Peter Gabriel wanted to make the crowd believe that the singer who stood in front of them was in fact a 20-year-old avatar, with 20 extra pounds and without a hair on his side. Through the artifice was a 73-year-old artist in full possession of his means, on tour to show that he still has plenty to share.
The last time Peter Gabriel came to Montreal was to play his big hits on the Back to the Front tour. He had also visited the Bell Center two years earlier to deliver songs from his excellent album Scratch My Back, made up of interpretations by Gabriel of pieces by artists who in turn recorded songs by the British singer in their own way in the album And I’ll Scratch Yours. We therefore have to go back to July 2003 and the Growing Up tour to find the last show where the artist presented us with original material.
Twenty years later, he has picked up where he left off, defending the pieces of a brand new album to be released – the extracts are revealed in dribs and drabs every full moon.
Washing of the Water and Growing Up were played in this acoustic format, after which the musicians took their respective places through movements that one would have thought choreographed by a veritable army of stage technicians dressed all in orange. It should be remembered that Robert Lepage acted as artistic advisor for the i/o show – he is certainly no stranger to this discovery.
Dynamic first extract from i/o, Panopticom immediately allows us to see that the septuagenarian singer is in perfect shape, or at least that his aged avatar has been programmed in such a way as to retain exactly the voice he had 20 years ago! This will be the first of 11 new songs spread throughout the evening, most delivered with aplomb.
During the intermission, the Bell Center exudes good humor – we used to breathe something else there, but that’s another story. Near us, Martin Beauregard tells us that he saw his first Peter Gabriel show in 1986 while he was in CEGEP. As with other spectators, the new songs are unfamiliar to him, but he welcomes them happily. “I see a lot of shows, and I must admit that he is in really good shape, his voice is impeccable. I’m so happy to be here! »
It must be said that the first part had just ended with a wild version of Sledgehammer, enhanced by a “talk-box” solo from keyboardist Don E as well as a little choreography from Gabriel and his old friends Tony Levin and David Rhodes. Truly, there is something beautiful and comforting about seeing a gentleman of a certain age dancing and singing with passion. But why on earth should rock art come with an expiration date?
Impressive. The system remains in place for Love Can Heal, but this time, it is the singer’s movements which leave their traces on the screen, sometimes set with stars, sometimes with raindrops. The effect is striking.
The pieces from i/o are certainly up to par, but it goes without saying that it is the big hits that provoke the most reaction. No one would have blamed Peter Gabriel for playing these pieces “like on the album”, but that’s certainly not the British singer’s trademark. It was therefore using the full power of the nine musicians and singers on stage that Digging in the Dirt, Red Rain, Big Time and Solsbury Hill were played, the swift drums of maestro Manu Katché, the brass instruments of Josh Shpak, the violin by Marina Moore and the cello of Ayanna Witter-Johnson adding much to the arrangements. As all these beautiful people also sing, let’s highlight the performance of Witter-Johnson, who joined Gabriel on a catwalk to sing Don’t Give Up; the singer absolutely did not suffer from the comparison in front of the young musician who delivered with emotion and intensity the melody originally performed by Kate Bush.
The evening ended with an encore with In Your Eyes and Biko, the last notes being uttered by the thousands of fans present in the room. ” Have fun ! “, the singer told us as the curtain rose: we had at least as much fun as you, Mr. Gabriel!