AT THE ROXY
ROCK-THEATER FROM GENESIS

19 December, 1973; Section IV, p. 30
by Richard Cromelin.

Tonight is probably your last chance to view in intimate surroundings a band that could well become one of the major concert attractions of the coming year. Genesis has finally made it to the West Coast with one of the most thoroughly sophisticated rock shows of all time.

The school of rock that it represents emphasizes control and discipline over spontaneity and release; its music reminds of Yes, but the quintet is infinitely more witty (which undercuts any tendencies toward pretension) and only slightly less adept instrumentally.

Genesis' show is the most perfectly realized piece of rock theater yet to come along.

Peter Gabriel's singing and acting is highly stylized, but he also imparts a warmth and humanity that tempers the fantasy. He has become the ideal and complete embodiment of Genesis' themes - a breathtaking melange of science fiction and fairy tale overlaid with a mythic dimension.

Genesis is the first rock group (perhaps with the exception of Bowie, but that's another world) to successfully present archetypal images to the audience, and the effect, both visually and emotionally, is spectacular.

It sweeps you from primitive gods and apocalyptic battles to futuristic watchers from the skies, from not-so-innocent childhood to malevolent senility. One needn't hear all the words nor spend time analyzing, because it's good theater and those striking images hit responsive chords on an instinctual plane.

Whether Genesis is too clever for its own good, whether the rock audience will embrace a band whose concerns are far from strictly teen-age experience, remains to be seen. But the size and rabid enthusiasm of the opening-night crowd bodes well for Genesis' rich and magnificent music/theater.

Transcribed for The Path by Joe Harden

Joe's story:

The Roxy Shows

I was 16 when Genesis played the Roxy in West Hollywood for their first-ever series of west coast concerts. Regrettably, I did not make it to any of the shows. Although I had been a big Genesis fan for six months prior to the Roxy shows, I was too much of a wimp to go. You see, I really wanted to go but I didn't do anything about it. I had seen the small ad for the shows in the LA Times Sunday Calendar, the first time I had ever seen a mention of Genesis anywhere outside of their album covers, and it was all I could think about for days. But as a sixteen year old living in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendora (about 40 geographical miles and a trillion cultural miles from the Roxy) I would have had to pull a major stunt with my parents to go to a rock concert in the weird and wild world of West Hollywood. Not one to pull major stunts like sneeking off with their car or lying about my plans, I said and did nothing as the concert days approached.

Much to my excitement and surprise, I discovered that a small but very progressive Los Angeles AM radio station on the far right of the dial called KDAY (now long gone) was planning on broadcasting one of the shows. Even at my young age, I nearly had a coronary when I heard the news on the car radio while my sister Margie and I were on our way for a day of Christmas shopping at the mall. I couldn't believe that a radio station had not only mentioned Genesis but were also planning on airing the concert. I may not have had the balls to go to the concert, but there was no way I was going to miss the radio broadcast.

Fifteen minutes before the start of the broadcast, I set the dial of my Dad's small AM/FM portable radio to KDAY and stretched out on my bed with the radio across my chest. I didn't want to miss a thing. I could hardly contain my excitement as the radio DJ came across loud and clear, announcing the start of the Genesis broadcast a few minutes before the hour. Suddenly, the radio signal turned to static. Frantically, I fiddled with the radio dial to clear the static but to no avail. A snippet of the opening to "Watcher of The Skies" faded in and then quickly back out. Later I thought I heard a bit of "Dancing With the Moonlit Knight." This can't be happening, I groaned, while suffering through the static broadcast for about an hour before finally giving up. I guessed that the radio station must have reduced their power for the evening, or maybe there was interference somewhere in my neighborhood. It only added to my disappointment when, years later, I read in Armando Gallo's book, "I Know What I Like" that Mike Rutherford felt that these Roxy shows ranked up in the top four of all the shows Genesis had ever done.