The Musical Box - The Final Lamb Tour 2006

De Vereeniging, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
12 January 2006

In my opinion not only a few progressive rock fans know that there is a band that being authorized by Genesis members and Peter Gabriel to reenact the old time Genesis shows. The band is called The Musical Box, originally from Canada, which was since 1993 performing Genesis shows from Foxtrot until The Lamb era. Their tours were mostly successful, with many sold out and extra shows, and particularly the recent The Lamb Lies on Broadway tour in Europe was appreciated very well by the European fans.

The old and present Genesis members also appreciate the existence of The Musical Box. Steve Hackett once played with them for an encore, and in 2005 in Geneva Phil Collins sat behind the drum kit to perform The Musical Box (ah yes..this is a song title :)).

Realizing these facts, I grabbed my chance to watch them during their final Lamb Tour in Europe. They planned to perform three shows in Holland (in Amsterdam, Den Haag, and Nijmegen). Based on the show date and location, I chose the show in Nijmegen. The hall (De Vereeniging) has classic appearance that I thought can give more old time nuances for the show.

For me watching The Lamb in live actually would never be possible, because the original show was dated before my birth date :). So this show was really something worth it, also because I consider The Lamb is one of Genesis best albums.

So there I was, entering De Vereeniging with my wife from a cold winter night in Nijmegen. The hall lobby already quite full of people but the environment was relax, no rushing because everybody had numbered seat. I spent some times looking at tour souvenirs, t-shirts, tour book, CD of David Myers (the keyboard player of The Musical Box) performing Genesis songs in piano. I bought a shirt with The Slipperman image at the front side and at the Lamia image with list of countries visited in the tour at the back side. Then we entered the hall.

The hall was really old-fashioned, rectangle-shaped with arranged chairs facing the stage and balcony seats at the three rectangle sides. The stage was already set for the show, all the will-be-used instruments already placed. Most of the audiences were quite old, I think around 40-45 in age. So we were quite the youngest ones there. Our seats was at the sixth row in the right section from the stage, pretty close and nice view of the stage, except that the people sitting in front of us were quite tall. I waited impatiently for the show to start.

(Note that here I refer to original Genesis members name, for the sake of perfect imagination of Genesis show.)
Then they entered! It was very real, Peter Gabriel narrated the intro story about Rael and then they performed The Lamb Lies on Broadway. The lighting and slides show were exact replicas of the original show, even the costumes also were 70's style.
The performed songs were followed the original order of the album, and Peter Gabriel changed costumes for several songs. The musical skills were perfect and it was very nice to watch the old instruments being played. I enjoyed the most watching Mike Rutherford (left-handed, but with same skill) with double neck guitar and the bass pedals, and Phil Collins (almost identical, bald, left-handed, and similar voice) with the complex drums and percussions set. And off course the frontman, with unique vocal style and theatrical expressions.

The highlights were Fly On A Windshield (with Peter's smoking style during 'smoking Winston cigarettes' part), Cuckoo Cocoon (Peter only had his head visible, singing and playing flute on the stage floor), In The Cage (the best song..nice drums sound), and sensual slideshows during Counting Out Time.

After The Chambers of 32 Doors, Peter Gabriel narrated the story again for the last time before the second half of the show. The second part was more theatrical, with colorful Lamia cone, Slipperman character (Peter needed to pump some balloons for this one), and off course the wonderful-powerful It. At the ending part of this song the played instruments were only drums, bass guitar, and keyboard, and it struck me to see only those three existed Genesis members (you know who they are!).

After the complete Lamb Lies album, they performed The Musical Box and Watcher of the Skies as encores. The Musical Box was brilliantly played, with introduction narration about Henry and Cynthia, perfect instrumental parts, and nice ending with Henry as an old man (with the old man voice singing ...she's a lady, she is mine..brush back your hair, and let me get to know your flesh... until collapsed after repeated now, now, now, now).

Watcher of the Skies sounded much more majestic than the studio version. Peter Gabriel wore a colorful robe and a mask, acting as the watcher. With powerful bass and drums, this song was really the best one for closing the show.

I conclude it was a brilliant show. I expect to watch The Musical Box again in 2007, performing Selling England by the Pound as their farewell tour.

The Musical Box:

François Gagnon as Steve Hackett
Electric guitar
6 strings acoustic guitar
12 strings acoustic guitar

Sébastien Lamothe as Mike Rutherford
Bass
12 strings electric guitar
Bass pedals
Back vocals

Denis Gagné as Peter Gabriel
Vocals
Flute
Oboe
Percussions

Martin Levac as Phil Collins
Drums
Percussions
Vocals

David Myers as Tony Banks
Keyboards
12 strings acoustic guitar
Back vocals