Steve Hackett is, if not my absolute favorite guitarist (he may be) certainly in the top very-few. He has the rare combination of chops, musicality, and passion, combined with a real joy in playing that comes through every time I see him perform. (This was my fourth time, counting once with Genesis back in The Day.)
Hackett plays everything from classical (he has several albums of classical compositions and one of Satie "sketches" arranged to perform with his brother John on the flute) to jazz to blues to progressive rock, and is really, really good at all of them. He performed at least a little of all of these last night.
Hackett and his band performed two sets and an encore. The first set comprised his solo material; the second was old Genesis tunes; and the encore, one of each. From the opening number to the end, Hackett kept his audience engaged, happy, and energized; he received five standing ovations that I remember offhand. And he and his band were clearly having a good time doing it.
The first set began with a blistering rendition of the title track from Hackett's Spectral Mornings album, followed by a few tracks from his newest album, Wolflight. A personal favorite of mine, "Every Day," followed, a lighthearted tune with a lovely melody and one of the best outros in rock music. He picked up the acoustic twelve-string for "Loving Sea," which he dedicated to his wife Jo. He often let his sax player, Rob Townshend (who also plays flute, pennywhistle, extra keyboards, and hand percussion) take leads or double with him.
The highlight of the first set, though, was the last four songs, all from his first solo album, The Voyage of the Acolyte, recorded while he was still with Genesis and featuring the rhythm section from that band. The closing number, "Shadow of the Hierophant," is a simple, repeating melody that, on the album, gradually builds (kind of like a bolero but different
). On stage, it gradually built for much, much longer and reached an almost unbearable intensity, driven by Gary O'Toole, in what may be the single most amazing drumming performance I've ever seen: it literally left me sweating.
For the second set, Hackett began with the crowd-pleasing "Get 'em Out by Friday," one of Peter Gabriel's more melodramatic turns handled more than adequately by Hackett's touring vocalist, Nad Sylvan. The story of an evil real estate agent who puts "a four-foot restriction on humanoid height," "Friday" is actually pretty silly when regarded on that level, but has some wonderful tunes.
Sylvan is an excellent singer but has a decidedly weird stage presence, with flouncy body movements and a facial expression that seems like he doesn't quite know why he's up there or why all those people are staring at him.
Next, he pulled out some deep Genesis catalog: "Can-Utility and the Coastliners," a mutated story of King Canute; and "After the Ordeal," a lovely instrumental which begins with some lovely 12-string and, well, builds from there. Neither, I believe, was ever played live by Genesis.
Sylvan's bandmate in "Agents of Mercy," Roine Stolt, is Hackett's bass player and occasional second guitarist; on "Ordeal," he got to display some serious guitar chops, trading riffage with Hackett in a way that showed Stolt's talent while keeping Hackett the center of attention.
Next came "The Cinema Show," which Hackett described as "a love story mixed with something in seven-eight." That it is, and it was a spectacular outing for Roger King, Hackett's long-time keyboardist, and also for Townshend. This segued, as it does on the album, into the peculiar "Aisle of Plenty," which Genesis had always omitted in live versions of "Cinema Show;" and from there directly into "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway," which featured a bit of a singalong. The show proper closed with what is probably early Genesis' signature tune, "The Musical Box," another over-the-top melodrama with amazing tunes.
After a short break, the band came on and played "Clocks - The Angel of Mons," followed by "Firth of Fifth." At this point I was frankly happy that the show ended, because I was exhausted both physically and emotionally - not to mention a certain ringing in my ears! (But no damage seems to have been done, the ringing was gone by the time we got to lodgings - for which I am very grateful to my friend, Dan Cooper, who also provided the tickets to this show.)
All in all, I have to rank this among the very few top concerts I have ever attended, a life-affirming musical extravaganza that I don't for a minute regret the twisted travelling I've had to do to attend it. I got up at Oh-Dark-Thirty Friday morning, flew from Oakland to Burbank via Portland, and - because I couldn't get a flight home today - am travelling back via Phoenix tomorrow. But it was completely and utterly worth it, and even more so for the chance I had to spend time with a few friends while I'm down here.
If Steve Hackett comes within a reasonable distance of your town, you will not regret seeing him perform.
Just kidding, they were great.
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Originally Posted by Dave (in MA)
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