Genesis, The Point, Dublin, Mar 8th
It was with some trepidation that i attended the Genesis concert
in Dublin last night. I had been looking forward to this for so
long...as i've been a fan since 1980 but Genesis last played Dublin 8yrs
previous to that.
The trepidation i had for this tour came out of various opinions
on the list from some of those who've attended the other concerts and
had found fault with the sound, the lights, the jumbotrons, Ray
impersonating Collins, Ray and the girl, Ray on his own, Nir, Anto's FOF
solo......the list went on...!!!
You might agree that this would be enough to unnerve any G fan
attending what for me was my first time to see the band live.So after
a scramble to get there in the first place (that's another story) i
finally took my seat at 8.05.
Ten minutes later and the tick-tock intro to NSofM....the
lights dimmed and suddenly 26years later the greatest band of our time
had returned to a Dublin stage.......the feeling for me was tremendous.
By the time NSofM had finished i knew for absoulute certain
that Ray Wilson was the man for the job........no doubt about it. He
appeared very confident,sounded great all the way throughout
and struck up a good rapport with the audience,many of who were
a bit passive (to put it mildly).
I too thought Anto's FOF solo was excellent, not sure if
i'd go so far as to say it was better than Hackett's but it was
definitely an excellent rendition none the less. Nir was something
else, don't know about metronomes or anything but the guy
sounded awesome to me. He got a great reaction from the crowd
at the end of TDL. There were no Jumbotron's - but i didn't miss
what i hadn't seen, i thought the light show was great,
i guess i was just happy to be there and that's really what it's all
about
anyway. The crowd were a bit quiet when they shouldn't have been
but the band did get what seemed to be a standing ovation at the
end and there was much loud stamping of feet prior to the
encores TIAA and ICD. Ray picked a stunner called Karen (i think)
to dance with.She was well able and it all seemed very natural.
There was a sizeable shift of people towards the front rows for the
encores, so although quiet much of the way through, the crowd
really got going for IT and later for TIOA and the encore.
So let me re-iterate for those of you who, like i was, are a bit
worried prior to seeing the G-men live, go and enjoy the concert,
there is nothing to worry about as regards the health of this
band.
Absolutely brilliant....and that's my final word on the subject.
Thanks for reading if you did....hope all you folks in the U.S.
get your CAS tour as well...hang in there.
To all the papaerlaters that i was supposed to meet last night,
apologies - circumstances prevented my appearance anywhere
close to the the centre of Dublin until almost 8pm.
-Gerry