In Praise of The Musical Box

The Musical Box at Theater Granada, Sherbrooke, 1/24/25

I saw The Musical Box perform their 50th anniversary of SEBTP tour last Friday. It was my 3rd time seeing the band. It was an incredible show and they sounded album-perfect for like 99% of the show. Comparing footage of the actual band perform this tour and TMB, TMB sounded better in some ways on some songs. Their live 3 or 4 part harmonies sung live for the Cinema Show were better than I've ever heard the real deal deliver it. I find tribute bands, especially if they try to look like the band, to be surreal and usually not great. But, TMB musical perfection, and my distance from the stage coupled with a few additives that result in slightly blurred vision, made the illusion of this show very powerful! 1973! It was in the middle of Supper's Ready, a song that never fails to mesmerize me no matter how many times I hear it, that it struck me how rare and amazing this all is. Early Genesis is an obscure rarity and to have this excellent historic reenactment band-performing not just the music perfectly, but the entire stage show/theatrical presentation of the 1973 tour, is just amazing. This is the only Genesis tribute group I have seen, maybe there are others that are better? If any members of the band ever visit here and read this, thanks for what you are doing!

Add on thought: these shows are also interesting in that they bring together deep fans of this obscure music. The collective age in the hall has to be around 10,000. One thing that I have experienced at every show by TMB and Steve Hackett are the old fans who show up and end up being total idiots during the show, either because they know the music best, or because they are old and don't give a shit about talking through a show (one show of Steve's, this group of old fans were talking loudly during the show about how late it was and how old they were and that "they and Steve need to be home in bed!"), or because they are emotional seeing the music perform and they lose their shit and yell stuff all the time...(exactly the scenario the band has described in so many early interviews about their quiet parts being ruined by people who yell out during the quiet sections) the audiences are always this blend of people who are having almost a religious experience seeing this rare old music performed live, or the people who also love the music but cannot experience it without talking through it, or letting everyone else know how much they know about the band or song. So it was at Sherbrooke last Friday.....groups of old fans, who got drunk through the show (they served through the entire show) and ended up talking, laughing, discussing the music & the band during the freaking show. It was unbelievable. These guys behind me had to sing or whistle melodic parts out loud just before they happened, so we would all know how well they know the music. At a Steve Hackett show in Albany, NY this old guy sitting behind me, loudly proclaimed that he had seen the band on the Lamb Tour, had seen Peter! So, he commanded this fan authority, and felt entitled to freaking talk about each song during the show while Steve played....until I turned around and shushed the wizard. He looked hurt and insulted but did stay quiet for the rest of the show. WTF people, we all love the music and want to hear it played, not you talking about it during the show! Rant over.