It’s a bold move for an artist to dedicate half their set to material the audience likely doesn’t know, but Peter Gabriel has rarely taken the easy path.
The 73-year-old – making his first appearance in Cleveland since 2002, according to setlist.fm – played 11 songs from his upcoming album “i/o”during his performance Wednesday at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
I honestly couldn’t tell you what exactly that story was, but themes of ecology, technology, kindness and relationships resonated throughout the 3-hour (with intermission) show.
The performance lived up the high expectations Gabriel has set for himself over the years through his ever-changing and often stunning stage designs. Flanked onstage by a crack band, the visuals on a series of screens, including a massive circular one that hung above the performers, hewed closely to the songs’ themes.
The show at times felt like a theater piece. Gabriel started off with a monologue about the beginning of the earth (and a few self-deprecating jokes about his age and appearance). Soon, with the moon on the circular screen, he and longtime bassist Tony Levin sat around a prop campfire and busted out a stripped-down version of “Washing of the Water.”
The rest of the band soon joined and launched into “Growing Up” before taking their spots onstage.
Visual highlights included the repeating pictures generated from Gabriel’s movements during second-set opener “Darkness” and his creating what can only be described as fleeting digital paintings on a screen in front of him during “Love Can Heal.”
As for the new material, many of the songs from “i/o,” which stands for input and output, are on the moodier and atmospheric side, yet Gabriel still held a not-close-to-full arena rapt (well, except for the chatterboxes in my section). He may spend a lot of time at the piano these days, but he showed multiple times that he is still spry and maintains a commanding voice.
“Playing for Time” was a beautiful meditation on relationships, while “Live and Let Live” was a joyous ode to letting people be themselves. Other standouts included the new album’s title track and “The Court.”
The focus on new material also made hearing older songs sound that much sweeter. “Sledgehammer,” complete with not-so-subtle videos of flowers blossoming and mushrooms growing, hit hard, as did “Digging in the Dirt.”
“Don’t Give Up” gave band member Ayanna Witter-Johnson time to shine as she took on a part originated by Kate Bush. And tunes like “Solsbury Hill” (featuring a skipping Gabriel) and “In Your Eyes” have lost none of their potency in the decades following their releases.
Gabriel ended the night the way he has with so many concerts over the years: with “Biko,” his ode to the South African anti-apartheid activist who died in 1977. As the song went on, Gabriel and his band held up their fists and encouraged the audience to do the same and sing along to a wordless refrain.
A picture of Stephen Biko appeared on the screen and disappeared, but the Cleveland audience continued to sing along until the arena lights came on. It was one of the most powerful moments of the night, and Gabriel showed he didn’t need the flashy visuals to pull it off.
Setlist
Set 1:
1. Washing of the Water
2. Growing Up
3. Panopticom
4. Four Kinds of Horses
5. i/o
6. Digging in the Dirt
7. Playing for Time
8. Olive Tree
9. This Is Home
10. Sledgehammer
Set 2:
11. Darkness
12. Love Can Heal
13. Road to Joy
14. Don’t Give Up
15. The Court
16. Red Rain
17. And Still
18. Big Time
19. Live and Let Live
20. Solsbury Hill
Encore 1:
21. In Your Eyes
Encore 2:
22. Biko
Eric Heisig is a freelance writer in Cleveland. He can be reached at [email protected].
