The Musical Box
Road trip to the great white North to see The Musical Box perform The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, 17-Feb-01
We made it to Montreal and back from CT/Lower NY and it was WELL worth the trip! Possibly one of the best musical shows I have ever seen (Neil Young with crazy horse was another that moved me in the last few years).
The music and show were amazing. I am a student of rock and the guitar in particular, and also of Genesis so I am very critical. But I could only be in awe of the amount of work and guts the Musical Box put into this production. Other than occasional short bouts of distortion in the sound system and some minor synth problems it was nearly perfect.
I applaud the band for keeping to original equipment as much as possible, as the modern digital crap just doesn't cut it.
The keyboard player played an old ARP pro soloist (?) synth often which he tamed quite well. He appeared to have some sort of Hammond but not the B3 that I was expecting to see. I think the Mellotron was digitally sampled but it sounded AWESOME anyway.
The guitarist played mostly a black Les Paul Custom as Steve Hackett did. He used an MXR phase-100 and some newer (?) volume pedal which allowed all the swells for his violin-type playing. He also used an EBOW a few times for infinite sustain. I guess from reading other posts that the big white thing on his right was a Synthi-Hi-Fly effect, I have the manual for them but have never seen one. What amazed me most about his guitar playing was the "rhythm" or background parts which he played flawlessly - no idea how he figured them out as they are back deep in the mix, seeing him play them only made me realize that there was even guitar in some sections! An example was the opening number, the title track.
The bass player mostly used a (custom built?) doubleneck left handed guitar with a 12-string on top and what appeared to be a normal 6 string on the bottom. The bottom neck did not have a long scale length or thick bass strings. However the sound was decent, I am guessing he used a bass synthesizer (or even a WHAMMY pedal!) to lower the octave and get the fuzz bass sound. It lacked a bit of the solid low end that Rutherford got but it worked out OK. He also had bass pedals which he used for a few numbers, and quite well at that. Not sure if they were Moog Taurus pedals but he did not use the Taurus sound, just a standard bass sound on the pedals.
The singer had the Gabriel act down pat! Not only did he sing just like him, but his movements, demeanor, and everything were pure pg. His stories between numbers were excellent, with no hint of his native accent. The singer is a truly excellent vocalist, with a range a bit past pg on either end, his low vocals were deep and rich and the high notes crisp without the sound of reaching. His "acting" was quite good too. This singer should be in a national act.
I am not much into drums but the drummer did an amazing job even in the impossible sections, never losing the beat. His backing vocals were not quite up to the quality of Phil (sorry Phil haters) but to find someone as good at playing as he is, he did OK.
One very memorable aspect of the show was the feeling of the crowd- we were all like friends sharing our love of the music and memories of past times. I have been listening to early Genesis and pg for about 20 years and did not know there were that many others like me. The show was sold out far in advance and the hall was filled in capacity with the most receptive crowd I have seen. Though we were packed like sardines people were very friendly.
The encore was amazing, The Musical Box followed by Watcher of the Skies, with costumes. Two of my favorite songs also played flawlessly.
If you have a chance to check this band out, go - you will not be disappointed. I would almost go again to see the same show, definately will go again if they perform another tour (i.e. Selling England by the pound tour, etc).
Thank you to The Musical Box!!!
Selling England By The Pound, 5-APRIL-2002, Theatre for Living Arts (Philadelphia, PA)
Hellay!
After making the trek to the great COLD north last year for the
Lamb show, this was not a bad trip (from CT, we even drove home
that night...).
The show did start out a bit slowly for
some reason, even though they started with Watchers of the Sky (maybe
would have been better to save that one, though they may have
been running the same set as 1973). It took several songs to get
me in the magical feeling I had during all of the Lamb show.
Watered down $6 drinks did not help :-)
By the end of the show the crowd was really into it, the encore
of The Knife was excellent!
Also Supper's Ready is a
crazy piece played live, I really enjoyed it. The Old Man coming
in at the end of Musical Box was one of the most haunting scenes
I've seen on any theater stage in years.
Sebastien Lamothe as Mike Rutherford was really good this time- using the Rickenbacker double neck was so much better than the copy of the custom doubleneck he used in the Lamb show. The bass parts were much fuller and deeper with the Rick. The other one seemed to have a "simulated" bass sound. Sebastien was also very good on the 12 string acoustic guitars.
François Richard played the keyboards flawlessly, even though this was apparently his first live performance with the band. It was hard to believe he had not played dozens of shows. Only the junky digital ROLAND keyboard he used for piano hurt his performance. The Mellotron and ARP synthesizer were fabulous, as well as the Hammond spinet organ!!!! Please get a new piano...
Denis Champoux was extraordinarily competent on guitar and his sounds were very authentic although his choice of effects pedals could have been improved :-) (too many new Boss pedals). He used a British H & H preamp into a HIWATT head, and a vintage echoplex for echoes. Also a nice sunburst Les Paul, 1959 style (reissue I believe). Hackett did use some of these outrageously expensive guitars in the 70s, I hope he kept some of them!
Denis did not seem quite as good as the guitarist we saw last year with the band but I enjoyed his use of the EBOW for sustained notes. I did not think the EBOW was available in 1973 but it sure sounds like that on the record.
The overall sound was not great but probably better than in 1973! The sound man could not keep the guitar sound audible, many lead lines could not be heard at all. Also the keyboards were often brought in much too loud as were certain painful vocal parts.
We enjoyed the show and I hope we can see the band for a 3rd time in the near future!
AnalogMike www.analogman.com