Artist: Peter Gabriel
Tour: Growing Up Tour
Concert Date/Venue: November 14th, 2002 at the United Center, Chicago IL
Concert Rating: 9.2/10

So that’s why Tickets Cost so Much…Peter Gabriel at the United Center 2002 (Or: Cheap Coffee in the Windy City)

We left the Holiday Inn Express and hopped a cab to the United Center, expecting a large line for the Peter Gabriel concert. I’d never been inside enemy lines before – Blackhawk territory. To my surprise, the doors were open way early and we had an hour to wait and wander around the arena. I bought an overpriced shirt from the merchandise booth and debated on getting a poster…nope, they’d taken enough of my pesos away already. The stage setup looked absolutely awesome – a dimly lit, bluish-purple glow on a hanging metallic framework. The stage was set up in the round, with a raised section in the middle. We sat for a good hour and drank the surprisingly cheap coffee and watched the lighting people climb into hanging canopies. Finally, the Blind Boys of Alabama came out to open the show. I’d never heard these gents extensively before, but they sounded great. They performed a few songs and got the reserved crowd moving. By the time they left, everyone was on their feet. At a Peter Gabriel show, you’ve got to expect the unexpected - this next opening act would be the first of many surprises. It was a duo of Tanzanian men who played what my mom would call “Zulu music.” One had a purple top hat on – that was good enough for me. They played some very interesting music to some very puzzled faces for about 10 or 12 minutes, but the crowd gave them a polite round of applause at their departure. By this time, everybody was restless for the headliner and after a short setup, the lights went out.

Cheers erupted as Peter walked through the darkness to his keyboard and started up a one-man version of “Here Comes the Flood.” After that, the band came up and busted into “Darkness”, the opener from the new album. During “Darkness”, a huge glowing oval dropped from above and became illuminated with images - the beginnings of an elaborate production. The band plowed through fan favorites “Red Rain” and “Secret World” before inviting the Blind Boys back onstage for “Sky Blue.” Somewhere in all of this, the hanging oval was stripped away and a sphere of slightly smaller size was uncovered. The projections continued through a rendition of “Downside Up,” which Peter did with his daughter (and backing vocalist) Melanie. Then, a shocker – the center ring of the hanging framework was lowered to the stage and Peter busted out with the new single “The Barry Williams Show.” I’ll admit, this wasn’t exactly my favorite song before the concert but the live production was rad. Peter got up on the center ring and controlled a mounted camera – during the song, he ran around the ring filming audience members, bandmates and anything else in sight. Whatever he filmed got projected onto the hanging sphere, still visible above the stage. That got everybody pretty jacked up and the energy was high from then on. “More Than This” followed and during “Mercy Street,” a boat was revolving on the outer ring. Yes, the stage itself was revolving. Bass extraordinaire Tony Levin punched out the groove to a solid version of “Digging in the Dirt” which then led to the biggest surprise of the night. During “Growing Up,” the hanging sphere shed its sheath to expose a clear plastic ball, about 14 or 15 feet in diameter. The ball was lowered directly onto Peter, who then climbed to the center and directed the ball to different positions on stage. Keep in mind that he was miked and singing the whole time. He also seemed to be trying to build up momentum by running in a circle and he was doing his best to try and run over his band (nearly got David Rhodes!) and all the while bouncing, rolling and belting out the song. Well, it doesn’t get much more over-the-top than that, but the crowd loved it. After he climbed out of the ball, he invited some guests onstage and performed a new song, “Animal Nation.” It was pretty cool, but the audience really responded to “Solsbury Hill,” during which Peter rode a bike. Was that weird? Yes, it was. If he would have popped a 180 or done some grinding, I would have given it the wide smilin’ thumbs up. Let’s just say Pete won’t be at the next X-Games and leave it at that. He quickly recovered from the bike incident with a kick-ass version of “Sledgehammer,” where he donned the light-bulb suit from the video. He closed with “Signal to Noise” which featured the voice of the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. A huge ovation followed and “In Your Eyes” was the highly-anticipated encore. After even more deafening applause, Peter came back out and gave the crowd a little something extra with “Family Snapshot” and a one-man version of “Father, Son.” All in all, it was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen and certainly the best production. If you thought Peter Gabriel was too old to put on a good show, you were dead wrong. If he ever tours again, which is possible, I’ll be there.

- Dustin Wall