smile.
This tour is supposedly the band's final one where they'll do The Lamb in its entirety. We shall see if that is the case. It was announced that they'll be back in the fall for a Selling England by the Pound show, however. I'll be there.
Some footage from that night has been posted online.
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