PETER GABRIEL | 5 June 2023 AMSTERDAM - Ziggo Dome (i/o: The Tour) ***SPOILER***

Still three weeks until I will see him in Amsterdam. I won't be able to avoid spoilers - really looking forward to reading your impressions from the first shows.

Since the flight company decided to change my flight, my ticket will be on sale(hopefully) in a few hours, it's 3rd row and I'm selling it for 400, a bit more than face value (not much, really, just 5 euros) to make up for the hotel and other expenses. Please visit ticketmaster.nl and it should be there on sale anytime soon.

Amsterdam today! Venue is cool, so I'm very much looking forward to this! Don't expect photos, I prefer to enjoy the show.

"Road to joy" from Amsterdam

Finally back home in America after a European vacation that happily (he said as if it were a coincidence) lined up with this show in Amsterdam. I absolutely loved it -- just an amazing spectacle from the band and the stage designers. Hearing all those new songs really showed how vibrant and vital Peter's work still is. While of course I have a list a mile long of pre-2023 songs I would have liked to have heard, I think the choice to go with almost all i/o project songs as almost all of the tracks outside the big hits was the right call.

It's funny, as someone who stayed away from setlist spoilers until seeing the show, the opening duo of Washing Of The Water and Growing Up made me think we were going to get a lot of deep-cut live favorites. I would never have imagined at that point that they were to be the only two non-hit older songs. But, again, I loved the choice -- the i/o songs are so strong, he is right to highlight them.

The video in the post before mine I think demonstrates the only real downside to the show: the sound mix felt off most of the night. Peter's vocals were frequently buried in the mix, especially on the newer songs. I can't tell if that's a technical issue, him still learning how to sing the new songs live, or his famous lack of mic sense...but there were times when his voice almost got lost. But then he would get to an old hit with established stage movement/choreography, and his voice would come through and shine. It wasn't a big problem since it all felt a part of the journey of experiencing so many new songs...but it was noteworthy.

Ah, there was one other downside: this was the first show of Marina's absence. I didn't know she was missing, since I hadn't even watched the full video introducing the band -- but it was weird that some of the video screen moments featured another woman who wasn't on stage. Looking after the show, I saw that she had posted to instagram with seeming excitement about arriving in town for the tour...but has disappeared since then. Glad to see in another thread than Don-E confirmed she has had the flu and should be back soon -- not glad she had the flu bad enough to knock her out for ten-plus days, but that it's not anything more serious. Hope she feels better soon!

It was such an honor and privilege to see the show in Europe -- this trip was a long time coming to see family, but was glad to squeeze in the show. Roll on October and the southern California shows!

I didn’t notice that Peter has a « famous lack of mic sense »… in Lille he was just brillant.

Quote from Ikhnaton

Finally back home in America after a European vacation that happily (he said as if it were a coincidence) lined up with this show in Amsterdam. I absolutely loved it -- just an amazing spectacle from the band and the stage designers. Hearing all those new songs really showed how vibrant and vital Peter's work still is. While of course I have a list a mile long of pre-2023 songs I would have liked to have heard, I think the choice to go with almost all i/o project songs as almost all of the tracks outside the big hits was the right call.

It's funny, as someone who stayed away from setlist spoilers until seeing the show, the opening duo of Washing Of The Water and Growing Up made me think we were going to get a lot of deep-cut live favorites. I would never have imagined at that point that they were to be the only two non-hit older songs. But, again, I loved the choice -- the i/o songs are so strong, he is right to highlight them.

The video in the post before mine I think demonstrates the only real downside to the show: the sound mix felt off most of the night. Peter's vocals were frequently buried in the mix, especially on the newer songs. I can't tell if that's a technical issue, him still learning how to sing the new songs live, or his famous lack of mic sense...but there were times when his voice almost got lost. But then he would get to an old hit with established stage movement/choreography, and his voice would come through and shine. It wasn't a big problem since it all felt a part of the journey of experiencing so many new songs...but it was noteworthy.

Ah, there was one other downside: this was the first show of Marina's absence. I didn't know she was missing, since I hadn't even watched the full video introducing the band -- but it was weird that some of the video screen moments featured another woman who wasn't on stage. Looking after the show, I saw that she had posted to instagram with seeming excitement about arriving in town for the tour...but has disappeared since then. Glad to see in another thread than Don-E confirmed she has had the flu and should be back soon -- not glad she had the flu bad enough to knock her out for ten-plus days, but that it's not anything more serious. Hope she feels better soon!

It was such an honor and privilege to see the show in Europe -- this trip was a long time coming to see family, but was glad to squeeze in the show. Roll on October and the southern California shows!

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The sound was good (was close to the stage that night) and as always it depends where you sit or stand.
Thanks for your little report. Enjoyable to read!

Quote from Ben

I didn’t notice that Peter has a « famous lack of mic sense »… in Lille he was just brillant.

Maybe it's only famous amongst my circle of fan friends...but in our view, he tends to get carried away and not always be fully aware of how far away he is from the mic. This was more of an issue back in his Genesis days, when the costumes added another dimension to it -- but I always assumed this was why he spend the 00s and early 10s wearing a headset mic while also singing into a traditional one.

Quote from Zaar

The sound was good (was close to the stage that night) and as always it depends where you sit or stand.
Thanks for your little report. Enjoyable to read!

Very true. We were in the first few rows of the 100-level seats right behind the mixing desk, so we had assumed we had solid sound. And the video for Road to Joy reflects the experience I had. Maybe it's less a technical issue and just performance choices compared to the studio version (which I had binged listened to in the day and a half before the show).

Regardless, I didn't mean to focus on being overly critical. The show was amazing and Peter was in great form. He hasn't lost anything off his fastball, and can't wait to see him again later on the tour.