Peter Gabriel highlights new material in Boston TD Garden concert

BOSTON — While his days of dressing up like a giant sunflower and fronting Genesis are far behind him, the 73-year-old art-rock visionary Peter Gabriel showed Thursday night at the TD Garden that his flair for the dramatic hasn't diminished.

If anything it has grown, and his fans are better for it.

Time and again, Gabriel has proven himself a unique, talented and often uncompromising recording artist. But, it is on the live stage where he truly shines. And he shined in Boston, but with a few challenges.

Broken up into two, 10-song sets followed by two, one-song encores, Gabriel played roughly two hours and 45 minutes while showcasing 11 tracks off his yet-to-be-released 10^th album “i/o,” which stands for “input/output.” For some, "i/o" could have meant "in one ear, out the other."

While Gabriel treated the crowd to five hits from his 1986 commercial smash “So,” Gabriel was noticeably stingy when it came to earlier songs from his four self-titled solo releases from 1976 to 1982. Of these, the audience was only treated to two, “Solsbury Hill” and “Biko,” and both were near the end.

And while the audience was polite throughout the night, I bet that a majority would have rather heard "Shock the Monkey," "Lay Your Hands on Me" or "Games Without Frontiers" in place of any of the new, unfamiliar stuff.

Opening with a stripped-down version of “Washing of the Water” off 1992’s “Us,” Gabriel and his longtime bassist Tony Levin sat around a faux fire in the center stage. As the seven remaining bandmates slowly embarked on the stage, they sat down in a semicircle onstage and played “Growing Up” from “Up” with their respective instruments.

Under a glowing image of a full moon on a crystal-clear circular screen, Gabriel took the listener on a metaphysical journey of the human life (and death) cycle, the lunar cycle and, in one instance, the laundry cycle.

After experiencing growing pains while sashaying along with world beat rhythms, Gabriel introduced the audience to his talented, eclectic band and his latest art project, his first album of new original material since 2002’s “Up”.

And what better way to do that than make a bad joke about artificial intelligence?

“So I grew up on a dairy farm and the only fellow who would be afraid by A.I. was the bull,” Gabriel quipped, “because A.I. stool for artificial insemination.”

Peter Gabriel, don’t quit your day job.

Then, Gabriel got philosophical, ponderous and a tad bit preachy for his heavy introduction to the new track “Panopticom.” Examining the wild notion of an artificial intelligence created to serve man by creating a new kind of health care that is “accessible, low cost and available everywhere,” Gabriel also envisions a global social network where one can share their personal story and life experiences, adding that when everything is visible, “a lot less (expletive) happens.”

Accompanied by gurgling synths and mournful cello and violin, Gabriel delved deeper into what it means to be human with the slow burning “Four Kinds of Horses.”

Early and throughout the set, Gabriel served up plenty of food for thought but, due to the unfamiliarity of the main course and most of its side dishes, the audience didn’t have enough time to fully savor and digest it. Still, Gabriel's voice sounded great and his band was tremendous.

Obliterating the notion of individuality, Gabriel pondered how we are all, in the end, a part of everything before us and after us on the title track “i/o.” Less dreary and dirgy than some of the previous tracks played from the new record, “i/o” was a lively and dynamic showcase for Gabriel and his talented band as well as a glorious celebration of how the human fabric is interconnected with the cosmos and nature.

After a trio of new tracks, Gabriel rewarded the audience for their patience with “Digging in the Dirt.” Not only was it the first song of the evening that got the complacent crowd out of their seats, it was the evening’s first showstopper.

As he tickled the ivories, Gabriel pondered the ticking clock of mortality on “Playing for Time.” Singing a metaphysical state of mind rather than a “New York State of Mind,” Gabriel sounded like an existentialist Billy Joel pontificating how mornings come and go, memories ebb and floor, and time waits for no one.

Near the tail-end of the first set, Gabriel found a sense of belonging on “This Is Home.” Here, the joys of suburbia are represented on the video screen as shiny, perfectly lined utensils; freshly percolated, piping hot coffee; clean laundry being tumble dried; a stuffed bookcase; and a sky roof.

Gabriel ended the first set with the MTV-era staple “Sledgehammer,” which is still a pop masterpiece. Gabriel pranced from one end of the stage to the other as he imagined his clenched fists turning into dueling sledgehammers that he used to strike both sides of his brain as if his head was a humongous bell. Not only did he get people on their feet for this number, Gabriel danced in unison with Levin and guitarist David Rhodes, both of whom have been with the artist for more than 40 years.

After at 15-minute break, Gabriel appeared behind a magic video screen that could turn transparent in places. Sporting a bowler hat that made him look like a ghoulish graverobber, Gabriel – whose voice was nerve-shattering one moment, soothing the next – menacingly slinked onstage as on the snarling, sinewy rocker “Darkness,” which resembled a Trent Reznor brood-fest.

With the magic video screen still shielding the musicians, Gabriel was able to make what appeared to be smoke signals on a backdrop of trickling rain during the tender ballad, “Love Can Heal.”

Gabriel’s combination cellist/background vocalist Ayanna Witter-Johnson received the loudest applause of the night (and rightfully so) when she mustered up her inner-Kate Bush and offered Gabriel soothing words to calm his rattled nerves on the evening’s standout “Don’t Give Up.”

While the socio-ecological, post-apocalyptical opus “Red Rain'' might have made naïve concert-goers at the TD Garden think Gabriel is moonlighting as a New England weatherman these days, that notion was soon obliterated. Sounding alarmist at best when it first came out in 1986, Gabriel's hopeless, agonizing cries over a ground too hot from being pulverized by fire-like rain hits too close to home in today’s day and age.

Gabriel tickled the keyboard’s ivory while pulling at the audience’s heartstrings during “And Still,” a beautiful song about the unshakable bond between a mother and son.

Before closing time, Gabriel got the people on their feet again with a funky, spirited version of “Big Time.”

After the well-intentioned, mantra-driven “Live And Let Live,” Gabriel received loud applause as soon as he alluded to memories of a nearby hill of his youth, which was the springboard to the introspective and inspiring “Solsbury Hill” that triumphantly closed out the second set.

The only thing that would have made the first encore “In Your Eyes” any better was it being blasted from the speakers of a giant boom box being held by a youthful John Cusack standing in the middle of the street in front of Ione Skye’s house, as Cusack did with the same song in “Say Anything.”

Gabriel closed out the evening with ``Biko,'' a rousing anthem to slain anti-apartheid South African activist Steven Biko.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Peter Gabriel plays i/o material at TD Garden in Boston: Review