Review: Peter Gabriel serves up show for 21st century at PPG Paints Arena

A concert that opens with a gracious, well-mannered monologue is bound to be far removed from the archetypal rock show.

Tell that to the audience member who felt compelled to interrupt proceedings by shouting a song request that reverberated through PPG Paints Arena: “Games Without Frontiers!”

Fortunately, two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Peter Gabriel provided a good-humored response before continuing his introductory remarks. Unfortunately for the fellow demanding Gabriel’s 1980 hit, it was not part of Saturday’s set list.

In fact, nearly half the performance featured tracks from “i/o,” scheduled for release before the end of the year as Gabriel’s first full-length album since 2002’s “Up.” Material from his MTV-era commercial peak did make some well-received appearances, but the overall presentation served as a prime audio-visual showcase for optimal use of available technology a quarter of the way into the 21st century.

The sound was impeccable, allowing for the audience to hear clearly as each member of the eight-piece backing band expertly tackled the textured nuances that Gabriel builds into his compositions.

And the optics, rendered through high-definition video screens, captured close-up views of the musicians while providing an outlet for Gabriel to display the works of fine artists with whom he is collaborating on a series of songs to be included on “i/o” that already have been released as singles.

Regarding the music at PPG, the stage configuration for the first two songs — “Washing of the Water” from 1992’s “Us” and “Growing Up” from “Up”— had the musicians sitting around a symbolic “fire of life,” one of Gabriel’s many allusions to the past, present and possible future.

Although he acknowledges some of today’s dystopian elements, his newer material tends toward optimism. An example is the delicately arranged “Love Can Heal,” the second number of the second set: “When the edifice has slipped away and died / And left you standing there defenseless / Love can heal, love can heal”

The song that followed, “Road to Joy,” was backed visually with work by Chinese artist and human rights campaigner Ai Weiwei. His sculpture “Artist’s Hand” — also known as “The Middle Finger,” representing his stance toward powers that be — featured prominently.

For the night’s next-to-last tune, the ensemble performed “Live and Let Live,” thematically calling for a remedy to Gabriel’s concession that “we get more and more polarized.”

Wrapping up the second set, “Solsbury Hill” served as a one-off harkening back to 1977 and his first solo album after he left Genesis. Playing bass on the debut was Tony Levin, later of King Crimson fame, who is reprising the role on Gabriel’s current tour.

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Other longtime associates — guitarists David Rhodes and Richard Evans, and drummer Manu Katché — anchor a lineup that features relative newcomers Josh Shpak on assorted horns, Don E on keyboards, Marina Moore on violin and viola and Ayanna Witter-Johnson on cello. She also shared her talent as a lead vocalist in a stunning duet with Gabriel on “Don’t Give Up” from “So,” his 1986 chart topper.

“So” contains two singles that reached the Top 10 in the United States, and Gabriel performed both “Big Time” (No. 8) and “Sledgehammer” (No. 1) at PPG. Their inclusion delighted the crowd, but the energized style from the ’80s may have seemed to be a bit incongruous compared with much of the night’s repertoire.

The encore provided another “So” song, “In Your Eyes,” and “Biko,” Gabriel’s 1980 tribute to slain South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko.

Although some audience members probably were disappointed by the lack of emphasis on early favorites, they had to be impressed and ultimately appreciative of Peter Gabriel’s 21st-century capabilities.

Perhaps that even applies to the “Games Without Frontiers” guy.