IN CONCERT 1976

I actually came across the footage for this live album upon receiving the A Trick of the Tail album on my nineteenth birthday, which happened to include a DVD of with 1976 footage, to my pleasant surprise! And I got it for about the same price as any other studio album I might happen to buy, so I'd say it was a hell of a deal. The DVD also came with some music video footage, probably the least impressive part of the package (cheesy video effects and such, think Rush's music video for Big Money, only perhaps not THAT cheesy), but this live performance remains one that ought to sit next to my DVD player along side Enslaved's Live in Bergen. And what's more, we have Bill Bruford as a special guest. Genesis plus Bruford, what could be better? Oh yeah, the minus Peter Gabriel makes it a bit less incredible, but really the band was probably better off that way, for by the time The Lamb was released, they had pretty much become a backup band for an entertaining but increasingly egotistical front man (from what I could tell...), so this is probably as good as it gets for Genesis performances, and let's just say it gets pretty amazing.

What I found most interesting about the sound of the performance was that even songs from the bands earlier material, after the various guitar and keyboard effects were put in the mix, have that slightly neo-prog-ish TotT sound, which imo makes the performance even more worthwhile seeing as those songs sound a bit different (I'd almost venture to say better). As well, what I like most and dislike most about the performance was the instrumental sections in which Phil Collins gets back on the drum kit and adds to Bruford's awesome percussive madness. At times it makes the sound of a song just that much more proggy and complex sounding, at other times quite cluttered sounding to these ears. I also became much more aware of the actual vocal harmonies in Carpet Crawlers with this performance, for they seem a bit toned down on the studio version, which I actually like better; in all honesty, Hackett's and Rutherford's vocals aren't the greatest, but more lacking in tone quality than pitch and actual singing ability. I also enjoy the video add-ins on Entangled and Cinema Show Part 2. It's hard to pick out my favorite moments for many of them are quite spectacular, each song it very well performed with few or any even minor mistakes. But Los Endos is probably the best, for it works great as a concluding track to Trick of the Tail, and works even better as a concluding track for this sort of performance.

If you like Genesis at all, you shouldn't go very long without owning this live footage (who wants to watch prog just on YouTube?), and I highly recommend everyone who likes symphonic prog to do what I did, if you can: Buy the remastered A Trick of the Tail album (a fantastic album any symphonic progger ought to have anyways) on CD with the DVD inside, and hopefully for a good price as happened with me. Probably one of prog's most memorable (though certainly not perfect) performances by one of its most popular bands.

Share this GENESIS review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to Isa
• Report this review (#218219)
• Buy GENESIS music online with PA partners
• Show all GENESIS MP3/Stream
• Go to GENESIS page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to In Concert 1976 page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for GENESIS related discussions