Peter Gabriel – New Blood in Wolfsburg and Berlin, 06/05. + 09/05/2012 – Concert report

As part of his New Blood Tour, Peter Gabriel returned to Germany in 2012. In addition to shows in regular venues, he also performed at the KraftWerk Wolfsburg, which holds barely 1,000 people. Christian Gerhardts compares the first show at the Kraftwerk with the performance at Berlin’s O2 World.

One cannot complain that Peter Gabriel hasn’t been active since his Growing Up Tour. He extended that tour over two years and eventually went on the Warm Up Tour with Genesis in 2007, playing tons of material his die-hard fans wouldn’t have dared to dream of. In 2009, South Americans enjoyed a short tour before his project around the albums Scratch My Back in 2010 and New Blood in 2011 brought him back to the world’s stages with a full orchestra. After a small test tour, more short tour segments followed in Europe, North America, and South America. Only a new album with new Gabriel songs is still not in sight. It was supposed to be released as early as 2004 (see also: The Making of I/O). And instead of continuing to work on a new album, Gabriel returned to Germany with New Blood and now in May 2012, along with a few festivals in Poland, England, and Portugal.

Consequently, the response was divided – for some, the project is now less interesting as he had already given extensive concerts in Germany, others didn’t look at it at all, and still others were delighted. Looking at the tour dates and taking a closer look at the locations, it immediately stood out that two of the concerts were somewhat out of the ordinary. Both Wolfsburg concerts took place in the KraftWerk of the Autostadt – the hall holds not even 1,000 people. The two concerts are part of the annual Movimentos event series, and Peter Gabriel is certainly one of the absolute highlights of recent years.

KraftWerk vs O₂-Arena

Besides an interesting comparison of the ambiance in the Kraftwerk and the atmosphere in the large Berlin O2 World, the exciting question was what to expect musically. Germany had not yet had the pleasure of hearing the songs Father, Son and Secret World. Wallflower had also been denied to most so far. Thus, concertgoers hoped to hear these songs and possibly something completely new – there was also talk last year of I Grieve or Love To Be Loved – both lost in a kind of vote against Secret World.

The New Blood Orchestra again consisted of half German and half English musicians. John Metcalfe was back and mingled with the orchestra musicians (with the exception of In Your Eyes, where he appeared as conductor) and Ben Foster was once again conductor of the orchestra. Melanie was back after her maternity leave and, as in South America, it was not Ane Brun but Rosie Doonan on backing vocals and thus also Gabriel’s duet partner on Don’t Give Up. There were no changes to the stage set-up – not even in Wolfsburg, the stage fitted perfectly into the concert hall.

As expected, everything was tighter and more intimate in Wolfsburg and the bright red welcome screen was quite a challenge, especially for the people in the front rows. In any case, it was not pleasant to be exposed to this light at close range. The stage was barely one and a half metres away and there was no security directly in front of the stage – only two employees were positioned at the sides in front of the entrances. The stage itself was only about half a metre high – another big difference to the large halls.

The setlist in Wolfsburg was no big surprise, but compared to the concerts in Munich and Oberhausen, he had changed quite a bit. My Body Is A Cage was played, along with Washing Of The Water instead of Wallflower and Blood Of Eden instead of Mercy Street. He also added Darkness, which was missing from both previous concerts. As expected, he played Secret World (which was played at all German shows) in a dynamic version that was relatively close to the original and had a more rock-like element with a conga drummer. Once again, Gabriel’s good vocal performance was impressive.

Setlist Wolfburg

Heroes
Washing Of The Water
My Body Is A Cage
Intruder
San Jacinto
Secret World
Signal To Noise
Downside Up
Digging In The Dirt
Blood Of Eden
The Rhythm Of The Heat
Darkness
Red Rain
Solsbury Hill
Biko
In Your Eyes
Don’t Give Up
The Nest That Sailed The Sky

The fan club ticket holders in the front row could experience Gabriel literally up close, and sometimes you could hear him sing without amplifier performance. The atmosphere in Wolfsburg was thoughtful, almost reverent. People rarely came out of themselves and mostly remained seated, and it was mostly dead silent in the small hall. This was quite different in Berlin. Here, Gabriel had already been for two concerts in 2010, and now Berlin once again enjoyed the New Blood Show. Everything was bigger, the stage higher and further away, the sound accordingly also harder to manage, which, however (at least in the front rows), was quite successful. And once again, the hall was well filled – it’s almost astonishing that he can still fill large halls with this show.

Peter had brought a surprise for Berlin. He played the completely unexpected Randy Newman song That’ll Do, which he had recorded at the time for the film Babe, Pig In The City. That’ll Do was a real world premiere, and he hasn’t played the song again since. Before that, he had played the song live only once at the Oscar ceremony. The setlist in Berlin was again very different overall, even if there were no real surprises apart from That’ll Do. This time, however, there was a third scratch song, Listening Wind, for which the popular Intruder was cancelled. Father, Son was again not played.

Setlist Berlin

Heroes
Wallflower
Après Moi
Listening Wind
San Jacinto
Secret World
Signal To Noise
Downside Up
Digging In The Dirt
Mercy Street
The Rhythm Of The Heat
That’ll Do
Red Rain
Solsbury Hill
Biko
In Your Eyes
Don’t Give Up
The Nest That Sailed The Sky

It is noticeable that the show was significantly shorter than in 2010, when he played the complete Scratch My Back album. In the end, however, the show still lasted a good 2 hours. The atmosphere in Berlin almost shook when Gabriel announced Wallflower. A short time later, the audience was already on their feet. The biggest difference between Wolfsburg and Berlin is certainly the different intimacy of the shows. In Wolfsburg you could hear a pin drop, in Berlin the much larger crowd automatically contributed to more unrest. Both had their appeal. It had no influence on the quality of the performance.

Conclusion

After 2 years, the New Blood Tour is now apparently over – because Peter has already announced another tour with a band and will celebrate the 25th anniversary of “So” in the fall as part of the Back To Front Tour.

It was certainly worth a trip – the whole Scratch My Back / New Blood concept brought a breath of fresh air into the Gabriel camp. But the success probably surprised Gabriel himself. In the course of the tour, Gabriel deviated somewhat from his two-part concept and played fewer and fewer songs from Scratch My Back. However, if you compare the two parts of the concert and the two song realisations, you have to say that he was much braver with Scratch My Back when it came to realising the songs. For the most part, he had his own classics arranged relatively close to the original, including the nevertheless magnificent Mercy Street and San Jacinto. It was a relief to finally hear Signal To Noise live – with a real orchestra! The show also always had some really good moments with The Rhythm Of The Heat and Red Rain was also very well received. As expected, Blood Of Eden and The Drop were less dymanic and the arrangements were a bit too predictable. He played Wallflower far too rarely – this was already the case on previous tours. Ane Brun’s performance, which was expressive for some and shaky for others, was controversial, especially on Don’t Give Up. The realisation of Digging In The Dirt was interesting, even if you got a little tired of the song after several concert visits and longed for the brute force version of the Growing Up Tour.

Intruder was a completely different story – this song was a real revelation in the orchestral version. Biko also caused some discussion, but more because of the content than the musical performance. As we all know, the best is saved for last and Secret World was one of the last songs Gabriel included in the set. It was undoubtedly one of the highlights, even if the whole thing was performed in an almost pop-like manner.

Without a doubt, Peter surprised us with his orchestra concept and gave most of us a few nice hours. But one cannot deny the signs of wear and tear. Therefore, it’s time to turn to other concepts. That’ll do, Peter, That’ll do!

Autor: Christian Gerhardts
Fotos: Helmut Janisch und Peter Schütz