GENESIS LIVE

This was my first experience with the "old" (pre-Abacab) Genesis. Until then, I only knew them from their, usually horrible, hitsingles. But since people kept saying that Genesis used to be such a great band, I hired Genesis Live from the local library to find out. Probably the worst choice I could have made. After listening to this, it took several years before I gave the band another chance with Wind and Wuthering, the album rhat finally got me hooked. Genesis Live never became one of my favourite Genesis albums. If I wanted to hear Genesis live, I'd play Second's Out, which captures the spirit of a real concert much better. Genesis Live is too short for a live album. Only five songs, and only one album. Not that that's unusual, there were loads of bands back then who'd release single- disk live albums, but not in all those cases was the choice of songs as bad as on this one. I just can't believe this selection gives a good idea of what Genesis was like live in those early years. If else, am I glad I never had the chance to see them. I would have been bored to death. The first three songs all have their good moments but are generally lengthy, pompous and inconsistent epics. Plenty of action and variety, and yet they're boring. "Get 'Em Out By Friday" is especially bad with Peter Gabriel doing his annoying silly voices act, the other two are only a little better. A little, not much, and that still makes them quite bad. Thankfully, The Musical Box and The Knife are very good, but they don't save the album. Two stars only, definitely not more.