Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Graz / Stadthalle / Austria
Concert date: November 23, 2014
Attendance: 5000
Ticket price: €82.50 (standing) / €93.50 (first-category seats) / €71.50 (other seats)
Graz’s Stadthalle played host this time to Peter Gabriel, one of the most colorful musical artists and vocal icons of all time. The hugely charismatic Gabriel earned cult status back as a member of the legendary progressive rock (and later pop rock) band Genesis, where he was already wowing crowds as a first-rate stage entertainer. Later, with his solo career, he helped shape and push forward countless milestones in the history of popular music, and with hits like »Solsbury Hill«, »Biko«, »Sledgehammer«, »Big Time«, »Don’t Give Up«, »Digging In The Dirt« and »Steam«, to name just a few, he picked up numerous awards and worldwide fame.
Mr. Gabriel has been on a long tour called ‘Back To Front’ since 2012, celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of his fifth studio album »So« (1986), and he’s doing it with a band that includes three musicians who played on the most successful record of Peter’s rich solo career. On this ‘extended’ tour, Peter’s band features musical masters of the caliber of the legendary bassist Tony Levin (King Crimson), the only member of Peter’s band who has been with him from the very beginning, guitar virtuoso David Rhodes and drum grandmaster Manu Katche. Seasoned keyboardist David Sancious, meanwhile, was part of the touring crew that presented the album “So” right after its release.
The quintet of experienced ‘old cats’ was joined by two young musicians and superb backing vocalists, Jennie Abrahamson and cellist Linnea Olsson, who replaced the ailing Ane Brun before the tour began. Peter generously gave the two of them the role of a sort of supporting act, which Jennie and Linnea made the most of, playing three songs with exceptional fire, of which the closing one, »Phoenix«, was the most convincing. In their short solo set, built on authentic Celtic melodies (which at times even reminded us a bit of Enya), the two women impressed in more ways than one, especially when they traded off harmoniously on lead vocals and proved that Mr. Gabriel hasn’t lost his knack over the years for picking excellent vocal ‘sidekicks’.
After a thoroughly pleasant warm-up, with the whole hall wrapped in a cloud of Celtic melancholy, it was time for the big entrance of the evening’s main star, who had in fact already appeared on stage before the two singers’ set. Uncle Gabriel, who humorously compared his show, in very good German, to a restaurant menu, split it into three parts: an opening acoustic part as the appetizer, an electric-flavored part as the main course, and a complete, uninterrupted performance of the album »So« for dessert. Peter then sat down at the piano and, joined by Jennie and Linnea as backing vocalists, opened the show with a performance of the brand-new song »What Lies Ahead«. Even though Peter has changed quite a lot in appearance since he started his solo career in 1976, the passing decades haven’t shaken his singing abilities at all, and his voice is superbly preserved. In his later years he understandably often avoids overusing some of the high registers and more often leaves them to the backing singers.
His charismatic stage presence likewise remains intact today. In fact, it has even ‘matured like fine wine’ over the years, which he proved in Graz with extremely energetic, at times even dance-like moves, constant strolls around the stage and fervent attempts to egg on the overly reserved, mostly Austrian crowd. Peter’s shows have been considered something special and unpredictable since the Genesis days, so it has become a bit of a tradition throughout his solo career that on every new tour he prepares a fascinating set-design surprise, or several smaller ones. This time Peter’s stage featured giant movable lighting rigs in the form of long pillars, which in shape recalled a cross between fitness machines and watchtowers in a concentration camp. During the show these strange contraptions were operated and steered by a group of mysterious, masked men who gave the impression of having just stepped out of some dystopian-society movie or Orwell’s novel ‘1984’, even though they were really just stage technicians. Their dark and at times menacing presence, together with the moving lights, fit perfectly with the socially critical lyrics and humanist streak of some of Gabriel’s evergreens, which came alive that night with their original magic.
After a gentle and melancholy opening part, nicely rounded out by the classic »Come Talk To Me«, the mood slowly started to heat up as Peter’s old musical comrades gradually began to arrive on stage. Tony Levin appeared first with his trademark Chapman stick, and the evergreens »Shock The Monkey« and »Family Snapshot« slowly began molting from their acoustic form into an electrified one, while by »Digging In The Dirt« the whole crew was already present, including guitarist Rhodes, drummer Katche and keyboardist Sancious. During »The Family And The Fishing Net« some more electronic sounds took over, the kind typical of some of Peter’s newer work. The dark »No Self Control« also came off very well, with Peter deliberately dodging the looming lighting towers as they dropped and rose, while »Solsbury Hill«, the song about his split from Genesis, was undoubtedly the high point of the first part of this concert, as the longest applause of the night made clear.
After the newer ballad »Why Don’t You Show Yourself«, it was time for the evening’s long-awaited ‘dessert’, a complete performance of the album »So«, and you couldn’t miss how much all the musicians on stage were enjoying playing the individual songs and giving themselves over completely to the magical atmosphere. Peter’s crew of instrumental grandmasters opened the live version of »So« with the unforgettable opening standard »Red Rain«, which bathed the whole hall in shades of red while drops of red rain splashed across a giant stage projection in the background. Interestingly, Gabriel’s band played the songs from »So« in the order of the album’s 2002 reissue, where the evergreen »In Your Eyes« sits right at the end instead of in the original running order.
One of the highlights of the night was definitely the big hit »Sledgehammer«, which earned Peter numerous awards and is the most-played music video in the history of MTV. The atmosphere in the hall hit its absolute boiling point when the unforgettable ballad »Don’t Give Up« came up, which Peter sang as a duet with the legendary singer Kate Bush on the original version. She wasn’t there that night, of course, but Jennie Abrahamson stepped in for her in fascinating fashion, complementing Peter’s moving vocal performance perfectly.
After »That Voice Again« came an excellent, deeply felt version of the ‘still-life’ evergreen »Mercy Street«, during which Peter lay on the stage while cameras filmed him from above. The brief ‘lull’ was soon over, as the atmosphere in the hall exploded again during the bombastic hit »Big Time«, where Mr. Gabriel once more slipped brilliantly into the role of the small-town yuppie who has just arrived in the big city. During »We Do What We’re Told (Milgram’s 37)«, a sharp critique of an unethical American psychological experiment, the dark mood took over again, amplified by the menacing and stoic figures of the masked stage technicians. They had positioned the giant spotlights so that they resembled watchtowers from some concentration camp. During the uplifting »This Is The Picture (Excellent Birds)«, Jennie Abrahamson did a great job standing in for Laurie Anderson’s original contribution and, together with Peter, delivered another brilliant vocal duet. Peter’s band wrapped up the complete »So« with the ever-emotional »In Your Eyes«, which was originally dedicated to Peter’s former partner Rosanna Arquette but later took on a completely different, much deeper meaning, as he himself pointed out before playing it.
After a short break, Peter’s gang returned to the stage and rewarded us with a splendid version of the dark, electronically spiced classic »The Tower That Ate People«, during which the stage spectacle reached its peak: a giant ring suddenly descended from the ceiling, and a sheet in the shape of a tower inflated out of it, so that Mr. Gabriel, standing beneath the elongated structure, seemed to simply get ‘eaten’ by the tower. For the farewell came a deeply felt performance of the peace-anthem hit »Biko«, which Peter, unable to shake off his skin as a great humanitarian, dedicated in a short speech to the 43 Mexican students who were recently, on the orders of a corrupt local mayor, abducted by police and handed over to the mafia. The mafia then dealt with them in an extremely brutal way, with fatalities. With that pacifist closer, an evening of countless concert highs came to an end, especially when it comes to the musical performance and stage choreography.
Peter Gabriel’s show in Graz was in every way one of this year’s concert highlights, especially for those of us who were seeing him live for the first time that night and got to witness his incredible stage charisma and musical timelessness up close. It’s very hard to single out individual musicians, since every one of them, Peter included on piano and keyboards, shone as an instrumentalist and proved to be part of a perfectly in-sync team. The great stage motivator, backed by brilliant sound, really managed to squeeze the maximum out of them, but unfortunately he couldn’t pull off the same with the overly stiff crowd, who during the livelier moments didn’t do enough singing along on the choruses or cheering the band on, even though they didn’t skimp on long applause between songs. Of course, that didn’t play any major role, so catching one of the fathers of progressive rock live was the cherry on top of this year’s concert-going.
Setlist
1. What Lies Ahead
2. Come Talk to Me
3. Shock the Monkey
4. Family Snapshot
5. Digging in the Dirt
6. Secret World
7. The Family and the Fishing Net
8. No Self Control
9. Solsbury Hill
10. Why Don’t You Show Yourself
11. Red Rain
12. Sledgehammer
13. Don’t Give Up
14. That Voice Again
15. Mercy Street
16. Big Time
17. We Do What We’re Told (Milgram’s 37)
18. This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds)
19. In Your Eyes
—encore—
20. The Tower That Ate People
21. Biko
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