Concert Review: The Watch (Kalisz, Poland - 26.05.13)

By Diego Camargo
The Watch is an Italian band who is touring through Europe with Genesis songs and also with their own work.

In the beginning of the last week my wife called me and said: ‘Babe, there’ll be a concert with a band playing Genesis, check it out on the internet please’. Of course I googled it right away and discovered that the concert was by an Italian band called The Watch.

We went to their website and checked a couple of videos to see if they were worth listening to and the reaction was…. Wow! The band was amazing. So we went out to buy tickets right away, especially because they were absurdly cheap, 20 złotys (less than 7 dollars).

So on Sunday the 26th we went to OSRiR around 17:15 to get early for the concert that was scheduled for 18:00. I was wondering if anybody else would show up at the concert, but to my surprise when the clock ticked six o’clock the gym was packed with people. And I was very happy to see that.

Lights went off around 18:05 and a guy from the promotion crew came on the stage to explain who the band was and to present them into stage.
The Watch has been touring through Europe since February with a tour called ‘Seconds Out’, during which they have been playing the songs presented in the 1977 Genesis tour that later was recorded as the album with the same name.

The Watch is not just a Genesis cover band, they also have 5 studio albums and they’re recording a new one. The band went on stage with their usual line up: Giorgio Gabriel (guitars), Guglielmo Mariotti (bass, bass pedals, vocals, electric and acoustic guitars), Valerio De Vittorio (keyboards, acoustic guitar and vocals), Marco Fabbri (drums) and Simone Rossetti (vocals and flute).
Simone tried to speak as much Polish as he could, and even surprised the audience several times. After a brief presentation the band started the show.

The Watch has one of the most sharp line ups ever. Great musicianship and a professional staff with a full stage, lights and a great sound.
The concert was supposed to be based on Seconds Out (1977), and it was almost like that. The only exception was the song ‘Mad Man Moon’ which was presented in Polish as ‘Księżyc Szaleńca’. They played almost the whole album A Trick Of The Tail (1976), which is no problem at all. From this album they played ‘Squonk’ , ‘Ripples’, ‘Robbery, Assault And Baterry’, ‘Dance On A Volcano/Los Endos’ (which was a big jam and the audience applauded a lot). From the Tony Gabriel era they played ‘Firth Of Fifth’, ‘The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway’ and ‘Cinema Show’ that Simone presented in Polish as ‘film’.

The band also played 3 tracks of their own, which makes me very satisfied, cause The Watch’s music has, of course, lots of Genesis’ influence, but it is like a continuation, not merely a copy.
Simone Rossetti’s voice is very similar to Peter Gabriel’s. People that didn’t know these songs probably left the concert thinking it was all about Genesis songs.

After 1 hour and a half of the concert the band left the stage and there was a huge wave of applauds. My wife whispered to me: ‘Weird, they said 2 hours of the concert, we’re still missing 25 minutes.’ That’s the moment I knew they were coming for the encore with THE big one…. I was right! The band went back on the stage and Simone thanked the warm audience and presented the last song of the day ‘Supper’s Ready’ and its 23 minutes. Simone took everybody by surprise when in the classical ‘A flower?’ moment he sang: ‘kwiatek?’.  That made our day!

The Watch is a must see live band. Giorgio Gabriel alternates 12 strings guitar and 6 strings and plays everything as if he was Steve Hackett. Guglielmo Mariotti is the multi-instrumentalist of the band, he plays the bass, the double neck guitar/bass, bass pedals, 12 strings acoustic guitar, does backing vocals and also plays a mini xylophone. Valerio Di Vittorio plays the keyboards with the same level of proficiency as Peter Banks, acoustic guitar and still sings backing vocals. Drummer Marco Fabbri is the rocker of the group and apart from the superb drumming also rocked the audience (and an interesting thing, he was wearing a kilt). Simone Rossetti has a voice that is very similar to Peter Gabriel’s and to complete that, he also plays the flute very well.
Resuming, The Watch concert it is the closest experience of seeing Genesis live you’ll ever have!

In the end the band came to the hall and greeted everyone. We shook hands, took some pictures and me and my wife went home with one thing in our minds! It was a hell of a concert!

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The Watch Links:
- Official website
- Facebook
- Youtube