Recorded live in the Big Room at his own Real World Studios on 23 November 2003, “In The Big Room” captures Peter Gabriel and band in fine fettle. There’s no elaborate AV show here, no great big spectacle to lean on, just a small fan club audience and the songs themselves. The focus is all on the sonics, and Gabriel’s description of it as “a more awake and edgy performance” turns out to be just about perfect.
Drawing from both the “Growing Up” live period and the subsequent “Still Growing Up” shows, the 14-song set is a reminder of just how broad Gabriel’s catalogue really is. “Burn You Up, Burn You Down” has that innate early-2000s feel, but there’s also a funkiness to it that keeps it loose and lively. “More Than This” underlines the sheer breadth of the material, while “Games Without Frontiers” is a timely reminder that Gabriel has always managed to marry skill with accessibility better than most.
What makes this set work so well is the way it keeps shifting its shape. “Downside Up” changes the mood completely, the female vocals lending it something almost folk-like at first before it opens out into something far richer. “Mercy Street” is beautifully evocative, like a soundtrack playing out in your head, and “Darkness” is handled with real poise, understated and poetic. Then “Digging In The Dirt” arrives and turns things into effortless arena rock, while “The Tower That Ate People” is simply staggering for the quality of the guitar work alone.
There’s a lot to be said, too, for the deeper cuts here. “San Jacinto” starts out fragile and hypnotic, the synths adding a real grandiosity before it bursts into life. “Shock The Monkey” is Gabriel in pop mode, sharp and superb, and “Signal To Noise” is all about contrasts, Eastern-tinged and gloriously OTT. “Secret World” somehow manages to be intricate and involved while still letting you right in, which is no small feat.
The closing stretch is especially strong. “Father, Son” is an utterly beautiful ballad, the piano giving it a real sense of grace, before “In Your Eyes” takes its time over more than ten minutes of utter class and ties up the loose ends in style.
That, really, is the trick “In The Big Room” pulls off. Peter Gabriel has never exactly been an artist short on ideas, but here all of that ambition is given room to breathe. Without the big show around it, the songs have to stand there on their own — and they do, more than that, they flourish. There’s art, atmosphere and plenty of invention, obviously, but what comes over strongest is just how good these songs are. Heard like this, in intimate surroundings but played with total conviction, they feel warm, alive and often magnificent. A live album, then, that doesn’t just document a moment, but reminds you why Gabriel has always operated on a level all of his own.
RATING 8/10
