Peter Gabriel – Live in Montreal, test show 1993 – concert report

When I switched on the radio one morning, a voice just said: ‘If you want to hear and see a rehearsal concert by Peter Gabriel tonight, then get there and there quickly. You can buy tickets there.’ You think there’s no such thing? Yes, there was on 3 March 1993 in Montreal. At 7.30 in the morning, two local radio stations announced that Peter would be giving a rehearsal concert that evening. The whole thing was to take place in the ‘Spectrum’, a Montreal concert hall with a capacity of 1000 people.

Ticket sales began at 9.00 am. However, only one ticket was sold to each person. You were also given a wristband to wear around your wrist. Only those who brought both to the concert (ticket and wristband) were admitted. Peter Gabriel rehearsed for the upcoming world tour from 28 February to 3 March in Montreal, Canada. He chose Montreal because his new stage director Robert Lepage was putting on his own show there.

Peter had met him, the avant-garde playwright and theatre director, after one of Lepage’s concept shows in London. The collaboration between Gabriel and Lepage, who both work with extraordinary ideas, is undoubtedly expected to produce some special effects, the only visual effects during the concert being a few spotlights and a fog machine for Steam. The new stage was still in England.

The main purpose of the concert, however, was to try out the stage concept and test the audience’s reaction to the songs that were to be played later on the tour:

Come Talk To Me
Steam
Love To Be Loved
Across The River
Shaking The Tree
Blood Of Eden
Games Without Frontiers
Lovetown
Only Us
Solsbury Hill
Kiss that Frog
Washing Of The Water
Digging in The Dirt
Sledgehammer
Secret World

In Your Eyes
Biko

Some songs from the new record were played in a modified version (e.g. the introduction to Steam). Some of them were better than the album version. A new song, Lovetown, completed the set and Peter gave explanations of some songs during the concert. Manu Katche played the percussion stunningly and often stole the show. Tony Levin was impressive on bass, especially when he simultaneously played the bass with his left hand and the keyboards with his right. David Rhodes was effective but unobtrusive.

A woman on keyboards also supported Peter Gabriel very well on vocals. Shankar was present most of the time, but he was probably ill and therefore unable to play. Gabriel made his announcements almost exclusively in French. Although he seemed very nervous at the beginning of the concert, he was relaxed throughout. Several times he was visibly moved by the reactions of these long-term fans and promised to return to Montreal in July. It was a unique and unforgettable concert, because it’s not every day that Peter Gabriel plays in your living room.

Author: Serge Morissette