GenesisFan

by Cédric Avril

I had the privilege of enjoying the Steve Hackett and Renaissance
concert at the State Theatre in Falls Church, VA last night. These two
bands touring together is a really good match, their styles and sounds
complement each other well. Renaissance opened and put on a really good
show, but Annie Haslan was a little off her usual superb standard, which
she attributed to an ongoing battle with a migrane. Although I am a fan
of Renaissance, I hadn't traveled 450 miles to see them specifically.
They were an added bonus to me for the main event, Steve's new band. But
it was good to see Renaissance again for the first time in almost 35
years. Their 1 hour set was quite enjoyable.

Steve and company were outstanding last night. This is only the second
time I'd seen him live, the first being at the Birchmere about 4 years
earlier. I'll provide a set list in another posting, if anyone is
interested. There were 3 new tunes that I didn't recognize, all quite
enjoyable, that I' assuming are from the new CD. The rest were all quite
familiar, and some were the best performances of the particular tunes
that I have heard yet. The highlights of the show for me were Everyday,
Blood on the Rooftops, and Firth of Fifth, Firth being the pinnacle.
I've never heard Genesis perform Firth as well as the band did last
night. It was performed in it's entirety as originally done on Selling
England. Roger King nailed TB's parts perfectly. The drummer's lead
vocals were fantastic, better than I have heard anyone do it, probably a
match for PG at his best doing that song. No embellishments, just sang
it with the what seemed the proper feeling and respect for the song. And
Steve was Steve, and he seemed to play his parts even more inspired
than ever by the excellent support from the rest of the band. Only The
Musical Box's rendition of the song comes close to matching the power
and precision of how I heard it played last night. Blood on the Rooftops
was a close second, a truly beautiful performance of that one. Again,
the drummer's vocals were excellent, I think he sings it even better
than PC ever did.

The new band members are an enhancement to previous incarnations of the
band, the bass player really know his stuff, and I enjoyed hearing the
Chapman stick added into the mix. And the female guitarist/vocalist
added a nice dimension to the overall sound of the band. She voice
sounded good, what I can hear of it, and she appears to be quite
competent on the guitar. Steve was really in his element last night, he
appeared to be truly enjoying himself, and the crowd responded in kind.
They played almost 2 hours, I would have easily liked to have heard
another hour if they had been up for it. I'm really looking forward to
the next tour, I hope it won't be another 4 years off.

My only complaints for last night were that the audio sounded rather
harsh on the high end last night. And that was true of both bands. The
vocals for both bands were hard to hear clearly, and at times some of
the instruments seemed to drop out of the mix. That was particularly
true of several of Roger King's parts. I think it had as much to do with
the acoustics of the building as anything else. When I heard Steve
perform at the Birchmere 4 years ago, I think the overall performance
wasn't as inspired, but the audio quality that night was fantastic. The
seating arrangements at the State worked out pretty good, and the food
there was delicious. The beer was overpriced, but that was not a
surprise. I kept it to 2 rounds as I wanted make sure I had clear
memories of the evening.

For anyone who is a fan of Steve and/or Renaissance, don't miss this
tour. It was well worth the 7 hour drive the day before to see it.