Genesis tribute act offers up prog-rock classics at San Francisco's Regency Ballroom
SAN FRANCISCO -- Genesis tribute act the Musical Box celebrates the classic output of the '70s British progressive-rock greats with their stunning recreation of the band's live show, presenting the 1973 concert recording Genesis Live in its entirety at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco Saturday.
While plenty of musicians make ends meet by playing in cover bands, some tribute groups transcend mere mimicry with their passion and obsessive attention to detail. Now in operation for three decades, the French Canadian progressive-rock virtuosos who make up the Musical Box regularly draw sold-out crowds their meticulous, note-for-note re-creations of Genesis tours.
Pulling off the complex music, elaborate costumes, and ambitious theatrics that made the early '70s line-up of Genesis one of the most revered British prog-rock outfits of the era, Montreal-based crew the Musical Box give fans who got to see Genesis decades ago and those who weren't even born until after the '70s a chance to experience the wonder of the tours the group embarked on between 1972 and 1974. Original members of Genesis have given ringing endorsements to the group, bringing their children to see singer Denis Gagné and company perform their early material so they could experience what it was like.
Those multimedia productions matched — and, in some cases, even topped — the mind-bending concert spectacle of Pink Floyd during the same era thanks to dazzling lighting design and Gabriel's surreal costumed transformations. The Musical Box has not only dedicated themselves to mounting their detailed recreation of the band's classic tours for Foxtrot and Selling England by the Pound, but went so far as to buy the exclusive rights to mount a production of the sprawling double concept album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.
The licensing included access to the 1,200 slides that were used for projected backdrop on the original tour that proved to be Gabriel's swan song with Genesis before he embarked on his successful solo career. The group first moved beyond the Gabriel era of the band on a 2007 tour presenting the 1976 show promoting A Trick of the Tail and has occasionally explored the songs of the Phil Collins-fronted version of the group since then.
It was that The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway tour that first brought the Musical Box to San Francisco back in 2004 when they headlined the Masonic Auditorium. The band has made the Regency Ballroom a regular stop ever since, performing to packed houses on an almost annual basis. The Musical Box played San Francisco in the pre-COVID era with their "A Genesis Extravaganza 2," a tour covering songs from the band's first recording with just principles Collins, keyboard player Tony Banks and guitarist/bassist Mike Rutherford (...And Then There Were Three from 1978) as well as material from Trick of the Tail and Wind & Wuthering before playing a second set of Gabriel-era classics. On Saturday, the group returns to the Regency to offer up their take on the concert document Genesis Live from 1973 that was recorded during the tour promoting Foxtrot. The band will play the live album in full along with additional songs from that time period.
The Musical Box performs Genesis Live
Saturday, Oct. 26, 8 p.m. $65-$125
The Regency Ballroom