I Saw a Genesis Tribute Band and What Happened Next Will Shock You!
a review of The Musical Box
Let's talk about Genesis. The band, not the book of.
Anyone chosen at random would have at least heard of the band in some way. Whether it be by name, or more likely by the string of incredibly hummable hits they had in the 1980s. And everyone knows Phil Collins's voice.
That's not Genesis.
For us prog purists (and as far as I know, there's no other kind of prog fan), Genesis is not the radio-friendly pop swaying-lighter-aloft-in-a-darkened-arena three-piece group of amiable and questionably British 80s men led by a balding, chart-topping one-man hit machine.
(Ah, the 80s…)
That's not Genesis.
Genesis is that band, yes, but expanded to five members. And they have long hair. And that balding, one-man hit machine sits behind a drum kit and plays like a beast. And they are unquestionably very British. And they have Peter Gabriel in front.
Yeah, you know Peter Gabriel. Remember John Cusack holding the boom box over his head? That song? Remember "Sledgehammer"?
That's not Peter Gabriel.
I mean, yeah, sure, it is. But to us prog purists, Peter Gabriel is as thin as a pipe cleaner and has a reverse Mohawk. And he wears bat wings on his head and dances around stage like some Looney Tunes chicken on acid, singing beautifully cryptic lyrics (cryptic until you sit down with them) over very complex music indeed.
That's Peter Gabriel.
And that's Genesis. Five incredibly talented musicians. One brilliant stage performer.
That was back in the 70s, when such things were valued.
A New Act Rears Its Perverted Head
In the late 70s, just when the original five-piece Genesis was beginning to show signs of wear and tear, there was Beatlemania, the tribute band who'd dress up as the fab four in various stages of their career and perform LP-accurate versions of the songs. They looked like (sort of) and sounded like (sort of) the originals. The tag line for the show was, "Not the Beatles, but an incredible simulation." I'll buy that.
But here's something I learned later on. Beatles music is fairly easy to play. Their genius lies elsewhere—in the execution, in the novelty of their era, and in many other places. But it's fairly simple music. And if you get yourself a Rickenbacker guitar and some period amps and speakers, you can do a good job replicating their sound. Then you can get yourself a haircut or a wig and you can do the accent. (Just remember, they're not all in the nose. George and John are in the nose. Paul's in the throat. Ringo's in the chest.) John's grasshopper stance is easy, though hell on the thighs, and Ringo's hi-hat sweep takes some practice but can be mastered with a little repetition.
You see where I'm going.
I think tribute bands are mostly all alike. Seldom can anything compete with the original deal. And we live in the age of YouTube. Want to see the thing in its heyday? Log on! The algorithm’ll do the rest.
Therefore, to engage with a tribute band in any way is to be a witness, or worse, a willing participant in a necrophilic gangbang.
I'll let you pause with that image in your head while I take a sip of much-needed coffee.
Ok, now, notice I said mostly alike.
A few days ago, I saw The Musical Box, a Genesis tribute band. I did so at the behest of my podcast co-host Alec Chambers, a huge fan of the early Genesis. When I told him The Musical Box was coming around, he said I have to see them. He said it in a way you’d tell a marathon runner he has to hydrate. I trust Alec, so I did.
Remember when I said Beatles music is easy? Well, early Genesis is not. It’s incredibly difficult to play. It would take too long to explain why without busting out terms from my ten-dollar music education. Suffice it to say that it takes a very long time in the ol' woodshed, hours a day running scales and arpeggios and all that, before one has the ability to play progressive rock music with some degree of musical purity. And even then, one needs to pay constant attention. That's when it begins to look easy (see my piece on Joe Monk).
But it never is.
Added to that, you have Peter Gabriel's antics on stage to contend with. Costumed, painted, dancing, affecting characters and voices, Gabriel was the Genesis live act. You almost forgot there was a band behind him performing that difficult music. I know, I was there.
That is, I wasn't there in the 70s, but I was there watching The Musical Box perform the Genesis stage show to a tee (this according to the members of the original band.) It's one thing to play the music. It's another to replicate Gabriel's often-improvised choreography, his banter, his affectations, and that incredible voice that rises up from his chest like a column of magma and shoots out of his face.
Watching The Musical Box, this tribute band, I thought perhaps the original band had entered a wormhole in 1973, and when they emerged in 2024, their outward appearance had altered, but everything else remained the same. So they decided to just go ahead with their gig.
But of course, that didn't happen. What did happen was that I was witness to an act worthy of any Broadway stage. Five very talented men playing roles for which they’d meticulously studied.
This point was driven home after the last song, when Denis Gagné, the man playing the role of Peter Gabriel, took his applause along with the rest of the band and the lights went down, then came back up, and there stood the four musicians minus Gagné to receive their due. It was then we were reminded that the act was more than just a tribute. It was a stunning exercise in re-creation. Get a master to paint Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 while you watch. Oh, right, you say, I forgot how hard this stuff was.
And yes, right, there was a band there the whole time actually playing this music on period instruments. Nothing pre-recorded. They’d earned their own, separate applause.
The act is flawless. (These were album versions of songs, meaning they were not altered in any way to accommodate the limits of a live performance.) The original Genesis agrees. They've allowed use of their costumes and props. And they let The Musical Box in to have a listen to their master recordings so they could really get it right.
Have I changed my tone on tribute bands?
No, not for most of them.