The Italian progressive rock act
The Watch are certainly no strangers in the progressive rock scene. Their
six studio albums are all of a very high level. On it are compositions which are many times very much related
to the band which inspired them the most. Anybody who knows the band, of course knows I am referring to
Genesis
and the music which they released in the seventies. The musical period in which they were fronted by their lead
singer
Peter Gabriel. Our friends from Italy already managed to pay tribute to this excellent band for
several years. They do this in a perfect way by playing their songs during their special organised tours which
are announced as The Watch plays Genesis. Also in 2017 a special European tour was put together to get the spotlight
on a certain album or period in the history of Genesis. This time around the spotlight was on
Foxtrot,
which was released in 1972. A venue which they already had visited several times was for our team the place to
see them on stage. I am talking about one of the finest in the Netherlands. Namely the Pul in Uden!
|
Simone Rossetti |
With no support act to warm up the crowd, the musicians on stage had to give 100 % right from the start. I guess
that wouldn't be that difficult if you have a line up which is probably one of the best that lead singer and band
leader
Simone Rossetti has played with. Show time was at half past eight and they had to finish their set
before midnight due to a curfew. By playing a set without any breaks and which lasted two hours and fifteen minutes
they were done right in time.
After an instrumental synthesizer tune coming from a tape the band started with one of their own compositions.
Damage Mode was one of the three songs taken from their own repertoire next to
The Fisherman and
one of the encores
Soaring On. A strong version could be enjoyed as was to be expected. The same could
be said about the other two songs from their own back catalogue. As for the songs which were the main dish of
|
Giorgio Gabriel |
the set there was also a lot to enjoy. As usual the band chose not to perform the songs from
Foxtrot in
the same order as they can be found on the original album. The first piece of the album,
Watcher Of The Skies
, was directly followed by
Can-Utility And The Coastliners, the closing track from side A. Of course
was I curious if they would do
Horizons as well. And yes they did, although with only
Giorgio Gabriel
on stage playing his acoustic guitar. This was for the other musicians a nice way to get off stage and relax before
playing the epic of the album, namely
Supper's Ready. Of course, there was more to enjoy besides the entire
Foxtrot album and their own stuff. Strangely enough they didn't do anything Genesis released after
Foxtrot.
Instead a lot of material could be enjoyed from their two predecessors
Trespass (1970) and
Nursery Cryme
(1971). They did perfect renditions of
Stagnation,
The Knife (final encore),
The Fountain Of
Salmacis,
The Return Of The Giant Hogweed and
The Musical Box. They even made room on the setlist
for the obscure Genesis single
Happy The Man. A song which they often played during their Genesis tribute shows.
All in all, it was again a perfect performance by the band from Milan. The conversation in Dutch by the bands
lead singer was also included. Maybe it would have been an even better musical party, if they had their brand
new studio album. However
Seven was not ready in time and therefore could they do not play anything from
it or sell it to their fans. But I guess you sometimes can't have it all!
Henri Strik (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen)