One of the biggest challenges to any group is playing in front of other
musicians. Not that other musicians are rowdy, but any tiny slip is usually
noticed. And so, there I was a musician from the old school who loves
displays of musicianship, early Genesis music and is very meticulous over
stage presentation. This makes me either an ideal or worst person to review
a sibling tribute band!
So, how did I find Face Value on Friday? In one word; stunning.
The mannerisms of Phil Collins were spot on, the tone of the voice was as
close to the original as you can get, the range was there and significantly
the power behind the voice *surpassed* the original. Interestingly even down
the subtle intonations and inflexions of Phil's voice were all there,
perfectly reacted. The mannerism and body language were present right down
to the warm up routine before the set had even started!
The keyboard sounds were good, the synthesised drum sounds being better than
expected to the point where it didn't really matter that a drummer wasn't
present. The synthesised bass sounds seemed quite good, with the possible
exception of the closing section to Afteglow.
My only niggle with the band was the guitar playing; I wanted more! On
"Don't Loose my Number" Will impressed me with some very authentic Daryl
Struemer playing that was as fast and accurate as the original. One or two
other solo's were omitted, from what I saw this guy can play them with ease,
so its probably just a case of picking them out from a record, which is a
time consuming task.
The selection of material was mostly from the "Serious Hits Live!" and
TWWW:TS albums with a few exceptions like Follow You, Follow Me which was
stunningly close to the original. The first half hit the gass immediately
and never let up, (at the rate they chalked up the big hits I worried that
they'd run through all the big hits too soon, much like Extreme did at the
Queen tribute concert) it included the very impressive ITAT, the feel and
sound was captured perfectly, and the end section had plenty of power.
For the second half I disappeared to the gents, and came running back as
soon as I heard *that* funny drum pattern: ICD. Next to ITAT its possibly my
favourite Collins/Genesis number and truth be told I didn't think they'd try
to tackle it given how hard it is to sing. Time for me to put on my
musicians hat...
On TWWW:TS, ICD (TLA overload!) is played down a key and Phil sings the
chorus differently, instead of screaming he almost hiccups it. Face Value
didn't. It was there, in the original key, with the original screams, with
every note spot on.
Normally on later Phil Collins video's by the end of the concert you can
hear his voice starting to give up (not surprising really!). This didn't
happen with Face Value, the power was there stronger than Collins and stayed
the distance, despite tunes like NSoM, Mama, TTT, ICD... the list goes on!
By the end of the evening, Face Value had won over everyone in the audience,
the Phil Collins sound was there in abundance, close your eyes and it almost
*is* Phil Collins. If you like the big hits, I can wholeheartedly recommend
this band.
All the best,
Tony
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