Review: Where was the ‘real Peter Gabriel’ during San Francisco concert?

"The real Peter Gabriel is lying horizontal on a Caribbean beach and totally indistinguishable from a Greek God."

The star of the Peter Gabriel show wanted to make one thing clear upfront:

Peter Gabriel was not in the house.

Instead, he/it said we were watching an avatar — and one that wasn’t nearly as visually impressive as the real deal.

“My avatar is 20 years older, 20 years heavier and completely bald,” the alleged avatar said. “The real Peter Gabriel is lying horizontal on a Caribbean beach and totally indistinguishable from a Greek God.”

If that was indeed the case then Bay Area fans should count themselves lucky that the “real Peter Gabriel” never showed up on Wednesday night to Chase Center in San Francisco, because the show they ended up receiving with nothing less than stellar.

At this point in the story, given the advances in A.I. and how virtual reality has already been utilized in the “live” entertainment business, it’s probably best that I clarify that Gabriel was just joking and, indeed, was very much there, in the flesh, at Chase.

It had to be him. Because what other classic rock star is still putting on such widely entertaining and challenging shows some 55 years into his career?

At 8:05 p.m. — just 5 minutes after the advertised time — Gabriel took the stage to perform his first Bay Area show since a co-headlining date with Sting at the SAP Center in San Jose in 2016. He’d offer up a terrific two-set show that offered up 22 songs, split evenly between new material and older material.

The 11 songs from his forthcoming release, “i/o,” managed to stand tall next to the classics, showing that the 73-year-old Englishman remains as inspired and creative as ever. Yet, the older material didn’t feel dated in the slightest — even as it brought back waves of nostalgia for fans — as Gabriel and his terrific nine-piece band managed to revitalize these older tunes in ways that felt fresh but still true to the original recordings.

Although Gabriel first took the stage alone, and delivered the bit about the avatar, he was soon joined by bassist Tony Levin.

“We go back to the days of taking our dinosaurs out for a walk and when we had full heads of hair,” Gabriel said as he introduced his longtime collaborator.

Not long after that, the rest of the band joined in and they gathered in a campfire setting — complete with a full moon glowing on the video screen in back — for a low-key, yet mesmerizing opening segment that began with “Washing of the Water” (from 1992’s “Us”) and continued with “Growing Up” (from 2002’s “Up”).

As “Growing Up” came to a close, the 10 musicians stood up and took their spots in a more-traditional band setting and waded right into the new material, delivering three consecutive “i/o” cuts — “Panopticom,” “Four Kinds of Horses” and the title cut — which only served to further fuel the fan anticipation surrounding the eventual release of Gabriel’s 10th solo studio album.

The big crowd in attendance, which spent the first part of the concert in attentive but fairly subdued fashion (corresponding to the vibe of the music), finally let loose when Gabriel and company launched into the first real hit of the evening — a powerful version of the “Us” single “Digging in the Dirt.”

From there, Gabriel immediately backpedaled to new material territory and delivered the two most memorable “i/o” cuts of the night — a stunningly beautiful take on “Playing for Time” followed by a joyous run through “Olive Tree.” The star of the show closed the first set in fan friendly fashion, with everybody on their feet and dancing along to a ruckus version of “Sledgehammer.”

Following a short break, the troupe opened the second set with another “Up” song, “Darkness,” before heading right back into “i/o” land for two more winners — “Love Can Heal” and “Road to Joy.”

A version of  the moving, inspirational ballad “Don’t Give Up” — with band member Ayanna Witter-Johnson elegantly handling the Kate Bush lines — really struck a note with the crowd members, some of whom sung along with the type of hushed restraint that one doesn’t often see at a major rock show.

Gabriel’s voice was in peak form throughout the night, towering over what many of his contemporaries have to offer after decades of wear and tear on the road. And his band matched his level for two sets, with each of the nine players getting a chance to really shine in front of the large crowd.

Together, they were able to deliver versions of such classics as “Big Time” and “Red Rain” that sounded every bit as strong as what Gabriel was dishing out to fans back during his commercial heyday in the late ’80s and early ’90s.

It was an impressive evening for, well, whoever that was onstage at Chase Center. Here’s hoping that this avatar/”the real Peter Gabriel” doesn’t wait seven years before performing in the Bay Area again.

Setlist:
1. “Washing of the Water”
2. “Growing Up”
3. “Panopticom”
4. “Four Kinds of Horses”
5. “i/o”
6. “Digging in the Dirt”
7. “Playing for Time”
8. “Olive Tree”
9. “This Is Home”
10. “Sledgehammer”
Set 2:
11. “Darkness”
12. “Love Can Heal”
13. “Road to Joy”
14. “Don’t Give Up”
15. “The Court”
16. “Red Rain”
17. “And Still”
18. “Big Time”
19. “Live and Let Live”
20. “Solsbury Hill”
Encore:
21. “In Your Eyes”
Encore 2:
22. “Biko”