Gabriel Lights Up the Room

Most of the remnants of “the gang” went to see Peter Gabriel at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul last night. As they say, a (very) good time was had by all. It was the sort of enjoyable (and energetic) night that keeps you smiling to yourself for days. I do so love live music.

And, wow, does Gabriel (at 73!) put on a show worth seeing and hearing. Some rockers haven’t aged well, but Gabriel continues to find new visual and musical expression. Last night was as memorable as any of his previous shows.

I don’t have a lot to say — still basking in the afterglow — but I do have pictures.

Such as they are. Which isn’t excellent. Our seats were very good, straight across from stage, but, indeed, across the floor, so a good distance. I had to use the digital zoom, plus the lighting was extreme. Phone cameras are pretty good these days, it did the best it could, but these are more memory snapshots for me than great photos.

They do provide a taste of a key aspect of the concert: the lighting. Back when I was doing stage lighting, we just had the basics. Regular old lights with colored filters, such as had been used for years. Programmable lighting controls were just coming in back then. The technology has seriously advanced since, and Gabriel makes full use of both the control and kind of light used to paint his concert.

For example:

Which is from Live and Let Live, an as-yet unreleased tune from the new album. I was particularly struck by the palette of colors used, all the colors of the rainbow, and then some.

Gabriel has been releasing singles from I/O (stylistically called i/o) since the beginning of the year. Every month, on day of the full Moon, he releases the “Bright-Side Mix” and 14 days later, on the day of the new Moon, he releases the “Dark-Side Mix” of the same single. Except for twice, when he released the Dark mix on the full Moon and the Bright mix 14 days later. No idea why; our theory is the Bright mix wasn’t ready on time, but the Dark mix was.

There is also an “In-Side Mix” that’s mixed expressly for Dolby Atmos™. Nothing I have uses it, so that mix is lost on me. (Frankly, my hearing, which was always awful, has gotten worse with age. And loud music. The difference between the Bright and Dark mixes is entirely lost on me!)

When we walked in, we saw hovering above the stage a large bright clock with Roman numerals for the numbers. Barely visible behind the translucent face of the clock was a (giant) man in an orange jumpsuit. Over and over, he erased and redrew the hands of the clock (to match the current time). Sometimes he’d erase only the minute hand, other times he’d also erase the hour hand as it crept along.

The clock face was so bright it blew out my camera, so the guy behind the clock is even harder to see. For us, the clock numerals and hands were perfectly clear. Only the guy was indistinct. The concert was scheduled for 8:00, and I took the above photo then. Moments later the house lights went way down, but the guy continued drawing and redrawing the hands for another five minutes or so as the last of the audience trickled in.

Then Gabriel walked out alone and talked to us for a lot of minutes.

Which was a weird way to start a concert. Part of the problem is that, with my hearing, I couldn’t make out any of the words, so it wasn’t very interesting. These photos also show the one tiny fly in my ointment: those cable hanging down that from my perspective are dead center of the stage. Ah, well, nothing is perfect.

Then a handful of musicians joined Gabriel on stage, and together they did acoustic versions of Washing of the Water and Growing Up. Which, again, was a weird very low-key way to start a concert. I found myself thinking, “Gee, I never expected to be bored at a Peter Gabriel concert!” On top of that, the lighting was really low-key, too. They were going for a “musicians sitting around a campfire” look, but I can’t say it worked all that great for me.

But it was all just pacing on his part, and things really picked up from there. The rest of the evening was the opposite of boring.

He kicked it off with three cuts off the new album, Panopticom, Four Kinds of Horses, and i/o. I’ve liked the first and third a lot ever since they were released, but I never really took to Four Kinds of Horses. Hearing it live really makes a difference. I’ve only really liked about half the new songs, but I thoroughly enjoyed hearing them all live.

He did all the newly released songs except So Much, plus he did two of the as-yet unreleased songs, And Still and (as mentioned above) Live and Let Live. I really like the hook of So Much (“Oh, there’s so much to aim for, … There’s only so much can be done.” Neat idea and use of words.)

Then he dropped into the past for a moment with Digging in the Dirt, a great tune and a real crowd-pleaser. He followed that with two of the new tunes, Playing for Time and Olive Tree. Another great hook line in Playing for Time (“We’re all just playing … for time.” I do love the word play.)

There are songs you know an artist just has to play. The old favorites. Gabriel ended the first set with big one: Sledgehammer. And this time the sound didn’t cut out! (Like it did the last time he performed here. They had to stop the show until they could replace the soundboard. For months after, every time I listened to the song, I kept expecting the music to cut out unexpectedly.)

My phone’s camera could barely handle the light blast. The production design used a neat effect I don’t believe I’ve ever seen before. They had large round mirrors they could control up and down and angle them. Those bright disks along the top of the stage are the back mirrors. (There are three side mirrors on either side of the stage, but the photos haven’t shown them off so far.) Strong lights on the floor shine up into the mirror and are reflected wherever desired on the stage or out at the audience as in the photo above.

Since they could control the angle, at just the right moments in the song, the light would sweep out at the audience. Quite a good effect, and really hyped the crowd.

And then there was an intermission. Or, as the Brits call it, an interval.

That “wall” across the front of the stage was lowered into place after the first set ended. It’s comprised of nine panels. In the picture above, it has the word “Interval” projected on it.

Turns out it’s a scrim, and the first song of the second set, Darkness, made it part of the show with back lighting for silhouettes and digital projector front lighting for interesting effects. Again, I was very impressed with the creativity of the production design. Repurposing of old techniques with new technology to excellent effect!

I think they also used it — but in a different way — for the second song, Love Can Heal, one of the new tunes. I can say for sure it was way up above the stage and stowed invisibly by the third tune, Road to Joy, also one of the new ones (and one of my favorites among the new songs).

The directly above and below pictures are from Road to Joy, and it makes for a good time to talk about the nine floating backdrop LED panels. As with the light-reflecting mirrors, all nine panels can be individually moved up and down and left and right. And being LED panels, they can display anything desired.

In Road to Joy, they come together in sets of three to make three square screens. With some interesting artwork. Each of Gabriel’s new tunes comes with a bespoke piece of artwork, a visual theme for the tune. The artwork for Road to Joy is a pattern of a hand flipping the bird! The above picture also nicely shows off the three mirrors on either side of the stage.

Another song fans expect to hear is Don’t Give Up, and that was next. (Good way to follow Road to Joy — the setlist was yet another thing that was well designed.) Don’t Give Up, both musically and lyrically, is among Gabriel’s most powerful songs. It’s from his 1986 album, So, which many rightfully consider his best.

Gabriel released Don’t Give Up just after Sledgehammer and just before In Your Eyes (a third song fans expect). All three are from the So album.

The thing about Don’t Give Up is that it requires a great female vocalist. Gabriel doesn’t restrict his songs to his own voice. On the original version, the vocal is by Kate Bush. In early concerts, he often sang it with Sinead O’Connor. At the last concert, his daughter Melanie toured with him and (very aptly) handled the female vocals.

In the photo above, the nine panels are forming three large square panels again. I was struck by the teal-red lighting scheme. Teal (cyan) and red are opposites, so dividing the stage in two with opposite colors was very striking I thought.

One of my other favorite new tunes, The Court, followed. It was the 15th song played, and I’d almost given up on hearing it. I really love the chorus (“And the court … will rise, … While the pillars all fall.” Strong tune!)

The pictures directly above and below are from Red Rain, also from the So album and another crowd pleaser. (The second set kind of built on top of the first one. Really a well-designed show.) This was 16 songs into the show, and they held the light effect, all those LEDs showering “rain” down on the stage. Hell of an effect!

The as-yet unreleased And Still followed, giving the audience a chance to cool down after the stirring of Red Rain. Then came a rousing performance of Big Time (can you guess which album it’s from?) that really had us moving.

(“I’m on my way, I’m making it (big time); Ooh, yes (big time); I’ve got to make it show, yeah (big time); (Big time), so much larger than life; (Big time), I’m gonna watch it growing (big time).”)

The last as-yet unreleased single, Live and Let Live came next. That first picture above is from that. Based on the first (and only) time hearing it, I like it. I sure liked the colorful presentation!

Two major songs fans expect are Solsbury Hill and In Your Eyes. Really, the only question is when they’ll appear in the show, not if. Gabriel ended the second set with Solsbury Hill, and the crowd ate it up like candy. His first solo, and a huge hit. It has been a favorite since 1977 for those of use who’ve followed Gabriel since Genesis.

And then the set was over. But not the show. The house lights stayed out, so we all knew he’d be back, but of course we lit our phone flashlights and cheered and clapped. No way the show was over without In Your Eyes!

And, of course, it wasn’t. They came back and did In Your Eyes. The photos directly above and below are from that. And with those 21 songs, it did seem like a complete evening. I would have liked to have heard Shaking the Tree, but there weren’t many others I felt I missed.

This is a good time to mention that giant disk. It’s another LED screen, so it can display anything, and its circumference is lined with very powerful “any-color” LEDs. You can see how powerful they are in the photo directly above (and others). Note how the light up the crowd.

And then the encore was over. But the house lights stayed out, and we continued cheering, and they came back from a second encore: Biko. Which song I do love.

At first a bit of a surprise for a final encore (and one clearly planned from the start), but upon reflection understandable and good design. The song tapered off, with musicians putting down their instruments and walking off stage until only the drummer remained beating out the rhythm.

Then that giant disk, showing a picture of Steve Biko outlined in bright glowing orange, descended until it masked the front of the stage … and the drummer stopped … and the image of Biko faded to black, we were left with a glowing orange ring … and that faded, and the house lights came up, and it was over.

Not just a great concert, but a moving and memorable one.

Stay musical, my friends! Go forth and spread beauty and light.

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