Steve Hackett "Selling England by the Pound" (Stuttgart)
May 15, 2019 15:36:00 GMT
snakelady and mortified like this
Post by frozenhero on May 15, 2019 15:36:00 GMT
I've had the pleasure of witnessing another fantastic concert in Stuttgart. Back at the Liederhalle, which is a nice venue, and it's starting to feel familiar to me...
From the first notes of "Every Day" (the perfect opener) it was noticeable how capable Hackett's current band is at reproducing the original sound, even if none of his current players had been on "Spectral Mornings", one of the three albums celebrated on this tour. They did play on his new release "At the Edge of Light" (except drummer Craig Blundell), of which we got the first three tracks and they came across very well live. Rob Townsend (with numerous "fck brxt" stickers on his equipment, another saying "Brexit is not a done deal" and a "Smooth Jazz Sucks" t-shirt!) especially shone with his many flutes and saxes, especially the soprano, which often took over guitar parts so they could play twin leads without a second guitarist. "Clocks" was probably the highlight of the first half, as the lights underlined the drama in the music and Craig seemingly effortlessly rumbled through the multi-tracked drum part. I think he's actually better than Steve's longtime drummer Gary O'Toole - then again, if you've played with Steven Wilson, you should be able to play Genesis songs!
Speaking of Genesis songs, these made up the second half of the set, since we were promised to get "Selling England by the Pound" (Hackett's favourite Genesis album) in full. And it was a great rendition! Nad Sylvan isn't quite Peter Gabriel (he didn't always hit the right notes), but his passion for the songs was obvious and the mere fact that he had memorized all the lyrics to "The Battle of Epping Forest" AND pulled off the various voices/dialects of the original ("I'm breaking the legs of the bastard that got me framed" etc.) deserves respect. Jonas Reingold carried a two-neck axe on several songs. Roger King is the only one who I wasn't entirely happy with because I got the impression that he couldn't do the fast keyboard parts of "Firth of Fifth" at the proper speed. Either that or the band consciously decided to slow the song down, but in any case, it doesn't really work IMO, and neither does replacing Peter's flute part with a soprano sax. But other than that, no complaints at all. Steve really pulled out all the stops (in both halves of the show), he's a splendid guitarist and really deserves to be mentioned alongside the other great names of the instrument. How he just pulled all sorts of sounds out of his Les-Paul-esque guitar (which he never changed, by the way, except for when he switched to acoustic guitars - one electric guitar is enough for him!!) left my jaw on the floor. Tapping was employed, as was the tremolo arm in best Gary Moore / Jimi Hendrix fashion, and his various effect pedals. The unexpected "wow moment" was actually the jam at the end of "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)", which completely stomped all over Genesis' own "Seconds Out" rendition. It was intense! Sax solos broken up by Steve playing a fantabulous blues solo over a double-time vamp. :O
Although the Genesis songs are impressive just by their sheer complexity ("Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" and "The Cinema Show" in addition to the ones I already mentioned), I didn't feel like there was a big quality difference between the sets (although I later met a guy who disagreed and theorized had he started with the Genesis set, most people would have left during his solo songs...). Steve's solo material is different, yes, but not inherently inferior. In fact, the emotional high point was the ballad "Deja Vu", which was apparently originally brought to the band by Gabriel, but only finished much later by Hackett on his 90s album "Genesis Revisited". The solo in this one gave me goosebumps.
I shouldn't forget to mention that Steve's own vocals (mostly in the first set) were also mostly appropriate, and the whole band just gelled together so well. The sound was well-balanced and not distorted at all, still I thought it was too loud (althought not excessively so, especially not with earplugs). From where I sat, I could look at the mixing desk and the meters were almost constantly "in the red", except during the quiet and acoustic tracks.
The band ended with some of the most demanding tracks on the setlist - "Dance on a Volcano" and the only encore, a really vicious, hardcore-jazz-meets-hard-rock version of "Los Endos", and I wondered how Steve is capable of keeping up this standard throughout such a long tour. Not that he looks bad or anything (in fact, you'd think he's much younger than 69) but although his guitar playing came across like the easiest thing in the world, in some breaks he did look a bit exhausted and he took a rest on the drum riser...
In short: If you get the chance to see Hackett live, go there. You probably won't regret it. As far as intelligent, progressive rock music goes, this is the real deal (not wanting to discredit younger prog bands, but how many of them have released something of similar quality as "Selling England by the Pound"?). Comparing to live recordings from previous tours, I think Craig Blundell's addition improved the band. And I'm quite surprised at how inexpensive the tickets were compared to many other concerts I've attended. I really feel like I got my money's worth (even without an opening act). I even bought a t-shirt although I've already got too many of the bloody things! But this one was just too attractive looking to resist.
From the first notes of "Every Day" (the perfect opener) it was noticeable how capable Hackett's current band is at reproducing the original sound, even if none of his current players had been on "Spectral Mornings", one of the three albums celebrated on this tour. They did play on his new release "At the Edge of Light" (except drummer Craig Blundell), of which we got the first three tracks and they came across very well live. Rob Townsend (with numerous "fck brxt" stickers on his equipment, another saying "Brexit is not a done deal" and a "Smooth Jazz Sucks" t-shirt!) especially shone with his many flutes and saxes, especially the soprano, which often took over guitar parts so they could play twin leads without a second guitarist. "Clocks" was probably the highlight of the first half, as the lights underlined the drama in the music and Craig seemingly effortlessly rumbled through the multi-tracked drum part. I think he's actually better than Steve's longtime drummer Gary O'Toole - then again, if you've played with Steven Wilson, you should be able to play Genesis songs!
Speaking of Genesis songs, these made up the second half of the set, since we were promised to get "Selling England by the Pound" (Hackett's favourite Genesis album) in full. And it was a great rendition! Nad Sylvan isn't quite Peter Gabriel (he didn't always hit the right notes), but his passion for the songs was obvious and the mere fact that he had memorized all the lyrics to "The Battle of Epping Forest" AND pulled off the various voices/dialects of the original ("I'm breaking the legs of the bastard that got me framed" etc.) deserves respect. Jonas Reingold carried a two-neck axe on several songs. Roger King is the only one who I wasn't entirely happy with because I got the impression that he couldn't do the fast keyboard parts of "Firth of Fifth" at the proper speed. Either that or the band consciously decided to slow the song down, but in any case, it doesn't really work IMO, and neither does replacing Peter's flute part with a soprano sax. But other than that, no complaints at all. Steve really pulled out all the stops (in both halves of the show), he's a splendid guitarist and really deserves to be mentioned alongside the other great names of the instrument. How he just pulled all sorts of sounds out of his Les-Paul-esque guitar (which he never changed, by the way, except for when he switched to acoustic guitars - one electric guitar is enough for him!!) left my jaw on the floor. Tapping was employed, as was the tremolo arm in best Gary Moore / Jimi Hendrix fashion, and his various effect pedals. The unexpected "wow moment" was actually the jam at the end of "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)", which completely stomped all over Genesis' own "Seconds Out" rendition. It was intense! Sax solos broken up by Steve playing a fantabulous blues solo over a double-time vamp. :O
Although the Genesis songs are impressive just by their sheer complexity ("Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" and "The Cinema Show" in addition to the ones I already mentioned), I didn't feel like there was a big quality difference between the sets (although I later met a guy who disagreed and theorized had he started with the Genesis set, most people would have left during his solo songs...). Steve's solo material is different, yes, but not inherently inferior. In fact, the emotional high point was the ballad "Deja Vu", which was apparently originally brought to the band by Gabriel, but only finished much later by Hackett on his 90s album "Genesis Revisited". The solo in this one gave me goosebumps.
I shouldn't forget to mention that Steve's own vocals (mostly in the first set) were also mostly appropriate, and the whole band just gelled together so well. The sound was well-balanced and not distorted at all, still I thought it was too loud (althought not excessively so, especially not with earplugs). From where I sat, I could look at the mixing desk and the meters were almost constantly "in the red", except during the quiet and acoustic tracks.
The band ended with some of the most demanding tracks on the setlist - "Dance on a Volcano" and the only encore, a really vicious, hardcore-jazz-meets-hard-rock version of "Los Endos", and I wondered how Steve is capable of keeping up this standard throughout such a long tour. Not that he looks bad or anything (in fact, you'd think he's much younger than 69) but although his guitar playing came across like the easiest thing in the world, in some breaks he did look a bit exhausted and he took a rest on the drum riser...
In short: If you get the chance to see Hackett live, go there. You probably won't regret it. As far as intelligent, progressive rock music goes, this is the real deal (not wanting to discredit younger prog bands, but how many of them have released something of similar quality as "Selling England by the Pound"?). Comparing to live recordings from previous tours, I think Craig Blundell's addition improved the band. And I'm quite surprised at how inexpensive the tickets were compared to many other concerts I've attended. I really feel like I got my money's worth (even without an opening act). I even bought a t-shirt although I've already got too many of the bloody things! But this one was just too attractive looking to resist.