[ATTENDED: January 7, 2023] The Musical Box
I’ve said many times that I don’t go to see cover bands. I don’t really see the point (I realize some people like to go out and have music in the background while they drink and talk–for me, the band is the point. I can drink and talk at home for free). But I’ve been seeing ads for The Musical Box for a number of years and I often wondered if I needed to check out this cover band who plays early, prog Genesis.
I have enjoyed so much Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets project which plays the early Pink Floyd, but there’s an actual Floyd dude in the band (even if it is “only” the drummer). There’s no one from Genesis in this band. But they recreate the insanity of what Peter Gabriel and company were doing in the early 70s. Shows that were outrageously theatrical and weird. High tech for the time, but crazily analog now. But they recreate it perfectly.
Even Genesis agree:
It’s 1973-PETER GABRIEL’s famous theatrics and GENESIS’ musical apex produce some of the most iconic images and sounds of the 70’s, enjoying to this day a cult following. A TIMELESS CLASSIC. THE MUSICAL BOX, who shared the stage with PHIL COLLINS and STEVE HACKETT as performing guests and acclaimed by more than a million spectators in some of the most prestigious venues in the world such as London’s ROYAL ALBERT HALL and Paris’OLYMPIA, will perform the emblematic 1973 show in painstaking details. TAKE A LITTLE TRIP BACK.
PETER GABRIEL: “TMB recreated, very accurately I must say, what Genesis was doing. I saw them in Bristol with my children so they could see what their father did back then”
PHIL COLLINS: “They’re not a tribute band, they have taken a period and are faithfully reproducing it in the same way that someone would do a theatrical production”
When I saw that an online friend of mine had seen them recently and said that this was his third or fourth time seeing them, I considered going for real. And THEN there was an article about them in The Walrus, a glossy magazine of Canada (The Musical Box is from Canada). I haven’t actually been reading my magazines recently (I have a huge box of them to go through) so the coincidence of me happening to look through this one and read this glowing article sealed the deal. And lo and behold, they were playing in Montclair in a couple of months!
The only problem, (if it was a problem) is that they were touring Selling England By the Pound, an early album that I didn’t know all that well (I’m a Foxtrot guy). But the setlist included three songs from Foxtrot (including Supper’s Ready), so I could certainly listen to Selling England (it’s quite good), and get prepped for this experience. (more…)
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I’ve said many times that I don’t go to see cover bands. But this cover band who plays early, prog Genesis, was an exception.
I Just Read About That... 