Saw the Musical Box do The Lamb Lies Down

[Squids]

A few weeks ago I went to LA and saw a band called the Musical Box (Genesis tribute band) play the entire Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. This being the 30th anniversay (oddly enough we were celebrating the 20th anniversery with a one off tribute show that I played on in 1994 doing about an hour of the Lamb).

Anyway, it was really interesting! There were some great moments. They had all of the original slides from the original Lamb show Genesis did (the Genesis members of that time, including Gabriel, all endorse these guys doing it and gave them the slides and some pointers).

It was awesome to see a simulation of what it must have been like back in 74 (in NYC). The singer was hard to believe as a Gabriel...it was just bizarre. But, you could squint maybe and suspend disbelief. However, the drummer you could believe WAS Phil Collins. That was a trip. The Tony Banks guy was adequate but didn't remind me of Tony really. "Played the notes" is how I would describe it. The Hackett and Rutherford however had a nice believability to it. These guys were REALLY doing an imitation/simulation and the effort was totally worth seeing.

I never saw the original show from Genesis. I would have been a little disappointed that NONE of the album art seemed to make its way into the slides. When I was a kid I was so into album art that if you had a concept album like that you'd think that the album art would be a part of the film or slide show if they had one. I mean, the guy who played Rael on the cover was nowhere to be found nor was there a cool arm going across the three screens grabbing his brother John or the brick alley with animals or the screaming old man (kind of Wall-like... prelude?).

So, if you had the album you may have had different imagery in mind before you went to see the show. But, I am sure it had to do with budget (that and perhaps that someone completely unrelated to the band did the cover with his "interpretation" of the story).

Anyway, if you're a fan of this great album and you get a chance to see these guys do it I highly recommend it. It's an experience.