The Watch - Green Show

De Bosuil, Weert, 13 March 2011

Last year I attended a good show from The Watch, where they played Genesis' Blue Show, performed songs from Foxtrot album and beyond. This year, this Italian band did it again with Genesis' Green Show, where the majority of songs are from Selling England by the Pound album.

I missed the show at De Pul, Uden, where I watched the Blue Show last year. Luckily there was another date at De Bosuil, Weert, which also quite close from my home at Eindhoven.

This concert also marked as my first concert photography. With two simple e-mails to The Watch and De Bosuil, I got green light to brought my camera to the show.

The show was on Sunday afternoon. I drove from Eindhoven pretty early and I arrived at De Bosuil when the door was still closed. From outside, I could hear the band was still rehearsing, playing a section from Firth of Fifth.

When I got inside, it was very relax environment. No one bothered to check my camera bag. The band just finished the rehearsal, I saw them still walking around on the stage.

The hall was quite small, comparable size with De Pul and W2 Poppodium at Den Bosch. The stage was simple, proportionally raised from the audience area. The lightings were not so complex. Too bad there was no background slides that could be used by The Watch as in other shows from this Green Show.

I checked the merchandise table and spotted the new album. I asked the guy to reserve one and a shirt for me until end of the show. Then I bought drink on the bar at the side of the stage, sat there observing the stage and figuring where to get good pictures.

The hall was getting crowded until almost full when the show begun on time at 16:00. I got a good spot at the guitar side, but I did not have to worry, the front area was basically always clear so we photographers could move around easily. At least there were three other people with long zoom lenses and heavy camera body wandering around in the front.

The first song, like last year in the Blue Show, was more for warming up. They played Medley Sirence, taken from their Primitive album. It was applauded warmly by the audience.

Second song was the famous Watcher of the Skies from Foxtrot album. It was performed very well. The Mellotron sound was nice and even though there was no make up ala Peter Gabriel, I could hear almost the same vocal style from Simone Rossetti.

Simone Rossetti

After that, Simone told us that they were performing Selling England album, opened with the very first song, Dancing with the Moonlit Knight. He translated the title to Dutch when announcing, responded with laugh and applause from some audiences.

I Know what I Like was opened using typical lawn mowing action. Simone pretended to start the lawnmower several times, then he joked that it was an Italian lawnmower :). The song was cheerful as usual and always crowds' favorite.

Still following the track order of the album, piano intro of Firth of Fifth was wonderfully played by Valerio De Vittorio. This song was perfectly played, the guitar solos from Giorgio Gabriel were really good.

Valerio De Vittorio

Breaking the song order from Selling England, they performed One Day, a new song from their latest album Timeless that just released last month. This album is full of nuance from Genesis' first album, From Genesis to Revelation, but with extra energy from The Watch music.

Back to Genesis, they performed The Musical Box. Again in this song Giorgio showed his great guitar skills, performed great solos and sounds as Steve Hackett. After this long song, we had a short break.

Giorgio Gabriel

The second set started with enormously complex song from Selling England, The Battle of Epping Forest. Simone did wonderfully here, fluently sang those thick British accent phrases.

After the Ordeal showed great acoustic guitars duo from Giorgio and Guglielmo Mariotti.

After that, yet another own song, they performed All the Lights in Town from Planet Earth? album released in 2010.

Guglielmo Mariotti

They closed the set with the love song from Selling England, The Cinema Show, followed with Aisle of Plenty. I found The Cinema Show was really perfect, like watching young Genesis performed in the 70's. Marco Fabbri, the drummer, produced energetic sounds like young Phil Collins and the keyboard solo from Valerio was tightly played.

Marco Fabbri

Surely the band would not finish the show without any encore. And it was a really great one, because it was Supper's Ready. To experience this epic song being performed live, with perfection in every notes and transition, was a great way to end the show.

Attending show from The Watch was always an enjoyable moment, and this show was no exception. The performance was top notch even in really complex compositions from Selling England album. I shall wait for more projects from them, as promised by Simone at the end of the show.

Musicians:

Giorgio Gabriel - Electric guitars, 12 strings acoustic guitar

Guglielmo Mariotti - Bass, bass pedals, 12 strings electric and acoustic guitars, vocals

Valerio De Vittorio - Pianos, Hammond L122 organ, mellotron, arp and moog synths, vocals

Simone Rossetti - Vocals, flute, tambourine

Marco Fabbri - Drums, percussions, vocals

Setlist:

Medley Sirence

Watcher Of The Skies

Dancing With The Moonlit Knight

I Know What I Like

Firth Of Fifth

One Day

The Musical Box

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The Battle Of Epping Forest

After The Ordeal

All The Lights In Town

The Cinema Show / Aisle Of Plenty

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Supper's Ready