The Musical Box - Genesis Extravaganza at the Arcada Theatre

I have seen the premiere Genesis tribute band, The Musical Box, six times, and up until this most recent time, the shows focused on the Genesis tours for "Selling England by the Pound" or "Foxtrot". Since the band recreates those concerts, there is very little variation in the setlist. There's a part of me that didn't care, because I totally missed that error of Genesis being a little young and raised in house full of Elvis, Ricky Nelson, The Kingston Trio and Judy Garland (that's not horrible, but it wasn't Genesis). On their last tour, the band announced they would be coming out with something new ('new' is a relative term here since even the newest Genesis music is twenty years old) and I kept an eye on the website for details. Finally, the day arrived to head off to St. Charles, Illinois, and the Arcada Theatre. I usually sit on the floor, not literally silly, but my last experience was so awful, just cramped, no leg room at all, that I thought I'd try something new and sit in the balcony. I think that's going to be my go to spot from now on. Aside from the two obnoxious people in front of me, I think it was perfect.

The night was broken out into three acts: The Wind's Tail, songs from "Wind & Wuthering" and "Trick of the Tail", the first two albums after Peter Gabriel left the band and before Steve Hackett made his departure. These were mostly instrumental pieces, including "In that Quiet Earth/Robbery, Assault and Battery/Wot Gorilla", "Los Endos", sprinkled with "Dance on a Volcano" and "Blood on the Rooftops". Act II was Broadway Melodies featuring songs (and slides) from "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" like "The Carpet Crawlers", "In the Cage", "Lilywhite Lilith", and several others. I missed the band's tour of the entire album (both Genesis and The Musical Box), so I was looking forward to these songs even though The Lamb is not my favorite album.

After the intermission, the band dug deep for some rarely (or never) played songs, like "Seven Stones" from "Nursery Cryme", "Can-Utility and the Coastliners" from "Foxtrot" and "Looking for Someone" from "Trespass", and going back to their first album, "From Genesis to Revelation", the song "A Place to Call My Own", which made me want to dig out the CD again.

The band plays these beloved songs with incredible musicianship and faithful recreation to the originals. The members of Genesis have said that TMB actually plays better than they did. Denis Gagne is 'Peter Gabriel' and to a lesser extent, 'Phil Collins' as a singer. His representation of Gabriel, especially from the previous tours when he is in character, is uncanny. He is a fantastic singer, but also a multi-instrumentalist, playing at various times during the night: flute, cello, bass, keyboards and percussion. Sebastien Lamothe is 'Mike Rutherford', deftly handling duties on the Rickenbacker double necked guitar, acoustic guitars, bass and backing vocals, as well as being the musical director for the band. Francois Gagnon as 'Steve Hackett' played acoustic guitar (beautifully on the opening to "Blood on the Rooftops") as well as electric guitars, the most electrifying on "The Firth of Fifth". It's crazy. There are two new members to the band, Bob St-Laurent, 'Phil Collins' on the drums and Ian Benhamou as 'Tony Banks' playing a variety of keyboards as well as 12-string guitar and backing vocals. I have seen the band four times in St. Charles, and they have an incredibly loyal and vocal following, receiving a standing ovation at the end of the night at the conclusion of "Musical Box" with Denis in the infamous red dress and fox head. I wish I could have stayed for the second night, but, alas, it wasn't possible. Hopefully, they'll tour this setlist again, because I'll be there.