The Musical Box: Howard Theatre DC 2/12/17

[wilcox660]

http://progsheet1.hypermart.net/musicalbox2017.html
My preview piece for the CT show on the 5th. By the way - TMB are changing up the encore this go around. The Knife is sometimes exchanged for Return Of The Giant Hogweed or Can-Utility And The Coastliners!

[Bartellb]

Anyone going to see them Saturday at Keswick Theater? I have extra ticket orchestra near front. Not looking to get full price so if someone wants discounted ticket message me.

[Black Cap Baron]

I agree with you after seeing TMB perform Epping Forest live that it just doesn't work very well. However, I think part of that is just that the lead singer for TMB just can't pull it off like Gabriel could. If you listen to Genesis bootlegs, Gabriel really got into all the characters in the song and would even poke fun at the word-heavy nature of the song itself by letting out a big sigh as if to catch his breath after singing the line: "Conceived on site of the Woodstock nation, he'd have to hide his reputation." I think that and the fact that TMB does a very poor job mixing in the vocals makes Epping Forest in my opinion clearly the worst song of the night. Don't get me wrong, I love Epping Forest, I just think TMB could use a lot of improvement recreating it. You can't hear a single word the lead singer is saying and I think that is the fault of TMB sound mixing, not the song. Every bootleg of Epping Forest I've heard, you can hear the words Gabriel is singing just fine.

[Gizmotron]

I agree with you after seeing TMB perform Epping Forest live that it just doesn't work very well. However, I think part of that is just that the lead singer for TMB just can't pull it off like Gabriel could. If you listen to Genesis bootlegs, Gabriel really got into all the characters in the song and would even poke fun at the word-heavy nature of the song itself by letting out a big sigh as if to catch his breath after singing the line: "Conceived on site of the Woodstock nation, he'd have to hide his reputation." I think that and the fact that TMB does a very poor job mixing in the vocals makes Epping Forest in my opinion clearly the worst song of the night. Don't get me wrong, I love Epping Forest, I just think TMB could use a lot of improvement recreating it. You can't hear a single word the lead singer is saying and I think that is the fault of TMB sound mixing, not the song. Every bootleg of Epping Forest I've heard, you can hear the words Gabriel is singing just fine.

Excellent observations.
I would mostly agree and say that TMB's singer does a very good job emulating Gabriel. At my show, the mixing was good, the acoustics of the theater were excellent, and I could easily hear just about every line. But absolutely, Mr. Gabriel is unique and his ability to do so many regional accents and subtly flavor each one with various emotions and colors makes him--for me--the most expressive voice in progressive rock. No one can sing those lines like he could. (Just like Phil was very good at covering Peter's lines but again, he was not Pete.)

But nonetheless, it was one hell of a great number the other night. My wife thought the same. She was still singing some of the lines from it day before yesterday.