LIVE OVER EUROPE 2007

I have not yet invested in the live DVD (When In Rome) filmed and recorded on this same reunion tour of 2007 appropriately entitled 'Turn It On Again: The Tour', but I might actually never do now when this live album is available on Spotify. The track lists of the double CD album and the double DVD are identical to each other and they accurately represent the actual set list of the tour. The major difference between the two releases is that the DVD holds a single concert recorded in Rome while this CD features recordings from several different locations on the European Tour, hence the title Live Over Europe. This fact alone clearly makes the DVD preferable over the CD and had I been required to pay money for this I certainly would have went for the DVD.

While it is great to see the guys active once again, I must say that the set list is disappointingly predictable and unimaginative. All of the songs performed on this reunion tour were previously performed by this line-up of the band and most of them already featured on previously available official live albums and videos. Indeed, the set list chosen for this tour is very much like a hybrid of the set lists from the band's two previous tours in support of We Can't Dance in the early 90's and in support of Invisible Touch in the late 80's - both of which are officially available on DVD already (called The Way We Walk and Live At Wembley respectively) and one of them is also available on two CDs (known as 'The Longs' and 'The Shorts' respectively). If there are any surprises here to speak of at all it has to be the inclusion of more Duke-material than we have heard since the early 80's as well as couple of more songs from the 70's that haven't been played for a longer while; however, as I said, nothing that has not been performed by this line-up of the band before.

The show opens on a strong note with "Duke's Intro" which contains parts of Behind The Lines and Duke's End. This then continues with such major hits as Turn It On Again, No Son Of Mine and Land Of Confusion. Then we get the In The Cage-medley that was also performed on the tours in the 80's and features on the Three Sides Live album. The present version is, however, slightly different with Duke's Travels following the snippet from Cinema Show. This then (again as on those 80's tours) flows into Afterglow. Though this medley is a welcome addition for fans of older Genesis it surely would have been more interesting to hear something that we haven't heard before. With so many years to rehearse and such a huge back catalogue to chose from they could have given us something genuinely interesting, something this line-up of the band hadn't performed before. The same must be said of the Firth Of Fifth/I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)-section, which is just the end of the "Old medley" as performed on the early 90's tour. It is really great that they perform these old songs again, but they could have given us a "new" "Old medley" with other old songs which would have been so much more interesting.

Other songs from the 70's are Carpet Crawlers, Follow You Follow Me, Ripples and Los Endos. The latter two are excellent and are highlights of the show. Other (semi-)progressive songs include the great Home By The Sea/Second Home By The Sea and the good Domino. But these songs too are predictable choises as they have been performed on every tour since they were first written! For those of us who have all the previously released official live albums and concert DVDs there is not much new here really. Those, like myself, who already have the The Way We Walk double DVD as well as the Live At Wembly DVD plus the factory made bootleg Live in London DVD and/or the official Three Sides Live album, already have live versions of all of the songs on Live Over Europe, performed by this exact line up! Since, they weren't touring in support of any new album in 2007 they could at least have picked out something from the extensive back catalogue that they never played live before.

I strongly recommend anyone to get hold of The Way We Walk (preferably the excellent DVD, but otherwise the CD album called The Longs) instead of Live Over Europe/When In Rome. You get there most of the same songs, but in addition you get the full Old Medley with snippets of Dance On A Volcano, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway and The Musical Box in addition to Firth Of Fifth and I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) as you get here too. You also get the excellent Fading Lights, which is the most progressive song from the We Can't Dance album (but sounds even better live than on the studio album) and other "longs" as well.

Live Over Europe is definitely good but inferior, very predictable and quite unnecessary

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