March 30, 1978 review: Genesis kicks off its "Mirrors" tour without the mirrors

 


Fans get their first look at the revamped version of Genesis. 

March 30, 1978 

Energy, Lighting

Stoke Genesis in

Tour Opening 

          There was a touch of opening night unsteadiness about the first major date of the 1978 Genesis world tour Wednesday.

          The British quintet had not yet reckoned which elements of the new show might be heightened for maximum effect. And then too, there was the accident.

          En route to Memorial Auditorium from the warm-up date in Binghamton, a truckload of equipment crashed. This particular tractor-trailer was carrying the group’s new mirrored stage. None of the gear showed up here.

          What did show up were the instruments, the three-level playing platform, the suspended PA speakers, the double sound mixing stations, the laser, the fog machines and an enormous lighting system, which included manned spotlights mounted on scaffolds on both sides of the stage.

          For its part, Genesis was launching a radically new 2¼ hour program made up of pieces from the freshly released “… And Then There Were Three” album plus seldom-performed older tunes. For their 14,000 youthful fans, it made for a sometimes slow-paced evening.

          Singer Phil Collins was partly to blame. After two tours spent rushing about the stage like a crazed satyr, the cleanly shorn and shaven Collins apparently decided to make it easier on himself.

          Instead of dashing around, Collins bounced among three miniature drum stations, occasionally ducking back to one of the two mammoth drum kits to whack out a double beat with Chester Thompson, who became the group’s full-time drummer last year.

          For excitement, Genesis relied on lighting effects. The grid above the stage pulsed with the beat. Spotlights criss-crossed the players. Each tune was set in gorgeous color. The mirrors must make it quite a spectacle.

          Visual impact always has been Genesis’ strong suit. There was Peter Gabriel’s maskery and slideshow dramas, Collins’ acrobatics. Without them, the set dragged noticeably.

          Part of that problem will ease as more kids hear the new album. The crowd responded generously to tunes they knew, like “The Cage” off  “The Lamb Lies Down of Broadway,” but there weren’t that many of them.

          Meanwhile, Collins’ intros were less than sparkling. The best one was the old one for “Romeo and Juliet.” Furthermore, new guitarist Daryl Stuermer (who replaced the outgoing Steve Hackett) didn’t get to show off much of what he must have learned during 2½ years with jazz-rock violinist Jean-Luc Ponty.

          The result left the crowd with plenty of spunk and energy when the encore came around. Firecrackers popped, matches and candles were lit. They went wild as Collins opened the familiar favorite by saying: “It’s one o’clock and it’s time for lunch …”

          They cheered his tambourine frenzy. They clapped along to the beat. They were screaming and stomping for a second encore when the house lights came up, but Genesis didn’t come back. Though they hadn’t quite found the key to the new formula, they weren’t about to fall back on the old one.

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTO: Genesis onstage in Rochester the night after the Buffalo show.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: The three that Genesis had come down to were Collins, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford and their new sound, which was much more pop-oriented, was not at all embraced by their prog rock fans, who were accustomed to much longer and more complex songs. Nevertheless, although “… And Then There Were Three” got mixed reviews when it was released in March 1978, it did great on the charts. “Follow You Follow Me” was their most successful single to date.

          The staging for this “Mirrors” tour, which went on for nearly 100 shows in North America, Europe and Japan and cost Collins his marriage, was so epic that there’s a Wiki page devoted entirely to the equipment.

Here’s what they played that night, as reported on setlist.fm (songs from the new album marked with asterisks). The “Romeo and Juliet” reference in the review is actually part of the lyrics for “The Cinema Show.” The encore, which came from the 1973 album “Selling England by the Pound,” was the first Genesis single to chart. 

          Eleventh Earl of Mar

          In the Cage

          Burning Rope ***

          Ripples

          Deep in the Motherlode ***

          The Fountain of Salmacis

          Down and Out ***

          One for the Vine

          Squonk

          Say It’s Alright Joe ***

          The Lady Lies ***

          The Cinema Show

          Riding the Scree

          … In That Quiet Earth

          Afterglow

          Follow You Follow Me ***

          Dance on a Volcano

          Drum Duet

          Los Endos

          (encore)

          I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

July 6, 1974 Review: The first Summerfest concert at Rich Stadium -- Eric Clapton and The Band

Image
  This was the summer that rock ‘n roll came to the brand new Buffalo Bills stadium in Orchard Park . There was a lot of official nervousness about this kickoff event.   July 6, 1974   Hassle-Free Clapton Concert Scores a Pleasant Success             Rich Stadium got its baptism in rock ‘n roll Saturday evening and it all went off so well that the home of the Buffalo Bills football team should be bouncing to the big beat for many summer nights to come.           It was a star-studded event – stars above and stars on the stage. The Band, honed to near perfection as a live act, cranked out a happy, raucous set. And guitar idol Eric Clapton, who announced that he was drunk (indeed, he was very drunk), took a laid-back set that left many of his worshippers perplexed.           But the real heroes of this show – the first of four in the Summerfest ’74 series at the stadium – were promoter Jerry Nathan and his Festival East organization. * * * THEY TURNED the near-impossib
Read more

Feb. 2, 1974: The Blue Ox Band

Image
  One of the major local rock bands of the day and predecessor to some equally wonderful aggregations down the line.   Feb. 2, 1974 Blue Ox Wants Aggressive, Bitey Sound   AS BLUE OX themselves will tell you, a lot depends on the crowd.                    One night they’ll be sitting there in the Bona Vista on Hertel Avenue like good old boys and girls on the bayou, bobbing in their private dreams to the Grateful Dead’s “Truckin.’”           A few nights later, at an even more tender hour, the tiny dance floor is full of folks boogieing their heads off to the very same tune. * * * “IF YOU LISTEN for a whole night,” guitarist-organist Charlie O’Neill says, “we go through all kinds of styles. But sometimes the slower stuff is rough when you’ve got a bunch that wants to bounce around.”           Variety, for Blue Ox, has been a matter of trading and balancing between a club crowd’s boogie urge and the band’s own preference for subtler, more complex tunes, including a fe
Read more

August 9, 1976 review: Elton John at Rich Stadium, with Boz Scaggs and John Miles

Image
  Now that all the organizational issues for Rich Stadium concerts were ironed out, Mother Nature decided to throw a curve. August 9, 1976 Elton John Pours It On For Rain-Soaked Fans Elton John was amazed. “I thank you for standing out in the rain and sitting out in the rain,” he remarked as he strode out in a Stars & Stripes Uncle Sam outfit in Rich Stadium Saturday afternoon for the first of three encores. “You deserve a medal of honor.” Instead of medals, the drizzle-soaked, wind-chilled crowd of 52,560 got a whale of a concert from the supermost superstar of the ‘70s. In fact, such was the energy of that first encore – everybody shouting along to the chorus of “Saturday Night’s All Right for Fighting” – that the rain faltered and it seemed like the sun would awaken for a guest appearance. But it didn’t. It was miraculous enough that Superfest 10 beat the deluge. The promoters rushed to fit it all in, forestalling an epidemic of rockin’ pneumonia and the boogie-w
Read more