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I am new to the Peter Gabriel game and have only been following him since early 2008 or so. I like how he is so unconventional. He’s one of the few artists who I’ve seen start the show by talking to the audience which is very unprecedented. I first saw the Scratch My Back orchestra show at Radio City in 2010, you can read the review on the concert blog. Once again, with my best friend and (now) his wife at my side, we braced for “SO” the 25th Anniversary tour, with only about 14 stops across the US, one of them was at Mohegan Sun. Before this show was announced, I got Jones Beach tickets, but sold those because it was over three hours away and I had to work the next day. After an unusually subpar meal at Margaritville, we headed to the arena. I didn’t tell my guests just how good the seats I scored were, I wanted them to be surprised. They were shocked to be less than 15 rows from the stage!
Peter came out right at 8 and introduced his opening act, the singer Jennie Abrahamson, who was replacing Ane Brun who got sick during rehearsals for the tour and had to go home. This was a surprise and bummer for us, because we had so enjoyed her voice during the 2010 gig. She is really talented, so to be replaced by this unknown woman was a bit of a shock. Jennie even said you can’t get her stuff in the US, they had to ship if over here for the tour. After about 20 minutes she ended her set. She was accompanied by a cellist. Her stuff was very good and she has a very strong voice to boot.
After the set changeover, PG came back out with the houselights on and told us about the night being broken into a few courses. He’s always reinventing himself, so he started the show with a new number, which, as he pointed out wasn’t even finished yet. He then introduced the original line up for the 1987 tour with the addition of his two new singers and launched right into a rock ballad version of Come Talk to Me. I always liked this song, and the bagpipe was being replaced by David Sancious’ accordion. David Rhodes played a simple acoustic melodic line on his guitar to Tony Levin’s amazing bass line. The one complaint I have, besides security being tools about filming and taking pictures, was that Manu Katché overused his splash cymbal, almost so that each time he struck it, I cringed. Don’t get me wrong, he is amazing at the drums but this was just overkill for me. David Sancious strapped on an acoustic guitar and helped the other David do an acoustic version of Shock the Monkey. All the pipes seemed a bit rusty for the high part on this song. But still the audience got into this song with rhythmic clapping. Austin is like a corpse at a concert, he doesn’t clap, sing along or anything, he just sits there, so Rosa and I were clapping. I always nudge him to try to get him to clap, but to no avail. After the introduction, PG and the gang sang Family Snapshot. Tony Levin really makes it look effortless and he gets such an amazing sound.
Peter now began the electric set of the “hits.” During Digging in the Dirt his crew, that was dressed like escaped mental patients (one tour had them dressed in orange jumpsuits), came out with little cameras on a pole. These cameras got close up in the action with a fisheye lens and projected all the action onto the big screen. I was so impressed with the quality of the video they were feeding to the screens. All cameras matched color wise, were properly exposed and looked to be 24p HD quality. He has a really talented director running the screens. Usually the cuts are not seamless and angles and action isn’t very good. Secret World got a big rousing response from the crowd. The drunk ladies behind me really seemed to enjoy this song. They even narrated the whole concert for us which trust me, was welcomed. And what was even nicer was that during the songs they didn’t like, they played the video of previous songs they had recorded on their iPhone blasting and narrating about loving Solisbury Hill!
Speaking of Solisbury Hill, that is one of my favorites and I wasn’t really impressed with the version they played that night, maybe it was the splash cymbal or the drunkards behind me? After Solisbury Hill, PG said that he got a lot of requests for this song, Humdrum from the first solo album (the car).
Now it was time to start the SO album from start to finish! PG made the disclaimer that they were going to try and do the entire album in the order it was originally intended. Red Rain started the ball off. PG sounded good for not performing the full version of this song (as it was recorded) for many years while he was doing the orchestra thing. Tony’s bass was there for the whole night, but it seemed to have more punch during this song. As expected, the entire stage was bathed in red light while the master sang the song to an adoring audience.
The band started Sledgehammer right away, not with the usual minute or more of teasing the audience. PG genuinely seemed to enjoy singing this song. Let’s face it, Sledgehammer has always been his “You Can Call Me Al” meaning that he really can’t do a show without doing this song, can he? It is one his best well known songs and is still one of the most played music videos in MTV history. The audience was right there with him during the whole song while he strut along the stage.
Peter then announced that there would be a special guest, they sang with Feist during a Witness benefit, and she agreed to come sing the song with him tonight. I guess we were lucky, but I later gave up when she attempted to sing the song Don’t Give Up. Kate Bush left big shoes to fill and to be honest, Feist fell flat and really ruined Don’t Give Up, one of my favorites from PG. I heard that Jennie A. has done a great job on the song during the tour, it’s a shame we couldn’t hear it.
I never heard I Hear that Voice Again in concert, so this was a treat for me. It’s such a great 80’s progressive rock song. Mercy Street was sung with PG laying down on the stage while the track lighting rigs were telescoping over him. One misstep by someone and they could have taken out the star with those lights! And there were also, unbeknownst to the audience a lot of tracks for them on the stage. It seemed like the stage was a deathtrap!
Big Time was a big number. PG has always been ahead of his time and this song proves it. The next two songs the drunk ladies behind me didn’t know, because they are affectionately called album tracks, meaning they are not singles or hits, just songs on the album. I thought maybe the band had slipped back into Solisbury Hill, but finally realized the drunk ladies behind me were blasting Solisbury Hill on their iPhone and commenting on how that song is so great.
Good thing In Your Eyes Came up, because they finally shut up and let me enjoy the show. Tony Levin helped with the low rumble part which got a rise from the audience. I heard that in LA, John Cusack came out before this song and presented PG with a boom box! How cool is that, I’m sure there is a YouTube video of it for you creative Googlers out there. During the breakdown of this song, PG introduced David Sancious who played a brief piano solo with a few bum notes. After this song, Peter then thanked the band and the people in the backline crew. He seems like a genuine guy who appreciates everyone. He also thanked the audience and gave us the ‘traditional Gabriel band salute’ (they mooned us).
After leaving the stage for a few minutes, they came back with The Tower that Ate People. Peter ended the show with the always moving Biko for Stephen Biko. I should also mention that before the show during the pre-show music, I heard Paul Simon’s cover of Biko from the ill-fated reciprocal cover album that will probably never be released, thanks David Bowie! This show was a highlight of the 20+ I have attended this year. The arena wasn’t sold out, but it was more than 75% so there was a decent crowd. After a quick Starbucks we were on the road for our ride home.
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