The Steam Of The Medley (Highland 327/327)
Civic Auditorium Arena, Omaha, NE – February 3rd, 1984
Disc 1 (70:52): Dodo / Lurker, Abacab, That’s All, Mama, Medley (The Eleventh Earl of Mar / The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway / Firth Of Fifth / The Musical Box), Phil Talking, Illegal Alien, Home By The Sea, Second Home By The Sea
Disc 2 (70:42): Man On The Corner, Keep It Dark, It’s Gonna Get Better, Follow You Follow Me, Phil Talking, In The Cage featuring The Cinema Show / The Colony of Slippermen, Afterglow, Drum Duet / Los Endos, Misunderstanding, Turn It On Again
After Genesis was released in October 1983, Genesis limited their tour schedule to dates only in the US, Canada, and Birmingham, England. Close to the end the band played their first ever show in Omaha, Nebraska, at the Civic Auditorium. The Steam Of The Medley presents the complete show in very good to borderline excellent sound quality. The first ten minutes of the tape are quite distorted, but it cleans up nicely. There are two cuts in “Follow You, Follow Me”
Not many bootlegs derive from shows in Nebraska for some reason, so this is an odd choice for a silver. Highland chose it because besides being another fun show on the short tour, it was the final time the band played “Man On The Corner” live.
On the Genesis Movement website, kaspergm writes “As the show memory below says, last ever performance of ‘Man On The Corner.’ However, the occurrence of ‘Man On The Corner’ on this bootleg is suspicious as neither ‘Man On The Corner’ nor ‘Who Dunnit?’ were played on any of the nights after January 10. [A claim that isn’t true – ‘Man On The Corner’ was a regular inclusion in the set up until the January 21st show in Dallas]. I would not be surprised if ‘Man On The Corner’ in this recording was cut in from another show – it would not be the first time Highland did this – but I have not been bothered to dig out the discs I have, somewhere, to check on this – don’t know if anybody ever gave any thought to this.”
“Man On The Corner” certainly sounds genuine. It is in the same sound quality as the rest of the tape and there are not cuts at the end. (In fact, the first four songs on disc two run together with no pause).
Keeping their habit of starting the show with the previous album’s hits, they begin with “Dodo / Lurker” and “Abacab,” the two epics from Abacab. Phil Collins greets the audience, “Good evening Omaha! Good evening Nebraska in general. Well this is the first time we’ve come to this neck of the woods” and tell them that “we’re gonna be here for a couple of hours, until the drugs wear off.”
“Mama,” complete with Collins’ spitting and groaning, is the first of the new songs to be played and the most abrasive. Not prog and not pop, it’s in a Genesis category of its own and thankfully doesn’t set the tone of the entire show.
The first “old medley” starts off with the opening fanfare of “The Eleventh Earl Of Mar” which segues into “The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway,” the instrumental portion of “Firth Of Fifth” and the final “old man’s lament” of “The Musical Box.”
Before “Illegal Alien” Collins jokes about Oklahoma steaks being better than Omaha steaks. “How quickly they turn on you” he jokes when the audience let out the expected boos. He continues with the fugitives from justice bit and plays the group radio, playing snatches of Culture Club’s “Karma Chameleon ” Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and Yes’ “Owner Of A Lonely Heart.” The roadies join the band onstage for the “roadie choir,” adding their voices to the infectious (and silly) chorus.
As stated above “Man On The Corner” was a regular number in the show up until the Dallas show on January 24th. It was dropped afterwards, but added again in Omaha and played for the final time live. After “Follow You, Follow Me” Collins introduces the second medley of the night. The “In The Cage” oldies set is lifted straight from the Encore tour two years before as is the final drum duet and “Los Endos.”
“Misunderstanding” is the first encore and “Turn It On Again” closes the show. The latter contains a long medley of classics including “Everybody Needs Somebody To Love,” “Pinball Wizard” and “The Midnight Hour.” Genesis would retain a medley in this song in later tours.
The Steam Of The Medley was produced in 1999 by Highland and is one of their classic releases. They use several dramatic live shots for the artwork including the cover with the band’s famous light show and a shot inside of Phil addressing the audience from behind the stage. Not only is Omaha a great show, but the odd location of the concert and the excellent sound quality make this one worth having.
