THE WAY WE WALK (DVD)

Let's not forget Genesis live in their true heyday, 1976, 1977. I know the modern stuff is hard to live with, but they are erstwhile musicians of the N'th degree for sure. What bothers me most about ' The Way We Walk' is that Collins especially seems to be in cognitive automatic mode and the rest is just supplementary!! They are so passionless here it is saddening ( this from a Genesis supporter of the modern era). The archives were a genuine welcome release. This though is an abomination of any true discerning fan's taste. Yes Daryl Stuermer is a miracleman but Collin's particularly is so mundane in his antics it belies belief. Give me the old VHS ' Mama' tour anyday or ' Three Sides Live' but here we see a very tired Collins' Dreaming While He Sleeps' and Banks and Ruherford merely picking out some fabric.

Again, I don`t have the DVD version of this video, but I have the Laser Disc version which I bought in mid 1994. Again, this video is very good mostly for the fans who like the trio years of Genesis, or for the fans who understand the necessary natural changes of bands like Genesis. So, the Peter Gabriel Era fans are going to be very disappointed with this video, as I saw with previous reviews posted here. This concert is very good in sound and in image, and I think that the DVD version is even better, as I read that it has several camera angles which the Laser Disc version lacks.The performances of the songs are very good in general. Again, this concert was filmed during the last dates of a tour, the "We Can`t Dance Tour", so maybe that is the reason why Collins`looks tired in several songs. Anyway, the band plays very good, and Collins again does his humorous things. His voice also changed, so during this tour several songs had to be adapted to his voice, with the band playing them in lower tones ("Land of Confusion", some parts of "Driving the Last Spike", "I Can`t Dance", "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight"). The mixing of his voice is lower in this video than in the official live CDs of this tour, so I prefer the mixing of the CDs. But the band is very good recorded and mixed in this video, which made me feel like Genesis was playing in the sitting room of my house! Yes, it`s true: in some parts of this video Collins`looks tired and maybe a bit bored, but he still plays and sings very professionally.It was his last tour with Genesis and maybe he needed a rest, and maybe he also needed to leave the band as he did in 1996. Daryl Stuermer plays very good lead guitars in some songs, like in the "Old Medley" and "Jesus He Knows Me", and he also shows that he is a very good bass guitarist. Chester Thompson is maybe the best musician in this video, playing with energy and feeling. Tony Banks, as always, plays very good,like Mike Rutherford, who smiles more than Banks during the concert. My favourite songs in this video are "Old Medley", "Driving the Last Spike" (great drums by Thompson), "Fading Lights" (played without Stuermer and Thompson), "Hold On My Heart" (great vocals by Collins), "Domino" (excellent light and video effects, and again great drums by Thompson) and "Drum Duet" (very good). The Laser Disc version had as bonuses the "We Can`t Dance" singles videos :"No Son of Mine", "I Can`t Dance", "Hold On My Heart" and "Jesus He Knows Me". The "I Can`t Dance" and "Jesus He Knows Me " videos are particularly very good, with humorous scenes.

If you look at the setlist, it may not get into your attention to buy this CD. But for me personally, this is a good live video for two things: First, I really enjoy how Phil Collins does his drumming. I think he is one of the best drummer in progressive music. He applies humanistic and humorous drumming style with richness of variations which he plays it in relax way. So cool. I especially enjoy when he plays double drummer with Chester Thompson. It's a great experience watching these two gentlemen play their kits together like in "The Drum Thing". Second, the chapter 4: Old medley is really a good treat for the band's music in years combining parts from old albums like Dance On A Volcano, Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, The Music Box, Firth of Fifth, I Know What I Like and the newer ones that actually I don't favor: That's All, Illegal Alien, Follow You, Follow Me. These two reasons justify the purchase of the DVD. "Home By The Sea" is actually a good one but unfortunately it is not continued with "Second Home By The Sea".

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Multi-Angular

Whether or not you enjoy the music of post Gabriel and Hackett era Genesis, it has to be recognised that at the time of its release, "The walk we walk - Genesis live in concert" set the standard for live concert DVDs.

The performances are of course from the same tour which produced the "Way we walk" live albums in 1992 and 1993, and as such represent the end of Phil Collins time with the band. The fact that the tracks are not segregated into "shorts" and "longs" here is far more satisfactory in terms of the complete package. A couple of tracks which appeared on those albums are dropped, but that is for the better!

The tour was intended to promote the 1991 album "We can't dance", so tracks from that album feature heavily in the set list. For me, "fading lights", "Driving the last spike" and "Dreaming while you sleep" are fine Genesis songs, which sit well alongside the band's older material. We are of course subjected to some of the pop orientated output, especially towards the end of the concert where "Turn it on again", "Hold on my heart" and "Invisible touch" remind us why we yearn for the classics.

It is those classics though which serve to disappoint. Songs such as "The Musical box" and "Firth of fifth" are edited and squeezed into an "Old medley" section; surely sacrilege of the highest order. The songs themselves sound wonderful, but to segue them in such an unsatisfactory manner is unforgivable.

In terms of the DVD, the cover misleadingly proclaims that it holds over 8 hours of footage. What this means in reality is that up to four different camera angles are available simultaneously. To watch the entire 8 hours, you would simply have to play the gig four times, viewing a different angle each time, the music is the same. The various camera angles are useful although they would have been better if they had been used to provide extended focus on a specific band member, instead of simply offering different general views of the stage. The novelty of the multi-angle provision soon wanes though.

In all, a highly enjoyable package, which can be enhanced through prudent use of the skip chapter button.

I must say I like Phil Collin's era Genesis. Unlike many of their peers, their transition from top cult prog band to a pop act with some prog leanings was a long one, giving time for the audiences to adapt and also conquer new fans. And even at their lowest Genesis never released any real crap. Then I guess this DVD is kind of a testimonuy of their last days, before their 2007 reunion, of course. (mind you. I don't see Calling All Stations a Genesis album at all).

Although very well done and filmed (the sound mixing and the photography are superb), the perfomance was hardly their best, even for Collin's era standards. They appear to be more professionals than really artists, if you know what I mean. There is not much conviction or passion on the show and that's really a shame. They did much better shows. That's not to say this one was bad: no! It was good. But it could be a lot better if they were really in the mood to kick ass or something like that. Nevertheless, I was glad I bought this DVD, for it is a nice display of their latest works. That's the good part. The bad one is when they play the older materail: they really fell short on those ones (the Old Medley is terrible, playing small bits of classic songs, it only reminded me of how great this band once was).

So in the end I came to the conclusion that I like this DVD: they perfom the I Can't Dance stuff much better live than on the studio. The problem always seem to be when you see them doing some songs that were already available on earlier videos. Most of them are better than the ones I saw here. But again, I should say those are not bad. Only slightly disapointing. Genesis never really released anything really bad, and this DVD wouldn't be the first one. So I guess 3 stars is a fair rating. Good, but not essential in any way.

Turn it on again tonight, tonight, tonight!

I have three live concert DVD's by Genesis: Live In London - filmed and recorded on the Duke tour in 1980, Live At Wembley Stadium - filmed and recorded on the tour in support of the Invisible Touch album in 1986 and this one - filmed and recorded in 1992 in support of We Can't Dance. Of these three DVD's, Live In London and this one are the two better ones. The set list on the Live In London DVD is very impressive, but the sound and picture quality is weak. This is not the case here, the sound and picture quality is great!

The purists who cannot listen to anything from the 80's will find very little of interest here, but for people like me who can appreciate at least some songs from the whole of Genesis long career will find much to enjoy here. This concert was also released as two separate CD's under the titles The Longs and The Shorts. Obviously, the songs featured on The Longs are the more progressive ones. However, I would not want to trade my DVD of the whole show for a CD with only the progressive songs - it is the whole of the concert that makes for the best experience. Partly because this was just what the audience saw that night and partly because the longer, more progressive, tracks sound better side by side with the shorter, more commercial, songs. Indeed, I like most of these songs!

For those purists I mentioned, the only thing of real interest here is the Old Medley, which is a 20 minute medley consisting of bits and pieces of older songs. Some of these songs are from the Peter Gabriel-era and I think that Phil sings those songs originally sung by Peter perfectly. The whole medley is indeed excellent and features bits of songs from the early 70's to the early 80's. The Firth Of Fifth- section contains that brilliant, classic guitar solo excellently played by Daryl Stuermer.

Straight after the medley comes the second best song of the whole set: Fading Lights. This song has a great instrumental break (the best they did at least since Duke) and it sounds even better live than it does on the studio album which indeed is true of almost all of the songs performed here. The sound is a bit less artificial and the songs have more of a rock edge when performed live. Driving The Last Spike, Dreaming While You Sleep, Home By The Sea and Domino are the other longer pieces performed. All of these are good and at least moderately progressive.

The shorter, more commercial songs include some good ones, some less good ones, and one or two quite awful ones. The best of these are Land Of Confusion and No Son Of Mine (the latter has a beautiful lyric!) and the worst are Invisible Touch and I Can't Dance. Annoyingly the concert is spread over two discs and most of the less good songs are on the second disc (that admittedly doesn't get played as often as disc one despite having some very good moments). The whole of disc one, on the other hand, (perhaps with the exception of Jesus He Knows Me) should be a very enjoyable viewing experience for any Prog fan.

I used to strongly dislike Jesus He Knows Me before, but after seeing Phil's introduction of the song it started growing on me. I never before reflected on the lyrics, I used to think that it was a religious song, but it is indeed a song critical of religion (or at least of commercialized religion). This song gets a nice guitar solo not present of the original version (often heard on the radio when I was very young).

In conclusion, I can say that this DVD is recommended for anyone with the slightest interest in 80's and 90's Genesis. Indeed, I get a lot more enjoyment out of this DVD than from any of the post-Duke studio albums and I think that this DVD might be a great place for a fan of earlier Genesis to start investigating later Genesis. From this perspective I am prepared to rate this with four stars.