I saw The Musical Box in the spring of 2017. It was an extraordinary experience.
I saw Hackett in 1980 or so and then again in 2018. He delivers an epic show. I will see the former in less than a month and see Hackett in the fall.
Hackett and his band are so professional...they have state of the art gear and vintage guitars. His drummers hammer gorgeous kits. The keyboards are newest, top notch ‘boards. And of course, Hackett just overwhelms with his mastery of his parts. There is nothing like seeing him play. When that sustainer holds those solo notes, whew! When I first saw him in 76 I watched him a lot and was blown away by his solos and the atmospheric parts he sometimes played.
The Musical Box delivers something different. They play vintage gear and mimic the band from the old days. Sure, there are some exceptions but most everything is authentic. As a player, I know how much “easier” the new drums and hardware are and I remember how hard I had to work at my first set in 1973. It took more effort to sound good. If you have ever played an old mellotron you know how hard it is to sound good. The TMB guys pull insanely great sounds from those instruments and make it look easy. The Gabriel vocals were excellent. The vintage keys and guitars sound...better, at least in many ways. It just feels right.
I say, don’t choose between the two...just go to either of them as often as you can.
Last edited by Gizmotron; 03-22-2019 at 12:14 PM.
Whoever is playing though, I do wish they would ditch medleys.
Oh God, how I loathe bloody medleys.
My show in Tucson was excellent. The guys seemed to be on great form.
While i am not a huge fan of medleys, the Trick/W&W set which had a few was wonderful.
As a true fan of old gear (especially synths) I was intrigued by seeing an ARP Pro-Soloist at the guitarists station. And he did play it. Because I didn't have a view from above, I couldn't tell if the keyboardist also had one. He certainly did have a 2600 so he could have played those classic Pro-Soloist solos on it instead of a PS. Anyone know more about all that?
I never tire of watching their drummer. Simply superb!
Go see this tour!
I will be travelling from Halifax to Montreal too see the MARILLION WEEKEND shows at the L'Olympia May 17-19 and coincidentally TMB will be playing at Place des Arts on May 18 (same day as 2nd Marillion show) and now I am caught in a dilemma.
I have the Marillion weekend ticket package bought but not so for the TMB concert and I'm sure they will hand out wrist bands for the Marillion shows so I can't sell or trade my Saturday ticket (I'll try in the sell/trade forum here). I've seen TMB about five times but really wanted to see this tour because I never saw the Seconds Out tour and just for that segment for me it is worth it.
I guess I'll clone myself!
They brought their show to Atlanta last night. First time I've seen them in going on ten years. I was really looking forward to the set three part evening and came away with mixed feelings. While it was nice to hear some Trick & Wind tunes, I felt they went for more obvious stuff. Really would have liked to hear them tackle One For The Vine or Earl of Mar. A mashup of Unquiet Slumbers/Robbery Assault/Wot Gorilla seemed like a hodgepodge and not the best way to start the evening. So that whole set seemed a little tame and stilted. Denis does Gabriel quote convincingly. Phil, not so much... As soon as they broke into the Lamb tunes he seemed to come to life and became a lot more convincing. I hear their new drummer is some YouTube sensation that did one man band versions of Genesis tunes. That's spiffy and all, but they have had better drummers. He's no Martin Levac. That lineup is the best I've seen (with Martin). They never seemed to click as well without him, though they obviously get the job done. They have a different guitarist each time I have seen them and last night was no exception. He looked like GE Smith with a bad wig. An odd length that fell somewhere between early Hackett and the later, short haired David Cassidy look he had later. A minor gripe, but a little more attention to detail would have made it more convincing. He played great though and that's what matters. My fave set was the last one with tunes pre-Lamb. Deep cuts like Can Utility, Looking For Someone and a lovely After The Ordeal hit the spot. Firth and Cinema Show are always nice to hear too. So it was a cool night and it was nice to take in a new set from them, even if their delivery and appearance seemed a bit flabby and diminished a tad from the last time I saw them. It's still majestic music in a live setting and rare to hear at all. So thanks for keeping it up. It was great to see so many friends at the show too, some I haven't seen in years.
aside from the aforementioned deep cuts and the Lamb Stew, they did a great version on Entangled and I found the projection animation during the coda particularly beguiling. very cool part to one of my favorite Genesis musical moments (that bass pedal line!)
2trevorsforlife
Soundcloud page: Richard Hermans, musical meanderings https://soundcloud.com/precipice YouTube: [https://www.youtube.com/@richardhermans4457
Saw the show last Thursday at the Calvin here in town. This was our third time seeing TMB. I have to conclude that we may not be big fans of tribute bands. The show was overlong due to an unnecessary intermission. I will continue to support the band when they come to town as they have the past two tours, but would not travel to see them. YMMV
They're back. Extravaganza vol. 2
http://www.themusicalbox.net/tour.php?lang=en
Would like to see them again but tickets are way to expansive (over 100 EUR). I'm sure I paid less than half of that the last two times.
Just saw Extravaganza part 2 tonight in Glasgow. They seemed to have lost the tentativeness of the last show and were much more 'on' in all respects. The 75/76 material was all in the first half, Gabriel era in the second. While the new drummer does not swing like Martin Levac he still sounded great tonight. Both pretend Hackett and pretend Gabriel help out on keyboards when required. Unexpected encore of Suppers Ready meant I nearly missed my train! Really good show.
Saw them recently and they did kill it. This was/is the current set list.
The new drummer was good, not Martin as mentioned but he played well... having said that David Myers is missed as well. TMB was at their best with them but these guys do deliver the goods. A great show and set list. The first set and Can Utility was worth the price of admission!
Set 1
Eleventh Earl of Mar
Dance on a Volcano
Entangled
Down and Out
...In That Quiet Earth / Robbery, Assault and Battery / Wot Gorilla?
Ripples
Los Endos
Set 2
The Fountain of Salmacis
Stagnation
Can-Utility and the Coastliners
Looking for Someone
Firth of Fifth
The Cinema Show
Aisle of Plenty
The Musical Box
Encore:
Supper's Ready
The Tarrytown show that was postponed has been rescheduled for an optimistic June 12th. I hope it goes ahead, although I've reached my saturation point for TMB since I've pretty much reached my saturation point for the Hackett shows, good as they are. I would just love to see things returning to normal then, but it seems soon.
Did these guys ever make a live DVD/blu-ray?
If it isn't Krautrock, it's krap.
"And it's only the giving
That makes you what you are" - Ian Anderson
They certainly made a documentary and both Steve and Mike are part of it... and someone will correct me if I'm wrong but I seem to remember a full proshot Lamb show of one of their performances. The documentary for sure was made and than the release was pulled back by the band if I remember correctly. I definitely have a copy of that... got to check my boot books for the live Lamb
I have the TMB doc on disc, as well, but it was only officially released for one day, I believe, before being pulled. I think that it was very well done, myself.
neil
Why pulled?
If it isn't Krautrock, it's krap.
"And it's only the giving
That makes you what you are" - Ian Anderson
Bookmarks