When the British progressive rock band Genesis went on tour to promote their concept album The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (1974), they set the standard for theatrical performances by rock bands. Nowadays, forty years after this release, the album is still considered to be a masterpiece. Many prog rock bands already paid tribute to this amazing double album by doing a 40th anniversary show. One of these acts is the Italian band The Watch that I saw perform an outstanding version at the W2 in Den Bosch (see review) earlier this year. However, they didn't include the costumes and props that many tribute bands use during the shows in order to imitate the original version. One of those tribute bands is Carpet Crawlers. Unfortunately I never had the chance to witness any of the Genesis tribute performances of this British band until recently. On October 26th they played at venue De Pul in Uden their 40th anniversary show of The Lamb... I was curious to know how close they could get to the original concert version.

While an image of the well-known Genesis bat wings could be seen at the back of the stage, the musicians entered one by one. At the same time a voice informed the audience about the celebration of the

Brian Cummins

40th anniversary of this famous Genesis album by playing it in its entirety. The people in the audience were allowed to film or to take pictures. With the piano sound of the title track played by the band's new keyboardist Max Hunt, they started to perform. Soon after lead singer Brian Cummins entered the stage dressed in a leather jacket and with a painted face exactly like Peter Gabriel did forty years ago. Cummins succeeded very well in imitating the former Genesis singer. When the band started to perform Cuckoo Cocoon, he came on stage barely dressed only wearing his jeans and shoes. After the song In The Cage he welcomed the audience wearing a white shirt that looked pretty much like the one from the original theatre show. He talked about Rael's adventures in New York and about Dutch women with difficult first names. Before performing Lilywhite Lilith he drew the audience back into the story of Rael and told them what they could expect next. By doing so he pretended to turn over the vinyl record.

Initially I was curious to find out how the band would visualize certain songs like The Lamia (see video) and The Colony Of Slippermen (see video). Well, both pieces were performed exactly like Genesis once did. During a large part of The Lamia a kind of curtain could be seen and underneath that 'cloth' Mr Cummins was singing his lines.

The Lamia (click to enlarge)

He must have had some serious trouble with singing, while he was wearing the Slipperman costume. The birth of the Slipperman coming out of a kind of condom during The Colony Of Slippermen was nice to look at.

The Colony of Slippermen: The birth (click to enlarge)

During the final track It, a dummy of Rael was brought on stage. I was rather puzzled and wondered why this was done, but it probably has something to do with the story. After the final notes had died away the musicians received a standing ovation, which was well-deserved because the entire album was brilliantly performed. In a rather funny way Brian Cummins told the audience that the show was over and no more songs could be expected. Was it a joke or could I still expect an encore?

Well, after a bit of cheering and hand clapping the musicians returned to the stage to perform three more songs. One of the people in front of the stage requested to do Home By The Sea. Cummins, who by then was wearing a black jump suite, could see the funny side of this request and started to sing a part of this track taken from Genesis (1983). After that they started with Firth Of Fifth, generally considered to be one of the best Genesis pieces ever. It was ironically introduced as a track taken from the non-existent Greatest Hits album. I guess most people know that it comes from Selling England By The Pound (1973). It included an amazing guitar solo by Jim Faulkner.

The old man

According to the band's singer The Musical Box was taken from the fictional album The Very Best Of Genesis, but of course it originally comes from Nursery Cryme (1971) and it's about the children Cynthia and Henry and not Cynthia and Harold as Mr. Cummins erroneously introduced this well-known piece. I guess he mixed up the song Harold The Barrel from the same album. The Musical Box included the old man's act which was wonderfully done. Before Carpet Crawlers ended with a strong version of The Knife, Cummins mentioned his participation with the Security Project which consists of members of the original backing band of Peter Gabriel including drummer Jerry Marotta and keyboard player Larry Fast, who's also known as Synergy. The Knife was again ironically announced as if it was taken from The Definitive Genesis Collection, but fans know that it's from Trespass (1970). Drummer Neil Carter was also in a good mood playing a part of the Phil Collins hit In The Air Tonight before performing The Knife. It had a kind of jazzy intro just like Genesis used to do in the early seventies.

After this strong piece of music the musicians left the audience to return later on in the venue to be amongst them. I think most people told them that they performed an amazing show that came pretty close to the original version!

Henri Strik (edited by Peter Willemsen)