Near the end of the 2 1/2-hour show, a fan yelled out, "I saw this concert when I was 20 and you guys are perfect!" This caused Francois Gagnon, guitarist of the Musical Box who was playing the role of Steve Hackett, to crack a smile, and for just a moment, break character in his tribute group's otherwise near-flawless re-creation of a 1974 Genesis concert.
Back in the day, Peter Gabriel fronted Genesis and Phil Collins was just a guy who played drums and only opened his mouth to offer the occasional backing vocal. Genesis was at the vanguard of progressive rock and progressive didn't get anymore arty than The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, the 1974 double-vinyl concept album with a knotted story about a trip to the underworld by Rael, a Puerto Rican graffiti artist living in New York, that involves creatures like slippermen, carpet crawlers and lamia (ah, LSD), while pondering the meaning of life and dealing with castration. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway tells the entire thing with plenty of time left over for long instrumental passages. Of course, Genesis decided to build a tour around bringing this entire saga to the stage that year, and like good art-rockers, neither could they resist enhancing the musical epic with added theatrical elements like slides and costumes to present Rael's journey to an audience.
With the blessing of the original band (the tribute even has been loaned the 1,224 slides used on the tour from the Genesis archives), the Musical Box is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Lamb tour by reproducing one of those concerts for those who were there and those too young to have had the chance to go. The band members may not have created the music they performed, but they have mastered it with a fan's love and presented it with a fan's passion. Singer Denis Gagne looks a bit like Peter Gabriel, and is fully capable of mimicking the singer's voice. More importantly, he is adept at restaging the charismatic, theatrical and narrative elements that are key to Gabriel's live performance.
The House of Blues audience was wildly appreciative, but perhaps numbered no more than a few hundred. But this was never music meant for the masses, and even as Genesis was winding down the around-140 original Lamb shows, it wasn't Rael, but the Ramones who were rising out of the real New York City underworld to kill art-rock like Genesis.
Of course, Genesis had the last laugh by getting the little bald drummer to reduce the philosophical musings to "Abacab" and sold more records than ever before. But that is another epic, and not one that anyone is lining up to pay tribute to.