Photos/Review: Steve Hackett 4.9.22 Scottish Rite Auditorium

Words & Photos by Rod Snyder

A legion of Genesis fans overtook the Scottish Rite Auditorium last Saturday night to see Steve Hackett, lead guitarist for Genesis from 1971-1977, who was in town to perform the final night of his three sold out shows at the venue. It took a few years to make it back to the area, but the show was worth the wait. The current U.S. tour is called “Genesis Revisited Seconds Out + More!”, and focuses on playing the Genesis albums “Seconds Out” as well as “Selling England by the Pound” in their entirety. The band is composed of Nat Sylvan on vocals, Roger King on keys, bassist Jonas Reingold, woodwind player Rob Townsend and Craig Blundell on drums. Between both of those albums, some material repeats itself, but for the shows, the duplicates songs such as “Firth of Fifth”, “I Know What I Like” and “Cinema Show” were omitted from the “Seconds Out” portion of the show, and later played in order when “Selling England by the Pound” was performed.

The first half of the show started with “Seconds Out”. “Squonk” , the classic tune from “A Trick of the Tail” album, led off the evening’s program. The setlist followed the track listing of the album and finally led into the epic journey that is “Supper’s Ready”. Vocalist Nat Sylvan was on top of his game tonight and it really came out in this song – easily one of the highlights of the evening. The many different sections in this song, culminated in a climax of music that made the crowd rise up and give the band one of the many standing ovations of the night. The closing section of the song highlighted Steve’s guitar prowess. I love how he keeps this song true to form, but has made the solo a bit edgier and raw and just flat out amazing to see and hear in a live setting.

The second set had the band play “Selling England by the Pound”, from start to end. Roger King meticulously recreated the keyboard parts originally played by Tony Banks. On songs like “Cinema Show”, the sound just comes at you and hits you like a wall during the middle section. Rob Townsend also added some nice woodwind sounds, delivering

Small theaters, with their acoustics, are the perfect setting for these shows. “Firth of Fifth” is a great example of this. And let’s not forget to give the drummer and bass player some credit – Craig Blundell and Jonas Reingold kept the band in great time. Craig showed off some of his skills during the drum solo after “Dance on a Volcano” before the entire band really came together for the final song of the night “Los Endos”, which again had the entire crowd on their feet.

There’s just something special about this period of Genesis that continues to draw people, more so now that Phil Collins, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford have recently ended their official Genesis tour. Sadly with Phil Collins’ health conditions, those shows will most likely be the last official Genesis shows. That just leaves Mr. Steve Hackett to carry the torch that is Genesis.

Set 1:

Squonk

The Carpet Crawlers

Robbery, Assault and Battery

Afterglow

The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

The Musical Box

Supper’s Ready

Set 2:

Dancing With the Moonlit Knight

I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)

Firth of Fifth