So when Gabriel announced his 12-city North American tour would be with an orchestra serving as a background, I signed up. I saw him once in 2007 in the rain in Amsterdam and enjoyed the evening. He played his hits as they sounded when I listened to them as a kid. Yes, he's just about bald and pretty round, but he sounds good.
The performance he gave on Wednesday night is not the show, or sounds, we're used to from him. Not as many visual aids. No synthesizing sounds.
But this was not a case of The Police playing their greatest hits for $225 a ticket, which is a show I gleefully saw twice. Gabriel at least wanted to really play around with his music.
The orchestra sounds behind his hits such as "Mercy Street", "In Your Eyes", "Red Rain" was sometimes fantastic, and sometimes a bit of a miss.
Arguably his most successful song, "In Your Eyes", just didn't translate as well to orchestra as well as "Rhythm of the Heat". Or "Solisbury Hill".
This is Rhythm of the Heat from YouTube when he played Berlin last year.
Gabriel could have performed his greatest hits catalogue and I would have been happy, too. But I enjoyed Gabriel playing around with his own hits, and those of others. His cover of David Bowie's "Heroes" sounded pretty good.
But Paul Simon would be well within his rights to smack Gabriel for his cover of "Boy in a Bubble". Gabriel warned the audience he would suck the life from this upbeat, wonderfully written tune. He did. It was painful to hear Gabriel's "sad" voice translating this song.
For the most part, the orchestra sounds worked behind Gabriel's tunes. It was hit or miss when he covered the others.
Does the evening pass the concert test? Yes. He sounds good. It was different. He worked hard to entertain his audience.
I had fun.
© The Big Mac Blog, by Mac Engel
- 1
- 2
- 3
28 March, 2012
Peter Gabriel’s Deluxe "So" Reissue Due …
Peter Gabriel has revealed that the planned deluxe reissue of his classic 1986 album So will hit stores in September. According to a post on the forme...
Read more
02 April, 2012
Peter and the New Blood Orchestra have announced l…
He is a rock legend, pop icon, loves to experiment and has been in the music industry for over forty years: Peter Gabriel proved his extraordinary sta...
Read more
30 March, 2012
Mike and The Mechanics Announce Summer Dates in Eu…
On June 26, Mike & The Mechanics play the O2 Academy in Newcastle, the first of 19 date in Europe and the UK over the course of the summer.
Read more
