[quote="animal"]Saw the Genesis show in Philly last night.
Played a lot of the old stuff, and the drum duet was just amazing.
It was another SC.net gathering with Sockii & Vespapod. Hope you guys made it home ok.[/quote]
Yes, we did! I'm just downloading my photos now so I'll send a link when I've got them all put together. I think I actually got some decent ones even for being in the back nosebleeds.
It was a solid show with a very nice set (albeit a coulple snoozy ballads that I could have done without). Very impressive that they played straight through 2 hours & 40 minutes of material (!!) which allowed for of course most of all of the big hits, but a fair number of album cuts and rarer gems as well. The drum duet then going into "Los Endos" was definitely a highlight to me, as was a great version of "I Know What I Like" featuring a lovely photo montage of the band through the years.
It is sort of interesting to compare the two reunion shows (Police, Genesis) and their approaches. I felt pretty satisfied having seen the Genesis show *once*, as much as I enjoyed it, because I got the impression it was a very locked, set show--with all the timing to match the lights and video, I don't see where there's any real room for improvisation, changing solos and the like, so it's not like the Police where there's clearly been a lot of improvisation/evolution of numbers night to night, even within a tight set.
OTOH, I'm hugely impressed by the stamina of these guys to go out there and play a nearly THREE hour set--and here they were on their third night in a row in Philly without showing any signs of fatigue (or vocal strain on Phil's part--they seemed to nicely space the instrumental/vocal songs to help avoid that). It DID kind of leaving me wanting the Police to play a longer set--at least adding in a couple more "rarer" songs, because these guys didn't seem so bound to have to play *every single* vs. giving the fans some deeper gems (though like the Police, the setlist has apparently been locked solid with no variation night to night).
Merchandise pricing was enough to make me gag though, as if the Police stuff wasn't bad enough! T-shrits were $40, hoodies (comparable to the Police $60 one) were $85!!!
The only thing oddly cheaper were the neck lariats ($10 vs $15), but I still passed on that.
Very sedate crowd up in the 'bleeds, though at least for the most part they actually seemed to know & enjoy the real early stuff to my surprise, instead of going for a beer run every time a hit single wasn't played (unlike at too many Police shows I saw this summer.
) We did have an amusing view of some crazy lady in the front row who kept giving Phil some very special "private", interpretive dances during the ballads.
Oh, and it was funny to see the Genesis fan club had THEIR banner out--which made the video screen once--but it was a huge ugly, handwritten fucker. Nothing so "tasteful" as our green flag!