Get Me Out of This Cage: Genesis Live Over Europe 2007
Written: Dec 27 '07 (Updated Dec 27 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Hmmm... Nice package.
Cons: It's product, pure and simple.
The Bottom Line: In which the author had to get in to get out.
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| plorentz's Full Review: Live Over Europe - Genesis |
The 2007 reunion tour of the prog-rock turned adult pop quintet Genesis was a non-event in many observers' minds, because, frankly, it was the wrong "classic" Genesis that was reuniting. Hopes were aflicker early on that this tour might mark the (miraculous-if-it-were-true) return of singer Peter Gabriel and guitarist Steve Hackett to the fold more than 30 years after their departures in the mid-70s. But it was not to be. What fans got, instead, was a reunion of the group that delivered much-maligned adult contemporary records like Invisible Touch and We Can't Dance before lead singer Phil Collins finally called it quits, 15 years deep into an on-again off-again solo career that had proven far more lucrative. Not that Collins's return to the group (who persevered in the late 90s with the Collins-less Calling All Stations) wasn't a welcome one, and with drummer Chester Thompson and guitarist Daryl Stuermer, both long-time associates of the band's more commercial period in tow, this really is a (as opposed to the) classic line-up.
Now, a wise man once said (actually, he wrote it in one of my comment sections) that post-Gabriel Genesis makes him want to gouge his eyes out, and while, it should be noted that the overwhelming bulk of Live Over Europe 2007, the two-CD live album documenting the band's reunion tour, is, indeed, post-Gabriel Genesis, many may be surprised at just how proggish (see "Domino" and "Home by the Sea") the Collins-led Genesis could (and can) be. And another wise man once wrote in someone else's comment section that he grew up listening to post-Gabriel Genesis and wasn't a fan of prog-rock, and therefore thought it best that he not explore earlier Genesis records. Another valid point, but then even he might be surprised to find out just how, y'know, "poppy" Gabriel-led Genesis often were (see songs like "Counting Out Time" and "The Carpet Crawlers", both from The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Gabriel's last hurrah with the band). Even the group's longer, more stereotypically "progressive" compositions often bore out contagious melodic hooks, groove-inspiring rhythmic flourishes, and a more easy-going sense of humor than most of their prog-rock peers seemed able to afford. In a genre best known for its exercises in cerebral spectacle, Genesis, both with and without Gabriel, always had a heart, and often, wore it on their sleeves.
All of which is to say that, at least with regards to repertoire, there's plenty on Live Over Europe 2007 to both delight and offend both of the aforementioned wise men. Unlike the band's 1993 live document(s), The Way We Walk, the performances on Live Over Europe 2007, with each track representing one stop on the tour but mixed continuously so that the album sounds like a single show (with the encores at the end of the second disc), aren't divided into "short" songs and "long" songs. The result is a record that feels tediously herky-jerky in spots. The first disc never really sustains much flow or momentum, which has much to do with the presence of latter-day ballads like "No Son of Mine" and the hopelessly somnolent "Hold On My Heart", the ending of which Collins drags out with a lot of gratuitous, self-important frontman-isms; but not helping things is the fact that many (maybe all) of the band's best uptempo songs are performed in a lower key, robbing them of a lot of the urgency and tension that Collins brought to their studio recordings.
On the other hand, the unsegregated approach of the album allows for some interesting and improbably effective juxtapositions. The opening trio of the second disc nearly justify the money spent: opening with the sinister and stagey rocker "Mama" gives Collins a chance to vent that edgy villain persona he perfected in the early 80s, but which has been largely suppressed since his No Jacket Required album. The song is dark and percussive, with a tenacity that borders on psychosis and a creepy, murderous sexuality - the musical equivalent of a stalker - and Collins hams his vocal up to suit the atmosphere perfectly. But after nearly eight minutes, the song gives way to the gorgeous, reflective 1977 ballad "Ripples" - the band luxuriates in the song's seductive, shimmery atmosphere as if it were some sort of celestial hot tub. When it's over, they ease themselves out of the hallucination with a playful, lighthearted, slightly uptempo take (including a made-for-Disney Carribean-flavored call-and-response intro) on their 1987 hit "Throwing It All Away", a song whose lovely guitar textures sound like a direct mutation of the previous song hinting that maybe the prog Genesis and the pop Genesis have more in common than conventional compartmentalizations give the band credit for.
Unfortunately Live Over Europe 2007 is never this revelatory. The repertoire really hasn't changed much in 15 years, and many of the performances feel, well, rote. "Land of Confusion" is reduced to a golden oldie here, utterly lacking in any of its original urgency, bitterness, or optimism. And prog flourishes like the "In the Cage" medley at the center of disc one or the dueling drum solos feel like high tech computer animations of 70s style arena rock more than actual 70s style arena rock. The set-closing rendition of the Gabriel-era "Carpet Crawlers" is lovely and haunting, telegraphing the quiet, eerie shimmer of the original and its lyrical swirl - gotta get in to get out - with as much love for the song as for the audience that loved the song into its current classic status. But it's preceded by what must surely be the record's cruelest joke: in the song "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight", a theatrical noir epic about drug addiction, right at the part where the song would normally go into an extended instrumental section, the beat picks up, raising our expectations that the band is going to do something new and fabulous with that break, only to reward those expectations by seguing into the insipid pop of "Invisible Touch". Now, unlike many Genesis fans, I happen to love "Invisible Touch", but in this context, it feels, to me, like the band taking a big smelly dump all over one of the best songs of its later career with, if not it's worst, certainly one of its least loved pop ditties. The medley is not just ill-advised. It's damned offensive. (And did I mention that I love "Invisible Touch"!)
Thankfully speaking: just as the set is never as revelatory as the opening of the second disc, it's never that offensive either. If anything, it's merely listenable and blah, and arriving in a glossy black slipcase with a beautiful graphic (a white blueprint type drawing of the show's massive stage set) and a booklet full of documentary photos, "giftable" more than anything. It's pretty, but absolutely unnecessary.
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BECAUSE YOU NEED TO KNOW:
"Live Over Europe 2007" by Genesis
Atlantic Records
Released 11/27/07
Produced by Nick Davis
143 min.
SONGS: Duke's Intro - Turn It On Again - No Son of Mine - Land of Confusion - In the Cage/The Cinema Show/Duke's Travels - Afterglow - Hold On My Heart - Home by the Sea/Second Home by the Sea - Follow You Follow Me - Firth of Fifth - I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) - Mama - Ripples - Throwing It All Away - Domino Pts. 1 and 2 - Conversations with 2 Stools - Los Endos - Tonight, Tonight, Tonight - Invisible Touch - I Can't Dance - Carpet Crawlers
Recommended:
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Member: Paul Lorentz
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