Peter Gabriel - Live in Athens (1987)

I’ve only seen bits and pieces of Peter Gabriel live in his other concert events. They looked and sounded amazing. I’m not really into his music, but do appreciate a number of songs.

I picked Live in Athens up out of curiosity.

Watching it was a rollercoaster of emotions. Out of the block, the concert captured my attention. The music was crisp, clear and full. Watching the musicians perform was a little mind bending with the strange instruments. I have no idea what the percussionist was playing. Some sort of guitar. The guitarist played on occasion what appeared to be a 2 X 4 board with strings.

Peter Gabriel put on some kind of dance stage show while singing. It reminded me right away of David Byrne of Talking Heads. I think a very 80’s kind of show.

But as the show went on, I started to notice music was playing where there was no musician. Taped recording? Back-up singers where distinct, where there were no back-up singers. At first I was ****ed. This then translated over to frustration and bewilderment. I was watching a different concert than what the audience experienced. I felt like I was being betrayed. I have never liked the idea of tapped music and the performer lip syncing. WTF. I know, I know, I know… The artist can’t sing and dance at the same time. Tough. Then don’t dance. Sing.

I wound up just hating this performance. Too 80’s, too fake, to uninteresting in the long run.