The Point Depot, Dublin, March 8, 1998

The Point Depot
Dublin, Ireland
March 8, 1998
A Single Lonely Voice

Overall:


From the first elephant trumpet of "No Son Of Mine", the long-time Genesis fan will notice that something is amiss. The song's key has been lowered to accommodate the new singer. (Ten years later, it would later be lowered to accommodate the original.) This would be repeated several times during the night. There are some loose performances at the beginning, but starting with the second half of "Domino", the band starts to turn it around. A highlight is Mike's extended solo at the beginning of "Dividing Line" and Nir's drum solo a bit later in the same song. Ray turns in surprisingly fun performances on the hits "Invisible Touch", "Thowing It All Away", and "I Can't Dance".

Sound: * * *
Decent audience recording.

Mix: * * *
Mostly balanced. There's no bass at times. At other times, the keyboards are too loud.

Performance: * * *
The '98 lineup was nowhere near as tight as the one from '78-92, and unfortunately, they never would get the chance to improve. The show has its moments, though, particularly toward the end.

Raw Notes:

Disc 1
1. No Son of Mine - Lower key. Ray tries, but the song doesn't have the intensity in this pitch. The band sounds a bit tired. Decent mix. Good sound for an audience recording. Curiously, the kick drum can be heard, but Anthony Drennan's bass guitar is lost somewhere. Good crowd response, though.

2. Land of Confusion - Lower key. Can't hear the crowd sing the "Oh oh oh's". Still no bass. Mike's guitar is just audible. Again, it just doesn't get off the ground. For better or worse, Phil owns these first two songs.

3. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway - A bit surprised to find this one transposed. Intro sounds interesting on Tony's new rig. Ray's sounds odd at "Rael Imperial Aerosol Kid", but he's putting some intensity behind it. Sings "down, down, down" like Phil. Different outro than I've heard before. "If anybody mentions Phil, I'm sorry, but you have to leave."

4. Calling All Stations - In the right key. Ray seems more at home here. Band performance is very similar to album. Mike's solo cuts through nicely, as do Nir's drums. Not bad. MUCH better ending than on the fade out album. Ray intro's Carpet Crawlers as the first Genesis song he ever heard.

5. Carpet Crawlers - I think this is in the right key. Ray dodges some high notes. He sounds quite good on the verses, but struggles with the choruses. "The eagle pack lifts up their pitchers they carry on their backs?" Ray tells the story of becoming the new lead singer. Talks about having to work up lyrics on the spot.

6. There Must Be Some Other way - Bass is suddenly audible. Intro sounds a bit empty for some reason. Dodges some of his own high notes. No background vocals. No intensity in the first couple of verses. Into keyboard solo. Doesn't soar. Last verse. Ray puts himself into the last chorus.

7. Domino - Lower key, slower tempo. Some audience chatter. Nir picks up the tempo for the Last Domino section, now that he's not bound to the drum machine. Nice pounding! Almost gathering some intensity. Song damned nearly gets off the ground for a moment. Second half easily the best performance so far. Nir thunders toward the ending.

8. Firth of Fifth - Instrumental section. Good tempo. Good intensity. Anthony's big moment as he becomes the third guitarist to perform this solo with Genesis. Not quite as flashy as Daryl. More true to Hackett's original, but he definitely puts his own spin on it. Very nice. Tony's choir not quite as strong as on previous tours. Could be the mix. Nice performance!

9. Congo - Band seems to be warming up a bit. Intro goes well enough. A bit different from the album. Background vocals! Who is that? Sounds like Ray runs out of breath. Nice unexpected guitar solo. Is that Mike? Again, it ends much better than the album version. Band has definitely hit their stride.

Disc 2
1. Home By The sea - Ray's voice works pretty well for this one. Sounds like it's in the right key, but I might be wrong. Seems a bit odd without Phil's tambourine after the first verse. Dodging more high notes. Good enough going into Second Home. Decent intensity and tempo. Nir gets the bit bored with the repetitious drumming, starts changing it up, throwing in accents here and there. Chugging along nicely toward the mid point of the instrumental. Ray returns. Decent. Talks about the album launch. Intro's unplugged set. Tony on acoustic guitar, just like the old days! Well, not really.

2. Dancing With the Moonlit Knight (opening section) - Ray's voice works here as well. "You know who you are, you don't give a damn."

3. Follow You, Follow Me - Crowd sings along. Flubs the lyrics a bit in the last verse.

4. Lover's Leap (from Supper's Ready) - Ray goes for the high note on "Hello, babe" and "Hey, my baby!" "It's been a long, long time, hasn't it?" Yes it has.

5. Not About Us - Short, bitter-sweet and completely acoustic. Not bad.

6. Mama - Keys sound somewhat different here from earlier tours. Darker sounding overall. Goes for the high note again on "getting so hard!". Some distant cheers after the first laugh section. Tony's keyboards suddenly get loud going into "Can't you see me". Ray gives it all in the last two verses! "I'm gonna make the pain, make it go away." Better performance than I would have imagined. Crowd liked it!

7. Dividing Line - Nice crunchy chords from Mike at the beginning. Then he changes sounds a bit... maybe a change in pickups. Then back. On second thought, he must be playing with his effects pedals. Extended intro. Pretty cool. Nir does some drum improv. Mike wailing along nicely! Keys come in loud and step on the guitar. Too bad. Was one of the better moments on this boot. Ray comes in. Nir launches into a nice drum solo after the vocal section. Crowd cheers as we come back! Good stuff! Good intense ending! Definitely a highlight. Uh, no. Drum machine signals...

8. Invisible Touch - Could have done without this. "She's got a built in ability to shake everything she sees." Not really a bad version of this. Sings "Ask me, I know" like Phil did live. Yikes! Screeches on one of the "YEah...yeah.. yeah...". Dodges the rest of the high notes. "She seems to have it all, anything she wants."

9. Turn It On Again - Lower Key. Sounds very different from... well all previous performances. Tony's keyboards sound a bit cheesey here, strange choice of sound. This is just wrong. The song does not work in this key at all! Yuck. Ray introduces the band. Wow, pronounces Nir's surname! "..and from Scotland, Me!"

10. Turn It Again (cont.) Finally start to get up some intensity as the song ends. We listen for a good two minutes as crowd awaits the encore. Drum machine.. oh, no it's...

11. Throwing It All Away - No Dee Dah Day? Ray's voice works here for some reason. Someone shouts the missing background vocal. Ah, replaces Dee Dah Day with "Awayyyyy! Surprisingly good version, this.

12. I Can't Dance - Ray is getting intimate with the crowd. Grabs someone named Karen to dance with. HA! "You know what my problem is? I'm not Phil Collins." No one can accuse Ray of taking himself too seriously. Crowd sings "I Can't Dance" lines. Again, not a bad version at all. Not what I would have expected. Who is playing the harmonica at the end? Good job!