I haven't followed his music very close for the final few albums, but I have listened to enough Peter Gabriel over the days that I didn't need to overlook this opportunity. Thanks to my friend Justin who scored the tickets, we got excellent seats; about 10 or so rows from the stage.
He played with the "New Blood Orchestra," half made of a touring company, half local musicians.Mostly, rearranging for orchestra worked [1]. Particularly, I liked the arrangements for "San Jacinto," "Mercy Street," and "Blood of Eden." I wanted to like "Solsbury Hill" and "Boy in the Bubble" more than I did but they seemed too pared down. And "In Your Eyes" had silly Audience Choreography (as did "Biko", which was annoying because Gabriel was all Social Conscience and the consultation was all Play the Damn Song Already).
My overall effect of Gabriel as performer is: consummate professional. It looked like he had done this every day of his life, which he almost has.He was also clearly suffering from a bad sore throat: he was constantly downing a draft of tea, then a scene of honey. And you could tellwhere the throat problems came from: gulp of tea, shot of honey, plaintive cry in almost every song. I had never realised how often his songs have wails in them until dan asked if every one of them did. Not quite, but.
His lights show was pretty cool: very bright LED boards behind the stage, plus a curtain the breadth of the present and 20 feet tall, also LEDs, often with video.
One easy trick I had never seen before that we both liked: in the second act, he picked up something reflective from the stage, and it was seated over top of a spot-light. He then swept the light about the audience; it looked for all the earth like flame from his hand.
There was a downpour during the first act. The outermost 1/5 of the seating were subject to the air. Gabriel apologized; he said on one concerts that week, the second they had mentioned the word "water" in "Washing of the Water", the skies opened up.
Neither dan nor I had been to the amphitheatre before. I would go to a big concert there again- getting out was unusually quick, and it was deep enough that the 401 was quite speedy on the way home.
And then dan was off to Italy, and while he was gone, I went to see DJ Tiesto, whose podcast I mind to. He's a Dutch DJ, and I'm perplexed why he wound up in our small town: he went from Chicago, to our town for two nights, then Quebec City, and Ottawa (for Canada Day), then Las Vegas for the 4th of July weekend.Then Ibeza for a week. :But whatever, he came and sold out two shows of approximately 300 people (versus n-thousand each for Chicago and Quebec City...).
I haven't been within a dance club in, like, forever.
They confiscated my pen at the door, because they thought I might make it at someone.I was like, "." and they said I could get it back at the end if I really wanted to. (and so I did (pick it up again, not make it)).
The doors open at 10:00, I showed up at 10:30, Tiesto started performing at 11:45, and I left around 1:30 when I realised I had heard all of the songs I would recognize.And the following day was still a work day.
It was fun, and I probably don't want to do that again for a while. :)
Hope you wish the photos, in place of earth-shaking incisive content. I would get done better with reviews had I not waited two weeks. Oh well.
[1] Gabriel's set list, which I found somewhere on the net:
"Heroes"(David Bowie cover)
Wallflower
Apres Moi(Regina Spektor cover)
The Boy in the Bubble (Paul Simon cover)
My Body Is a Cage (Arcade Fire cover)
Father, Son
Darkness
Washing of the Water
Biko
# Intermission
San Jacinto
Digging in the Dirt
Signal to Noise
Downside Up
Mercy Street
The Rhythm of the Heat
Blood of Eden
Intruder
Red Rain
Solsbury Hill
# Encore:
In Your Eyes
Don't Give Up
The Nest That Sailed the Sky
[2] Bigger copies of these photos are on flickr. I couldn't be bothered to associate each one individually. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment