Genesis offered fans a 50-second sneak peek of their upcoming reunion tour last week along with an announcement that it will now kick off September 15th at 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland. It’s the first glimpse the public has had of the band in action since the end of their 2007 Turn It On Again tour, and the first time we’ve seen Phil’s son Nic drumming for the band.
The footage seems to show them playing bits of various songs, though the only music we hear is a live rendition of their 1980 song “Behind the Lines.” Fans have analyzed the footage like the Zapruder film for clues about the set list, which remains a mystery. The massive falling dominos at the 36-second mark are clearly paired with “Domino,” a 1986 epic that’s been a part of every Genesis tour since it was written. The chaotic scenes of old-timey Brits in masks swarming a building at the 25-second spot is less obvious, but perhaps it’s a tip-off for “Land of Confusion” or “The Carpet Crawlers.”
The image that generated the most attention is a wolf with a bloodshot eye that appears on the screen at the 22-second mark. It’s impossible to know for sure why they’re using this image, but their only song about a wolf is “White Mountain” from their 1970 LP Trespass. It centers on an epic battle between wolves named Fang and One-Eye that results in their “white mountain tinted with red” and One-Eye as the victor.
The song was a part of the band’s early stage show with Peter Gabriel between 1969 and 1972, but no live recordings of it from that time have ever surfaced. They brought it back on the 1976 Trick of the Tail tour when Phil Collins was first taking over on vocals from Gabriel. The song was recorded before Collins even joined the band, but as you can tell on this live recording from a Pittsburgh show on April 13th, 1976, he manages to make it his own.
They haven’t done the song a single time since the conclusion of the Trick of the Tail tour in July 1976. It would be rather surprising if they brought it back after all these years, but take a good look at the 22-second mark in the video. Doesn’t that look like One-Eye about to head into battle with Fang? It sure does to us.
From Rolling Stone US
