GENESIS LIVE

T his features the "classic" GENESIS quintet recorded live in February 1973, just as their muse was in full flower. The sound quality is very good, the performances faithful, and there are very few surprises. Some fans will wish that the band had added more to the originals ("The Knife" gets a slight update thanks to Steve HACKETT, but it's still 95% identical to the version on "Trespass"), others will be happy that the band doesn't tamper with treasured memories. Is it an essential album? Nah, but live albums rarely are, especially single-album distillations of larger shows. The band has since released double-album live sets on three occasions (counting The Way We Walk series as a single occasion), though this is the only officially sanctioned live album to feature Peter GABRIEL with GENESIS.

As a curio, it's well preserved, no doubt worth listening to from time to time, but unlikely to oust "Nursery Cryme" or "Foxtrot" from their regular rotation. Since Buddah's The Best of GENESIS is a little tricky to find, "Genesis Live" does serve as a good sampler from their earlier albums, but neophytes would do better to buy the aforementioned studio albums first. There's little chatter in between songs (Mike RUTHEFORD's impromptu bass pedal solo notwithstanding), and little inkling into the visual aesthetics that the band brought to their performances. "Genesis Live" is a tasty appetizer, but whether you want to pay an entree price for it is up to you.