Ray reviews the concert movie GENESIS: WHEN IN ROME!

Available from Amazon UK priced at £14.98 but no word on U.S. release just yet. In the beginning, GENESIS started life as an art-rock installation full of bold, in-your-face ideas and snooty, experimental posturing. After the defection of resident weirdo PETER GABRIEL, the band settled into a trio with pop-chart sensibilities and a genial, balding frontman/drummer PHIL COLLINS. The eighties were kindest to the band, as they scored several huge, bland hits and became unlikely MTV favorites. Then, like most of the heroes from that decade, they got old, fat, lazy, and went away. Fifteen years later, the band decides to reunite for a cross-continental tour despite the lack of a new album. Hmmm ... THE FILM The concert itself spans two discs, and is captured wonderfully by director DAVID MALLET. He wisely stations his panning, wide-ranging cameras away from the stage, allowing the gaudy spectacle to speak for itself. The band - remember, it only consists of three members - is dwarfed by this bizarre, organic LED display behind them that impressively fills the void created by the music with a stunning series of video images. It actually takes a few minutes to adjust your eyes to the sight of this gargantuan monstrosity. Of course, every video trick in the book is needed to enliven this band, which hasn't broken a sweat since LIVE AID. Keyboardist TONY BANKS motionlessly hunches over his electronics like a corpse, while guitarist MIKE RUTHERFORD stumbles around with the bewildered look of an old English gentleman lost in the countryside. Collins and his once-natural presence is reduced to standing at his microphone, desperately attempting to reach notes that his vacationing voice will never hit again. I will say this, though: the band attempted a set list that challenged fans of the band. Not content to simply play a string of hits, the aging pop stars threw in a few lesser-known songs like MAMA and DOMINO that likely caused a lot of head-scratching in the audience. However, the fact that GENESIS reunited simply to make more money is evident throughout the show. From the bombastic lighting to the lazy, almost mechanical performances, this is a band that had little interest in doing anything but filling arenas and counting the money afterwards. They did this because they COULD, not because they wanted to. EXTRAS A clever feature of the two concert discs is the ability to look behind the scenes at the performances of each track. You get to watch the band prepare for each song. Included as a third disc is a very long and exhausting documentary of the tour entitled COME RAIN OR SHINE. Virtually every moment of this tour, from inception to final curtain, is included here; mercifully we are spared the sight of Collins taking a shit, but beyond that, we see everything. The one thing painfully obvious from this documentary is the lack of interest among the band. I wish I had a drop of gasoline for every shot of the various members staring into space or yawning - I would own OPEC. While I realize that these guys are quite old, it seems like they should be able to get the ol' adrenals to kick in for a show in front of 500,000 people, ya know? And if not, then why do it at all, and then film it for us to watch??? A telling moment comes fairly early on when guitarist Rutherford mentions that he rarely plays guitar at all anymore, and how difficult it is to start rehearsing after all of the time off. Hey Mike, guess what? Don't do a tour if you're not interested in making music and playing live!!!! People like Chuck Berry play all the time because they love making music and entertaining people. On the other hand, "musicians" like GENESIS roll it out whenever they have a mortgage to pay off. Pretty pathetic. OVERALL For fans only. And even then, I wouldn't give these lazy bastards any more of my money just based on principle.