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This is from the Chicago Tribune.
Genesis tribute band makes the illusion real
By Joshua Klein
Special to the Tribune
Genesis launched the American leg of "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway"
tour on Nov. 20, 1974, here in Chicago at the Auditorium Theatre, two
days before that album's release and a few months before singer Peter
Gabriel left the band for a solo career. Thousands of fans never got
to see the group stage what many consider its apex, and the
subsequent establishment of drummer Phil Collins as the band's new
singer only made Gabriel's presence missed that much more.
That's where Montreal's The Musical Box comes in. The premiere
Genesis tribute band, the Musical Box has been performing Gabriel-era
Genesis albums in their complex and theatrical entirety for more than
10 years, re-creating the prog-rock band's classic early '70s outings
right down to the stage banter. The Musical Box's current tour,
celebrating the 30th anniversary of "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway,"
follows similar tours replicating 1972's "Foxtrot" and
1973's "Selling England by the Pound."
Yet "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" re-creation at the Vic Friday
night was something special. Not only did the Musical Box get
Genesis' blessing, they also got all the group's original costumes,
sets and slide shows, and were instructed in their operation by
Genesis' original stagehands and techs. The attention to detail as
the group went through the strange, intricate concept album song by
song was uncanny, not just musically (the keyboard filigrees, the
classical guitar touches, the creative drum fills) but visually as
well.
Denis Gagne was a very close Peter Gabriel proxy, donning his array
of trademark costumes (like the grotesque Slipperman suit) and
playing flute, and his voice was dead-on. Francois Gagnon, Sebastien
Lamothe and Eric Savard were the spitting image of stoic virtuosos
Steve Hackett (guitar), Mike Rutherford (bass and guitar) and Tony
Banks (keyboards). Most impressively, not only did drummer Martin
Levac sing back-up like Phil Collins, he was balding and bearded like
Phil Collins, and he played his drum kit left-handed like Phil
Collins too.
By the time the band encored with "The Musical Box" and "Watcher of
the Skies" — two pre-"Lamb" epics that originally closed the
"Lamb" tour — the crowd was out of its seats, singing along even as
they shook their heads with astonishment. No wonder the actual
members of Genesis are fans — the Musical Box's welcome anachronism
captured the pomp and surrealism of a bygone prog-rock era better
than any Genesis reunion ever could.
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