Performing in the round during the 2002-03 world tour may have presented some logistical nightmares for his crew and technicians, but Peter Gabriel rose above any complications and put on some of the greatest shows of his wide-ranging career. The muscle behind Up, his magnificent release from 2002, may have demanded it. In all actually, many of Gabriel’s songs possess a cinematic quality screaming for visual enhancements. Growing Up Live, shot in Milan, Italy, is the best way to see this spectacle up close and in your face.
Dressed like some kind of space-aged monk, Gabriel and his entourage, clad in similar attire, lay down each glorious note with subtle precision and calculated maneuverability. Gabriel starts off slowly, first with a solo reading of “Here Comes The Flood,” followed by the riveting, unsettling “Darkness.” Once the tent is lifted off drummer Ged Lynch and the familiar refrain of “Red Rain” begins to build, things are more than underway. The one-time Genesis front man was known in the early 70s for taking the stage in costume, appearing as a fox in a dress, an old man, a cauliflower (?) and some kind of bulbous, dilapidated creature that defies description. Without going to such preposterous extremes, Gabriel decides to incorporate some physically challenging routines into the act.
In an attempt to literally illustrate the point of “Downside Up,” he and his daughter Melanie, who sings backup, are harnessed and suspended upside (downside up?). They sing and stride the underside perimeter of the large metal rig hanging directly over the center of the stage, giving the song a whole new dimension. Gabriel roams the same metal rig with a television camera, singing “The Barry Williams Show” and transforming the production into a music video.
Whether he’s bouncing inside of a ball during “Growing Up” or riding a bicycle during “Solsbury Hill,” Gabriel remains committed to his craft as a singer, songwriter and aural coordinator. He intuitively knows what brushes to use, taking liberal strokes with touches like the voices of the Blind Boys Of Alabama on “Sky Blue” or further accompaniment of Nusrat Fateh Aki Khan (who you don’t actually see) weaving a raw and tangled yelp to embroil the heart on “Signal To Noise.”
Both the Blu-ray and DVD are blessed with a crisp and rich 16:9 picture, plus stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio options. Also included is The Story of Growing Up, a short documentary about the tour, and a slide show featuring the photography of bassist Tony Levin set to a low-key version of “More Than This.” Indeed, you may want more of this — though there’s certainly enough here to make the trip worthwhile.
~ Shawn Perry
