Who were the leaders in the band? The dissenters, the mercenaries, the disgruntled, the true believers? When a band breaks up, the individuals come to the fore.

Genesis had members who fit all those molds, at any given time, and played different roles at different times.

After these five decades, mysteries remain, especially for us who choose not to seek out the stories, the lyrics we still can’t and don’t want to decipher.

Steve Hackett is a true believer. That is why he puts together a band to play the old Genesis songs worldwide in venues large and small.

Last night, Steve Hackett and his band played the Moore Theater in Seattle, Washington. Strange, to see a show and know by heart every song, to recognize songs before their second notes. To hear The Fountain Of Salmacis, that guitar sound one has loved for 40 years.

Strange to go back 40 years, to see a blue-lit stage that could have been the stage on the cover of Genesis “Live.” Could we, we would go back to that moment. “How many have longed to see what you see, and hear what you hear!” I thought, imagining the thoughts of a 20-year-old in 1973 being told that, in 2014, he would be hearing that music again in a small theater in Seattle. Last night’s show was, in that way, as special as those old shows with Genesis.

Missing was what became the trademark sound of post-Gabriel Genesis: the wash of keyboards from Tony Banks. Hackett’s keyboardist Roger King ably plays Banks’ parts. One wonders, though– how has that old music evolved in the mind of Tony Banks? How would he play all that now, the author of the intro to Watcher Of The Skies ( no piece of music is dearer to me than that, and a thrill it was to hear it amid deep blue lights) and my favorite musician of all time? I would rather Mr. Banks play the music he hears now than the music he played then, sure that, as some of us think, perfection is a thing that evolves?

How would Peter Gabriel reimagine the old songs, and inhabit his old characters? The dashing young Moonlit Knight, the lecherous old man of The Musical Box, the Messiah of Supper’s Ready?

Phil Collins, were he able to play, might not be the hyperactive drummer of old. How would his advanced artistry inform his interpretations and technique?

Could Michael Rutherford strum a 12-string as fiercely as his counterpart Nick Beggs did last night? If he chose not to, what he chose to play instead would assure us that, all these years later, his musicianship will have evolved as we all have evolved in our artistry. What he would play, we couldn’t anticipate, but it would make sense.

That is why we long for a reunion of Gabriel, Banks, Hackett, Rutherford, and Collins– to see who they are now.

I didn’t wear my “The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway” shirt last night because I’m shy about it, but I live in hope that the band will reunite and go on a tour that features “The Lamb” played in its entirety.

Meanwhile, Steve Hackett makes good decisions. Multi-instrumentalist Rob Townsend complementing drummer Roger O’Toole’s percussion, playing flute and saxophone, is an excellent idea.

Steve’s emphasis on his guitar parts was to lovely effect, as he quietly strummed the conclusion to “Fly On A Windshield.”

Nad Sylvan had the unenviable task many of us would kill for– sing those songs! When I pass a room with a microphone and a podium, I always want to sing, “Walking across the sitting room….” I wouldn’t get much further than that.

In a tribute to long-time Seattle Post-Intelligencer rock critic Gene Stout, let it be noted that Mr. Hackett was draped in a fine scarf, black boots, and still has amazing hair. The crowd was old,  thunderous, and under the influence of cannabis.

What isn’t credited enough is that Genesis was a band that truly pummeled the audience. “The Return Of The Giant Hogweed,” to my knowledge, hasn’t been cited as an influence on heavy metal and such, but we saw last night that, especially in a live setting, much of Genesis isn’t for the delicate of hearing.

Thanks to Steve Hackett for remaining a true believer all these years, and for providing a special night for all of us true believers whose belief is that never has there been a better time to be alive than now, largely because we have so much music in our lives, and we have known a band the likes of which never have we seen anything close– Genesis!