[Live Review] Peter Gabriel, Ziggo Dome Amsterdam

Peter Gabriel io Tour Harry Styles was in Amsterdam last night. Peter Gabriel was in Amsterdam last night. We were in Amsterdam last night. We did not see Harry Styles.

Somehow it feels wrong to have a young kid like Harry Styles playing the huge Johan Cruyff ArenA on three consecutive nights whilst a legendary artist such as Peter Gabriel plays the much smaller Ziggo Dome across the street, but I guess that’s time for you. It also felt weird traversing to the same area amongst hundreds of scantily clad teenagers wearing feather boas. Odd man out indeed. Anyway, we’re here for Peter Gabriel’s i/o The Tour and not to complain about kids these days, right? Right.

Punctual as always, the lights go down in Ziggo Dome at eight ‘o clock sharp and Peter steps onto the stage, dressed in the same orange worker’s overall his crew wear. It’s still pitch dark and it’s story time. About how life began on Earth all those billions of years ago when a comet carrying the right ingredients passed our Big Blue Ball. The comet, the role of which is played by a small light bulb tonight, is used to light a mock campfire at the front of the stage (“It’s such a good fire that it smokes before it’s even lit,” Gabriel quips). Then the rest of the band joins and we are treated to acoustic versions of Washing of the Water and Growing Up. Talk about setting the mood.

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After these small, acoustic beginnings, the concert starts properly with Panopticom, the first released track off of i/o, Gabriel’s first album of new material in over twenty years. It’s amazing how well it already works live for a new song, but that goes for all the new material played tonight. Over the course of the evening, the new album is played in its entirety, which is an audacious move since not all of the material has yet been released to the public (about half the songs have been released on a monthly basis during a full moon period). It’s testament to the quality of the material then, that the audience laps up all of the eleven new tracks. They fit well between the classic tracks and in a lot of cases sound like vintage Gabriel.

What also helps is that the stage show is sublime. With a big, round projection screen hovering over the band and a number of video screens behind that, both the old and new material come even further to life. There are shenanigans with darkness and light, at one point during This is Home the stage is transformed into a living room, complete with bookcases and a garden view. During Darkness and Love Can Heal, the band is placed behind a translucent screen where only their silhouettes can be seen hovering behind it. There is a lot to see and enjoy and the audience retains their enthusiasm throughout the set, occasionally leaving their seats en masse during big hits like Sledgehammer or Big Time.

The band is also on point tonight, but that is to be expected with long-term collaborators like Tony Levin, David Rhodes, Manu Katché and Richard Evans returning to Gabriel’s stage. Ayanna Witter-Johnson deserves special mention on cello, keys and (backing) vocals, making especially Don’t Give Up and In Your Eyes a real feast for the senses. As is regularly the case, the evening ends on an anthemic note with Biko.

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Peter Gabriel’s i/o tour is a triumph both musically and visually, and I highly recommend having a look when he’s in the neighbourhood. It turns out that there’s plenty of life left in the old dog at the rife old age of 73. Visually, he’s still pioneering and both musically and lyrically he’s still as relevant as he ever was. I wouldn’t be surprised, however, if i/o is his last big trick, so catch him whilst you can. You will not be disappointed.

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