Review: STEVE HACKETT'S GENESIS GREATS, LAMB HIGHLIGHTS & SOLO WORKS TOUR at Southern Theatre

Guitarist StEve Hackett got a chance to do something with his “Genesis Greats, Lamb Highlights & Solo Works” tour he rarely had the opportunity to do with Genesis: perform a solo. Hackett clearly took advantage of that opportunity when he and his band performed Nov. 3 at the Southern Theatre (21. E Main Street in downtown Columbus).

Armed with his gleaming gold 1957 Gibson Les Paul Gold Top guitar, Hackett enthralled the mostly sold-out Southern Theatre with a virtuoso performance as he cruised through selections from his 28 album solo career as well as THE LAMB LIES DOWN ON BROADWAY and other “old” Genesis favorites.

“More than any other band I know, Genesis was very keen on turning down solos so that everything was written. The idea was that it wouldn't fall below a certain standard if you did that,” Hackett said in an interview with BroadwayWorld.com/Columbus last summer. “We’d rehearse endlessly, going over the same thing before you add sequences.”

Hackett didn’t fall below any standards; he set new ones. He delighted the crowd with electrifying solos and spread the spotlight around equally to the rest of the band.

While his name might not be as recognizable as Van Halen or Hendrix, Hackett’s tapping style of playing is equally influential. His blistering guitar on “The Devil’s Cathedral,” a HAMLET-styled song about an actor’s stand-in who takes over the leading man’s life by killing him and marrying his wife, was breathtaking.

Emerging from the dark curtains behind the stage, vocalist Nad Sylvan stepped into the spotlight and was able to convey the story with an evil glint in his eyes, but without becoming overly dramatic as he delivered Hackett’s lyrics: “I am the stand-in for Mr. K/I never needed him anyway/I waited in the wings, with all his precious things/ I took his life and then his wife.”  

Throughout the evening, Sylvan mimicked the vocal stylings of Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins as the six-member band celebrated the 50th anniversary of THE LAMB LIES DOWN ON BROADWAY and then plunged into the deeper regions of the Genesis songbook. Hackett, Sylvan, drummer Nick D’Virgilio, keyboardist Roger King, bass guitarist Jonas Reingold, and saxophonist/flutist Rob Townsend didn’t disappoint the crowd of gray beards and balding heads. The older generation of fans, some sporting SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND, SECONDS OUT, and even INVISIBLE TOUCH tour t-shirts, bopped along with his solo material but were enraptured with the Genesis stuff in the second half of the show.

While his name gets top billing, Hackett made sure each band member got their moment in the spotlight. Reingold got to showcase his bass skills with a lengthy solo that included a snippet of THE SOUND OF MUSIC’S “Favorite Things”  and THE GODFATHER’S Love Theme, near the end of the first act. Townsend’s alto saxophone work was the centerpiece to “These Passing Clouds” and King, playing on his final tour with Hackett, set the stage for the instrumental “A Tower Struck Down” with his keyboard work. D’Virgilio  provided a lengthy drum solo before the band went into “Los Endos” for the show’s closer.

Hackett limited the crowd to six servings of LAMB, starting with the title track and then proceeded into “Fly On the Windshield,” “Broadway Melody of 1974,” “Hairless Heart,” “Carpet Crawlers,” and “The Chamber of 32 Doors.”  A crowd favorite was “Melody” with its outlandish lyrics  like “The cheerleader waves her cyanide wand/There’s a smell of peach blossom and bitter almond” and its eerie groove.

While the LAMB pieces were well received, it was FOXTROT’S “Supper’s Ready” that stole the show. The last time Genesis played a full version was during 1982’s “Six of the Best” reunion show with Gabriel. (Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, and Phil Collins’ replacement Ray Wilson played fragments of it during their 1997-98 Calling All Stations tour).

Hackett, who began reincorporating the mammoth tune into his setlists in 2006, made the opus a true ensemble piece including Townsend providing the line “A Flower?” with most of the Genesis fans joining in.

The Genesis Greats, Lamb Highlights & Solo Works tour revived Genesis’ tradeMark Lightshow in which stage lamps project five or six laser beams of light at certain parts of the show and then return to one solid beam at others.

Perhaps that is the best analogy of a StEve Hackett show. If his tenure in Genesis taught Hackett anything, it is the value of letting everyone shine as well as collaborate.

Photo Credit: Paul Batterson

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