Genesis is another group that reminds me of childhood- I'd always loved the Invisible Touch album, and later I got into some of their early work. There's a debate on which is better- the Peter Gabriel era or the Phil Collins era. Personally, I think each has its strong points- Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is strong PG Genesis, while I like the Abacab and Genesis albums better than Invisible Touch during the Collins era.
Collins left Genesis in the mid-nineties, and in 2007 they reunited (interestingly, the same year as The Police, another one of my favorites). They released Live Over Europe in late 2007, but I didn't get around to it until just recently.
LOE starts with a trio of faster paced, recognizable tunes, but the first few tracks also signal one of the release's major problems- many of the songs are at lower keys, as Phil Collins' voice isn't what it used to be. The version of Turn It On Again that leads off could be described as a polite version- definitely not as hard-rocking as the studio or earlier live versions. No Son of Mine suffers from the same treatment, although it works slightly better, and I did enjoy Land of Confusion,the band seemed tighter than the 90s live release The Way We Walk (TWWW).
Next came a section that really bogged down- In The Cage/Afterglow was enjoyable at first but stretched out too long and was plagued by cheesy synth. Hold on My Heart is one of the dullest songs in the Genesis catalog, but I did enjoy Collins' singing in this version. Home By The Sea was almost note-for-note the same as TWWW.
One of my favorite Genesis songs, Follow You Follow Me, was next, but this was more a light-rock version, especially the ending. Then came an excerpt of Firth of Fifth, which featured some solid drumming.
By this point, I started to notice some patterns. The more popular songs were getting safe treatment, enjoyable but not much different than either the studio or previously released live versions. The earlier-era Genesis songs were long (sometimes painfully long) and often featured cheesy synthesizers. So followed the pattern until the end, and the problem with this release is that it's hard to have a show with both early prog-rock Genesis and the more commercial songs, as it almost seems directionless after a while. Some more upbeat songs would have helped- a Misunderstanding or That's All mixed in would have livened things up considerably. Instead, the band goes for a dated-sounding Domino (almost identical to TWWW) and then closes out with stale versions of Invisible Touch and I Can't Dance.
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