It’s been 21 years since Peter Gabriel last played in Cleveland when touring his 2002 release, ‘Up.’ This two-time Rock Hall Inductee (Genesis in 2010 and solo in 2014) played Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on September 27. Gabriel is not an artist who only plays his large library of hits. His progressive bones seem to enjoy bringing fresh new music to the stage. The musicians he surrounds himself with (some he’s worked with for over 40 years) are progressive rock stars themselves.
This year he tours with his new almost released album ‘i/o’. (I say “almost” because not all tracks have been released!) Gabriel played the entire album at this show. Starting in January of 2023, Gabriel has been releasing one of the 11 album tracks every month on the day of the full moon. In fact, above the stage during the opening number, a gigantic ‘full moon’ illuminated.
“Gabriel walked out alone from underneath a giant clock and begins a discussion about time and what the theme would be for the show. He spoke about his time at the beginning of life on Earth with the crash of a meteor on our planet. Then out from above the stage, a tiny light (meteor) dropped to his hand. He then spoke of his tenure with Genesis and then moved into the present time with a brief discussion about AI.
Gabriel, being an activist in humanitarian causes most of his life, referenced how AI could be the key to great educational opportunities for all children and quality affordable healthcare for all.
The tiny meteor flew back into the sky.
Gabriel sat around an artificial campfire and introduced legendary bassist Tony Levin while they played a soft acoustic version of the 1992 release of “Washing of the Water.” He pointed out that Levin had been playing with him for 47 years.
Shortly after, the rest of the musicians (nine total, including Gabriel and Levin) came out to join the campfire as Gabriel introduced them. Special mention was made of David Rhodes, a musician who had over 40 years of history with Gabriel. All the musicians stood up and took their places on stage.
The show had a total of 22 songs performed and 12 of them are all from the forthcoming ‘i/o’ album. In addition, the setlist was heavy on music from “Us” (1992) and ‘So’ (1986).
The show was divided into two sets. The first was a mix of old and new songs. Half of ‘i/o’ was featured in the first half and the rest in the second. I found it interesting that all his new material was so well received by the crowd. I’ve seen so many concerts where everyone seems to be there for the hits, but Gabriel mesmerizes this crowd with a mix of mellow and rock selections. About halfway through the first set, he performed the title track from the forthcoming album. Gabriel explains that input/output has to do with everyone being a part of everything; everything in the universe.
As an example, he mentioned the gold in a gold tooth was made millions of years ago and from anywhere in space. His point is humans are a part of everything; not the center of anything. (At least that’s how I understood it!)
A great fusion-sounding song ‘Digging in the Dirt” rocked the arena, giving all the band members; especially fusion drummer Manue Katche, an opportunity to really stretch their talents (as he does again when they play “Red Rain”) while accompanied by a very electric light show. Gabriel continued to tell a story describing the meaning of almost every song and being sure to continually introduce and re-introduce select musicians.
Gabriel ended the first set with a six-minute version of the 1986 hit, “Sledgehammer”. The crowd favorite had everyone singing along with Gabriel as he marched around the stage pointing his microphone to the crowd.
The second set began with a wall of scrim panels that had been lowered across the front of the stage. Gabriel walked behind that translucent screen and projected his silhouette of himself in a brimmed hat onto the panels as they played Darkness.”. Next up, “Love Can Heal” from ‘i/o’, saw Gabriel beginning to dance across the screen and paint cloudy swirls with a wand. The screens are raised and a “bass off” between Tony Levin playing a stick bass and Don-E playing bass keys during “Road to Joy. “Cellist and singer Ayanna Witter-Johnson was featured in the very beautiful and melodic ‘Don’t Give Up. The song describes isolation, loneliness, and despair and was originally performed by Kate Bush.
Gabriel finished the second set with two older hits, “Big Time” and his 1977 hit, “Solsbury Hill.” Sandwiched in between was the last song released from ‘i/o,’ “Live and Let Live.” As Gabriel said in the introduction “it is what we need a bit more of right now”.
Two encores followed. The first was the 1986 hit “In Your Eyes”. And, of course, the standing crowd joined in with the chorus. The second was a tribute song called “Biko.” The song was first performed in 1982 and not actually released until 2022 and is a musical eulogy, inspired by the death of the black South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko, who died in police custody in 1977. Gabriel told Rolling Stone in 2021 that this song still has meaning today. A picture of Biko’s face was displayed on the huge round screen for the entire song. The stage was relatively dark, lit about the color of a late sunset. The song ended with a repeated nonverbal chant and one by one, starting with Gabriel, the band leaves the stage except for the drummer while the audience continues to chant.
The former Genesis frontman was quite the center of it all on this night, donning several costume changes and acting out much of the storyline of the music. Gabriel can still prance around the stage; he can still sing quite well. He was very generous with his appreciation of the musicians, artists, and engineers, as well as the roadies that made this magnificent performance possible. He also continuously gave credit to all the participants in his show. Several times he introduced the musicians in his amazing band. He takes the time to discuss the “people in orange” that maintain the stage during the show along with the ones that work from the middle of the morning to the following morning. He credited the artists and engineers who designed the magnificent stage and designed/orchestrated the magnificent sound.
Of all the big production stage arrangements I’ve witnessed over the years, Gabriel’s was one of the cleanest and most effective I have experienced. Multimedia, along with an extremely artsy look, made the set especially impressive.
A large round center screen hung above the stage for close-ups of the artists and complimentary lighting to the rest of the stage. Targeted spots and four interesting round accent lights at the corners that looked like translucent mirrors being lit from below. Flat vertical panels covered the entire rear of the stage in a slight horseshoe arrangement but were only selectively lit and were custom programmed for each song. The stage lighting stayed a bit passive, allowing for the visual attention to be directed more easily to the amazing artists performing. The sound was superb, all the instruments sounded clean. Audio for live performances has come a long way over the decades and this show had some of the best.
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