Peter turns it on again! - a review of Peter Gabriel live at the Nationwide Arena, Columbus, OH by Jen Selinsky.

Two days before our fifteenth wedding anniversary—on September 25, 2023—my husband and I took an overnight trip to Columbus, OH. We were going to see Peter Gabriel again for a second time. We had seen him tour with Sting seven years prior at the same venue, Nationwide Arena. That was also where we experienced our first, and sadly our last, Genesis concert on December 8, 2021. On a somewhat unrelated note, we saw Steve Hackett at two other venues in the state.

The walk from our hotel to the arena was relatively short, and we arrived soon before the venue workers began letting people inside. My phone in hand, I was logged into the app so they could scan the digital tickets’ barcodes.

The line at the merchandise booth seemed ridiculously long, as it tends to be for most rock concerts, but there was no way I was going to my seat without purchasing a tour program. After we worked our way back to where the line actually ended, as opposed to where we thought it did, the queue rapidly began to diminish.

It wasn’t much later when I had my coveted program, which was rather large, nearly as thick as a short book. That was right around the time when I noticed others in line had purchased a rather cumbersome tome, Ana Gabriel’s photography book, Eye-D. Because we had already spent a substantial amount of money, I decided to forego purchasing Ana’s book for the time being.

When we tried to make our way upstairs amidst the large sea of fans, we were informed the second story was closed for renovations, and we promptly received a pair of physical tickets to replace our digital ones.

Once we had made our way to our newly-designated seats, we were happy. They weren’t considered what most people would refer to as the best, but we were seated on the right side with a decent view of the stage. The view screen showed the image of a man in orange as he wiped away the clock’s hands from the other side.

Anticipation filled the air until Peter took the stage and addressed the audience. Then, he took on the role of a celestial being as he beckoned for a bright light to descend to him from the ceiling. Peter moved the light to another part of the stage, creating “the fire of life.” After that, he released the light, and it ascended back to the ceiling. After a brief moment of cheering and laughter from the audience, he told them they were looking at an avatar of him, which could have been twenty years younger and twenty pounds lighter. Peter then went on to expand “Planet Peter Gabriel” when Tony Levin joined him onstage. They performed the first song on the setlist, “The Washing of the Waters.” The view screen rotated while projecting the image of the planet in orbit.

I could tell the show was going to be a spectacle of sight, as well as sound. Genesis were known for their outstanding light shows, and i/o The Tour was certainly on par with that. Peter informed us his planet had become more populated, referring to all his talented backing musicians before he introduced them. Later on in the show, he acknowledged not only his band members again, but everyone else involved in the show’s production; what a great example of modesty. Then, he began performing his second song, “Growing Up” while the enthusiastic crowd began to cheer yet again.

Going in, both my husband and I knew Peter would focus on his new songs to promote i/o, the full album which was released shortly after. While I enjoyed hearing “Panopticon,” “The Court,” and some of his other new tracks, I wished he were on stage dressed as Rael and singing tracks from my favorite Genesis album, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. I even would have loved to hear something from his second and often overlooked solo album, Peter Gabriel 2, aka. Scratch. Despite my preference for the early material, however, I was delighted just being in the same room a second time with my one of my favorite musicians. He certainly did not disappoint when it came to the aforementioned sights and sounds, and judging by the reactions from other audience members, I knew they concurred.

I was surprised when he performed “Sledgehammer” as early in the show as he did, but he explained that was the conclusion of the first set of the show. After that, there was a brief intermission, which a lot of people throughout the building took advantage of.
I must admit there were a few songs with which I was unfamiliar, but I was delighted when he performed “The Tower That Ate People,” which he had not performed live prior to i/o The Tour. That song is one of my favorites of Peter’s later tracks.

As I have already said more than once, the visuals were spectacular. One which stuck out the most for me was for the song “This Is Home.” Perhaps it was because part of the visuals included a bookshelf inside the house. Later on, there were also a few other interesting visuals that were not “Rated PG.” Peter had certainly given his all for the audience and even matched their energy in his movements. It reminded me of the two Steve Hackett shows we had seen previously.

As the show began to wind down, the audience was treated to the final encore, a performance of “Biko.” Though the crowd’s energy had not died down, the tone became more serious as Steve Biko’s face was projected on the screen. We sang along and pumped our fists in the air in tribute to a man who had the courage to speak out against apartheid in South Africa. It’s only fitting a man of peace such as Peter Gabriel pay tribute to another who fought for basic human rights. What a perfect way to end the show.