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PETER GABRIEL US TOUR OPENING NIGHT What a show! Oh, what a show! Just as Peter Gabriel sings in "The Barry Williams Show," so he delivered at the United Center in Chicago on Tuesday, the opening night of his US tour. Growing Up Live marks Gabriels second collaboration with Canadian theater director Robert LePage, who collaborated on the design of 1993s Secret World Live venture, and this is an equally elaborate, theatrical affair. Its all far afield from Gabriels first solo tour in 1977, following his departure from Genesis; on that outing, he had only a tambourine and the hood of his sweatshirt as props. This time, Gabriel has an arsenal of hightech toys, beginning with a versatile center stage and a second stage suspended above it, and he uses them to great effect. Following a set of rousing gospel by The Blind Boys of Alabama, Gabriel came on to the circular, central stage, accompanied only by bassist Levin. "Things got jiggled around a bit," Gabriel said, referring to changes in his tour itinerary due to the highly complex nature of the production. "But I'm very happy were starting off in Chicago." The tour focuses on UP, Gabriels first full solo effort in a decade, but he opened the show with a song from Ovo, his soundtrack for the Millennium Dome project in London. "My dad is 90, and I realized I hadnt spent a lot of time with him recently. So I booked a week with him and a yoga teacher hes been doing it for 50 years," Gabriel said, introducing "Father, Son." Gabriel quickly showed his voice had held up during his long absence from the stage, and the song, a moving meditation on filial affection, generated a standing ovation from the crowd, though most were unfamiliar with it. Levin, sporting a see-through black duster that made him look like a refugee from The Matrix, had a digital camera on stage and paused to shoot photos of the crowd; his website (www.tonylevin.com), regularly updated from the road, offers a fan's best bet for staying current with the Gabriel tour, As low rumblings gave way to "Darkness," the noisy leadoff track from UP, the full band, clad in black, took the stage. After the opening shrieks, Gabriel paced the stage, striking poses on the perimeter as he sang to different sections of the theater. Of Gabriel's original band, only Levin
remains; guitarist David Rhodes has been around for years, while
newcomers include keyboardist Rachel Z, multi-instrumentalist
Richard Evans, drummer Ged Lynch and backing vocalist Melanie
Gabriel. The musicians were stationed around the perimeter of
the "We've got a mixture of old and new songs tonight," Gabriel said early on, and he made good on the promise, but the show was more than a "greatest hits" performance as the emphasis was clearly on new material, some of it not yet recorded. Levin slipped on his "funk fingers," truncated drumsticks he attaches to his index and second fingers to slap the strings for a percussive sound, for the apocalyptic "Red Rain." Lynch, replacing longtime Gabriel drummer Manu Katche, quickly proved himself worthy of the position, adding a muscularity and rock edge to the rhythms of the older material. "Sometimes, theres a space between two people, and what goes on in that space we call the Secret World, " Gabriel said, introducing the song from 1992s US that gave its name to his last tour, back in 1993. Gabriel picked up a tambourine and raced around the stage as he sang, alternately twirling and jumping up and down in place, seemingly very pleased to be back on the road. "Just before you throw up, you notice how everything smells. Your senses are exaggerated," Gabriel said, introducing "My Head Sounds Like That" as a large balloon dropped down from the circular rig above the stage. Gabriel moved under it, and the balloon covered his body, down to his waist, as he danced with legs flailing, like a marionette with a giant, swollen head. For anyone who had seen Genesis Lamb Lies Down on Broadway tour, it was reminiscent of the lavish theatrics of that production, which placed Gabriel inside a spinning cylinder of fabric on "In The Cage." "One of the thrills for me on the last record was working with the Blind Boys of Alabama," Gabriel said. "When we recorded, it was all by remote. They were doing WOMAD in Singapore. Tonight, its their first time ever live with us. They add a considerable piece of magic to this song." The Blind Boys, septuagenarians with age-defying powerful vocals, sat in the center of the stage as the band moved in closer for "Sky Blue." The perimeter began to revolve, and Gabriel walked against the rotation, almost moonwalking, before allowing the turning stage to carry him around. The music and complex harmonies built slowly until the song reached its crescendo, fueled by the powerful group vocal. If not quite as smooth and polished as on disc, it did finally take flight. "Sometimes, when we watch television, its like a fix of junk food," Gabriel said. "You think you want it, you take it, and then you feel like throwing up. This is about the future of Reality TV. " For The Barry Williams Show, the second stage dropped all the way down and Gabriel jumped up on it, pushing a studio-style video camera around its perimeter while singing. Images from his camera and another held by a stagehand were projected on a cylinder of fabric hanging from the lighting rig down through the second stage during the fiercely funky song. A large, clear and dimpled ball emerged from the dangling balloon, and Gabriel climbed inside as the music for "Growing Up" began. He rolled the massive sphere around the perimeter of the stage, like a hamster in a toy, narrowly avoiding plowing down band members and their instruments. The revelation of the night was "Animal Nation," a new song about Gabriel's experiences working with bonobo apes at a facility in Atlanta. Known for their high intelligence, these primates have an affinity for music, and Gabriel had visited several times, jamming with them on keyboards. "Intelligent life is all around us," he sang. "Just look in their eyes / Say it's not true / Look in their eyes / They're exactly like you." As the rest of the band loped around the stage in an approximation of an ape walk, Lynch lay back in his drum kit, propelling drum sticks high into the air, perhaps in tribute to the opening sequence of Stanley Kubrick's 2001. The second stage lowered again and then lifted, revealing Lynch and his drum kit encircled in a cylinder of fabric for "Signal To Noise." Vocals from the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan mixed with Gabriel's voice and crashing drums in the most powerful song from UP. "Receive or transmit, receive or transmit," Gabriel sang, whispering at first, then screaming. As Lynch slammed away at his drums over pre-recorded strings, the band members begin to disappear, one at a time, down through trap doors in the stage, until only Lynch remained. The second stage slowly lowered, hiding Lynch as the music ended. Following prolonged applause and screams, the second stage lifted, revealing the full band huddled on Lynchs drum platform. The four Blind Boys returned to add their harmonies to "In Your Eyes," a little rough and under-rehearsed, but an appealing new version, for the first encore. For the second encore, Gabriel returned alone, launching into a soft, solo version of "Here Comes The Flood," from his first solo album. For fans who endured ten years of waiting for Gabriels return to the concert stage, it was a highly satisfying night of music and theatrics. [end] -- |
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