Steve Hackett

25th September 2021

Edinburgh Playhouse

Delayed by a year perhaps, but we finally got to see Steve perform his Seconds Out + More show.

A short set of solo stuff opened the evening, including the obligatory brace from his latest release - in this case, Surrender of Silence.  I enjoyed the Held in the Shadows ("written for my wife Jojo", as Steve introduced it), but found The Devil's Cathedral less fun.  

Like so many of Steve's latter day epics, it just appeared to be a prog-by-numbers jumble: a potentially pleasing composition burdened by all manner of superfluous time changes, the injection of seemingly random instrumental interludes, and a lack of...well...structure.  Almost as if the piece had been put together from snippets of a recorded jam session. 

All flawlessly played and meticulously assembled, to be fair.

Steve Hackett + More (Edinburgh 2021)

Following a lengthy half-hour break, during which we had all been exhorted (twice) by GH, to go to the bar and "get hammered", we were presented with the Seconds Out set.  

I have never really been a huge fan of the album, it appearing (for the most part) to be just a rather too slick re-tread of the studio versions of the songs.  Nevertheless, I looked forward to a bit of fun attempting to identify any differences between the old album and this evening's rendition.

And there were precious little early on, I have to say, although The Carpet Crawlers retained its opening verse, and Firth of Fifth it's piano intro.

I Know What I Like had the same intrusive saxophone/bass guitar duet section we had seen in 2019.  It didnae work then, and it didnae work now.  I was not looking for Phil Collins' tambourine antics, but I found I really missed those Moonlit Knight and Stagnation snippets.

I thought Steve may have tagged on Horizons to the start of Supper's Ready, but he decided not.  He did, however, as if in recompense lengthen his guitar blow out at the climax quite considerably.  And I rather enjoyed that.

Back in the day, I always was a bit ambivalent about Supper's Ready, believing the whole thing a touch underwhelming until the Milligan-esque Willow Farm kicked the thing onto life.  This evening I loved it all...except Willow Farm...which just struck me as twee and dated as fuck.

Roger King made a perfect job of recreating Tony Banks' showcase solo during The Cinema Show; the band tagging on Aisle of Plenty, which had been missing from the Seconds Out version.  It was a bit of a giggle, but I rather felt the main reason it was performed this evening was to ensure Nad Sylvan was on stage when the main set concluded.  

Dance on a Volcano and Los Endos provided the encore, with one of Steve's own songs shoehorned between them alongside a looooong drum solo.

I look forward to seeing how many of the tunes from Seconds Out will find their way into the Genesis set in Glasgow next month.

Set list

Clocks - the Angel of Mons

Held in the Shadows

Every Day

The Devil's Cathedral

The Shadow of the Hierophant

                                                    Interval

Squonk

The Carpet Crawlers

Robbery, Assault and Battery

Afterglow

Firth of Fifth

I Know What I like (In Your Wardrobe)

The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

The Musical Box (closing section)

Supper's Ready

The Cinema Show

Aisle of Plenty

Encore

Dance on a Volcano

Slogans

Los Endos