Premier UK Genesis tribute act Carpet Crawlers returned to their home town for an impressive re-enactment of the classic concept album from 1974, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway.
The last album with Peter Gabriel as the front man of the Surrey-born progressive rock legends.
The tale involves a Puerto Rican chain gang member named Rael.
He is sucked into another world where he goes from a cocoon to a cage to God knows what.
It’s a surreal rites of passage filled with symbolism and the sublime imagination of Peter Gabriel.
The music is as complex and confounding as the story itself.
Exemplary musicianship abounds with time-signature defying keyboard and guitar solos aplenty but also containing accessible songs such as the title track, In The Cage and Carpet Crawlers, from where this band got its name.
The Lamb is not only a complex album musically.
To do the work justice, there is a light and slide show, multiple costume changes and props required to make it a fitting replica of the original show 40 years ago.
Frontman Brian Cummins in particular gave his all to ensure this is all pulled off impressively. He throws everything into his vocal and physical performance.
Close your eyes and you will think you are listening to the great Gabriel himself.
Open them and you are transported back in time to the theatrical and eccentric display of the story unfolding before your very eyes.
The crowd lapped it all up and sang along through most of this demanding yet endlessly rewarding suite.
No one will ever forget his performance in the Slipper Men part of the story, where he wears a grotesque costume replete with warts and other deformities.
The character is not aware he looks like this and the dilemma is wondrously acted by Cummins.
Credit must be given to the whole band to bringing such an ambitious show to Liverpool.
The genre of Progressive Rock is severely under-represented in this city in comparison to other parts of the country.
Based on the reception the Crawlers received, there is an audience for this kind of music.
This was clearly a labour of love for all concerned from vocals right through to drums.
After nearly two hours of concept album heaven, The Crawlers took the time to delve further back in the Genesis archives, revisiting tracks from the three albums previous to The Lamb.
Cummins gets back in costume for The Musical Box, dressed as a geriatric man longing for the touch of a beautiful woman as is the theme of the song.
Firth of Fifth from Selling England By The Pound blows the crowd away.
When The Crawlers end with I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) as a final encore, everyone could go home happy in the fact they have been witness to an exemplary recreation of an important part of twentieth century musical history.
Photo credit: Lindsay J. Panting