The Musical Box: The Lamb

"The Musical Box" - the ultimate Genesis tribute band, and the only one actively supported by both Peter Gabriel and Genesis' management - will be performing "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" in its entirety this Fall/Winter.  This is only the second time in almost 30 years that they are taking this particular show on the road; until now, it has only been performed in Canada.

The Musical Box performs the album exactly as Genesis performed it during their "Lamb" tour, complete with all costume changes, lighting effects, lasers, and, remarkably, all 1100 slides in the slide show.  This promises to be a truly historic event.  Having seen TMB perform the other two tours in their repertoire - "Foxtrot" and "Selling England By The Pound" - I am beyond excited about this.

The first leg of the tour includes the U.S. and Canada.  They will then be in Europe beginning in January.  (For the complete schedule, go to their website at www.themusicalbox.net)  The Fall dates are as follows:

October (U.S.)

10/2        Atlantic City, NJ
10/8-9     Montreal
10/14      Tonawanda, NY
10/16      Syracuse, NY
10/17      Rahway, NJ
10/18      Greensburg, PA
10/20-21 Milwaukee, WI
10/22      Chicago, IL
10/23      Detroit, MI

November (Canada)

11/4-5     Quebec
11/6        Valleyfield
11/11-12  Hull
11/13       L'Assomption
11/20       Toronto
11/24       Trois-Rivieres
11/25       Sherbrooke
11/27       Thetford Mines

December (U.S.)

12/10-11   NYC
12/14        Wheeling, WV
12/16-17   Glenside, PA
12/19        Harrisburg, PA

January/February (Europe)

1/15-16     Milan
2/10         Amsterdam
2/11         Nijmegen
2/12         Tilburg
2/13         Enschede
2/18-19    Munchen
2/23         Berne
2/24         Geneve
2/25         Zurich
2/26         Strasbourg

See TMB website for remainder of tour dates.

What's the general opinion about tribute bands?

Personally, I have an aversion to them. I appreciate that they are keeping the flame burning, and we're certainly unlikely to ever see Genesis perform "The lamb" again, but I don't feel inclined to applaud a band who simply mimics someone else well. There's nothing original about the Musical Box, they are by definition impersonators.

Maani, I'd be interested to hear how you feel about such bands, given your well stated views on the filtering of influences, and criticism of overt derivation.

Easy Livin:

To parahprase Shakespeare, "Methinks thou dost protest too much."  Cover bands are like anything else: there are good ones and bad ones.  The bad ones can be truly poor.  But some of the good ones can be excellent.

There are three types of tribute bands.  The first is the "cover" band that simply covers the songs of various groups, without focusing on a particular group.  These represent the overwhelming majority of tribute bands, and most of them are decent at best, really good if they have good players and love what they do.

The second type focuses on the music of one (or maybe two or three) bands, and (hopefully) puts real "work" into learning, interpreting and playing the material.  The third type is the true "tribute" band that focuses on one (maybe two) groups, and not only learns the material, but performs it in a way that tries to emulate the original group.  True, some end up simply "imitating," and, if they are not careful, that will negatively affect them.

But those tribute bands who really "sweat the details" and truly love what they do can be both wonderful and even exciting to watch.  True, it requires a certain amount of "suspension of disbelief" - or at least the willingness to appreciate what is being attempted (and, hopefully, successful!).  However, performances by such tribute bands can be truly exciting, especially if the players are really, really accomplished.

The Musical Box is among the best bands of this type.  [N.B. Other current ones include The Machine (perhaps the best Floyd tribute band around) and Crystal Ship (unarguably the best Doors tribute band ever, and among the first tribute bands ever formed).]  And yes, again, a certain amount of "suspension of disbelief" is necessary to appreciate what they do.  But if you can set aside preconceptions and presuppositions, you might very much enjoy really good tribute bands.

I happened to play in two different tribute bands.  In the late 70s and early 80s, I played in a band called Frost, which did the music of Genesis and Yes. (More in a moment.)  More recently, from 2000 to 2003, I performed in a band called Rocket Men, an Elton John tribute band.

Frost was one of three major tribute bands of that era in the NYC metro area.  The biggest (most well-known) was Rat Race Choir.  They performed a variety of stuff, mostly prog and proto-prog: Tull, ELP, Zep, Queen, Genesis, Yes, Gentle Giant (they were the first tribute band to play Giant live) et al.  They were the oldest and most accomplished musicians, and they had lots of money, so their shows were almost like mini-rock-concerts.

The second was Harpy.  There is almost no way I can describe Harpy properly.  They were simply the most amazing band I ever saw.  They could play everything from Crimson (from Court to Larks Tongues) to The Beatles.  They were the first band to perform Sgt. Pepper in its entirety - with all effects, etc. - in costume!  It was absolutely eerie.  They were also among the first to perform Dark Side in its entirety.  However, the best story about them is legend.  They broke up in 1980, after a highly successful ten-year run.  However, in 1982 (or maybe 1983), they reformed for the sole purpose of performing The Wall live.  They spent almost $250,000 of their own money to stage just three performances of The Wall exactly as Floyd performed it (although scaled down a little bit) - with all of the same effects, sounds, balloons, planes and, yes, the wall itself.  Why?  Just to prove they could!!  And it was amazing (and I saw the original, so I know).

Frost was the "new kid on the block."  (I was the "Collins" of the group: front man and auxiliary drummer.)  We were younger (between 18 and 23), but all of us were more than adequate players and singers.  Most importantly, we had a love for the music that was second to none.  We would usually open with a "mixed bag": the title track from Sgt. Pepper, a couple of Gabriel solo tunes, maybe Larks Tongues Pt. 1.  We then did a 45-minute set of Yes.  After the intermission, we would come back and play a full hour and ten minutes of Genesis, opening with Squonk, and closing with Afterglow.  We had a great light show, which, during our final season, was actually run by the guy show did Genesis' light show in 1978.  (We lucked out there...)

Although I did not wear any costumes (I was doing Collins, not Gabriel), our shows closely followed those of Genesis (whom we saw every year).  One member of Harpy (all of us - Harpy, RRC, Frost - were friends, and attended each others shows if we were not performing) once said to our keyboardist, "You know - if you brought a blind person to one of your performances, they would be hard-pressed to tell whether or not you were the real thing."  Coming from a member of Harpy, we considered that the greatest compliment we ever got.

Anyway, it was three of the best years of my life.  And if you asked our audiences whether they simply considered us "mimic" or "impersonators," I think they might laugh at you...

With the Elton band, I actually performed as Elton, in the full regalia that he wore in his 70s heydays - wild outfits, crazy glasses, high-heeled platform shoes, glitzy rings, top hat, feather boas, etc.  It was enormous fun and, again, our audiences absolutely loved it.  Yes, I was "impersonating" Elton.  But one can be a good impersonator or a bad one.  I believe I was a good one, and the comments we got bear that out.

Thus, I think you are simply expecting too much from a cover or tribute band.  It is not about "filtering influences" - that's for original bands who are influenced by other bands.  It is about how well a tribute band performs: whether it does justice to the original band, whether the playing is "up to speed," how much love and respect is shown - even how much fun they have.

Lighten up, Easy.   TMB does not think they are Genesis.  They believe - as do I and thousands of others - that they are doing a "service" by providing those who never got to see Genesis in their heyday with an opportunity to "see what it was like."  No, not "exactly."  But, for those willing to suspend disbelief, close enough to get a real sense of it - and enjoy themselves in the process.

Peace.

This is as close as you can get to the real thing, and unless you invent a time machine, this may be the only chance you'll have of seeing what a Genesis experience was.

the musical box wrote: BUT IM STILL KICKING MYSELF OVER NOT GOING!!!........................

Same, now that its over and done with I wish we had gone.

Garion81 wrote: Hangedman wrote: the musical box wrote: BUT IM STILL KICKING MYSELF OVER NOT GOING!!!........................ Same, now that its over and done with I wish we had gone.   I am sorry for you guys.  I know how you feel though because when the tour was announced they were not even coming to the West Coast. (In fact even worse I missed the real Lamb tour by Genesis by about 6 months. I got into them after that but it was all Gabriel era stuff since TOTT had not been released yet.)  BUT the powers that be  changed their minds and I can't wait, two weeks from last night I am seeing it at the 400 seat Whittier show in California.  4th row center.

Lucky! enjoy them man!