Steve Hackett – Auckland Town Hall, June 17, 2022

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Steve Hackett delivers an epic extravaganza bursting with treats at Auckland’s Town Hall. Many fans here have waited almost three years for this experience, amidst the carnage that is the pandemic. They stood to applaud throughout the show. They stood to applaud at the end. Progressive Rock at its most triumphant and indulgent.

Hackett, if anything is an eclectic musician who plays Jazz, Pop, Blues, World Music and Classical across solo albums and group projects. It is his tenure in Genesis that is showcased tonight. The band will perform the live 1977 album Seconds Out, and the studio album Selling England by the Pound (1973) in its entirety. Hackett left the group after the live album which also heralded their loss of appeal to music critics, but maybe not their fans.

Steve HackettSquonk and Carpet Crawl open the evening. Is everybody in? Let the ceremony begin.

The sound is spectacular. The Great Hall with its wooden floors and architecture can deliver the best booming deep notes of any venue in New Zealand. A cavernous depth resonating in the guts. Two keyboard players skirl in melodic fairground fashion. Ornate baroque Pop. The first liquid guitar solo holds brief court on Squonk.

The marked difference from the live 1977 album is that the guitar comes forward and out in the mix, whereas it was buried originally.

The stellar band on stage have been long time stalwarts. Nad Sylvan, singer, looks like Jon Anderson from those other Proggers Yes, with a powerful, clear and soaring tenor. Craig Blundell drums, can thunder like John Bonham and do rapid fills like Phil Collins. Rob Townsend keyboards, flute and saxophone. Roger King keyboards and Jonas Reingold twin-neck 12 string and bass guitar.

Robbery Assault and Battery. You’ve done me wrong/ It’s the same old song/ Done forever. A flash Rock guitar solo segues into the meshed sound of the keyboards. The elaborate arrangements have a Sgt Pepper theatricality and drama about them.

Afterglow openly plays to that Beatles Psychedelic era Mystical Pop. There is a big cathedral sound with its slow build-up.

This is all wonderful stuff but bigger things are coming.

Steve HackettA keyboard arpeggio leads into The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. The Rock Opera of the Who made into Broadway Theatre. The roots of Goth are here. Pure-bred Puerto Rican/ Rael Imperial Aerosol Kid.  The sound of the Drifters and the music of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller exploded out.

Then the tour-de-force that is Supper’s Ready. Soulful vocals and Baroque Pop. Complex layered arrangements. A pastoral flute is countered by a sharp buzzsaw guitar. There are passages of melodic Hendrix-meets-Metheny from Hackett. Mystical Tolkien lyrics. Wandering through the chaos the battle has left/ Climb up a mountain of human flesh. Sonic soundscapes keep changing and it becomes pleasingly overwhelming.

Why play one note when you can play three thousand? Supposedly what the Punks were reacting to when Seconds Out was released. It is exhilarating and you cannot fail to be moved.

There is a break before they launch into Selling England by the Pound.

But there is no diminution of intensity or complexity of arrangements. The improvisation steps up a few notches. Plenty of molten guitar solos.

I Know What I Like. There are jungle and forest sounds. The best Jazz saxophone solo of the night.

Firth of Fifth and a piano resembling Aaron Copland. The solos from Hackett radiate so much energy that Prog may just be an unstable element in the Periodic Table.

The Battle of Epping Forest starts with a drum roll and a fife. Woodstock nation/ It’s love, peace and truth incorporated for all who seek. That fixes the time and place and we hear some of the Beach Boys tones, or Brian Wilson specifically in his Smile phase.

It’s a huge show and Aisles of Plenty even has an extended drum solo that would cut it with Buddy Rich at his best.

Steve Hackett and band lay it down emphatically. Prog Rock at its finest, can Kick Out the Jams, You Mothers… 

Rev Orange Peel

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Rev Orange Peel
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