| Concert Tour Name: | i/o The Tour |
| Artist: | Peter Gabriel |
| Start Date: | 18 May 2023 |
| End Date: | 13 October 2023 |
| Number Of Legs: | 2 |
| Last Tour: | Rock Paper Scissors Tour (2016) |
| This Tour: | i/o The Tour (2023) |
i/o the Tour was a concert tour in 2023 by Peter Gabriel to promote his i/o album, which was released at the end of the year after the conclusion of the tour. It was Gabriel's first tour since his joint-performance with Sting on the Rock Paper Scissors Tour in 2016 and his first solo tour since the Back to Front Tour in 2014.
The setlist contained material from Gabriel's then unreleased i/o album, including "Panopticom", "The Court", "Playing for Time", "i/o", and "Four Kinds of Horses", which had been released as singles prior to the start of the tour. These songs, along with "Road to Joy", "Olive Tree", "This Is Home", "And Still", and "Live and Let Live" premiered at the Tauron Arena in Poland.[1] Another song, "So Much", debuted on May 30 in Copenhagen at the Royal Arena.[2] "Love Can Heal", which was first played during the Rock Paper Scissors Tour, later appeared on i/o along with the ten aforementioned songs.[3] [4] At certain performances, "What Lies Ahead" was also performed, having debuted during Gabriel's Back to Front Tour in 2014, although the song ultimately did not appear on i/o.[2] [5] The remaining songs in the setlist comprised material from Gabriel's previous albums, including five tracks from So.[6]
Robert Lepage, who previously worked with Gabriel as the stage director for the Secret World Tour in 1993-1994 and the Growing Up Tour in 2003–2004, assisted with the creative direction of i/o The Tour. When determining appropriate set pieces, Lepage and Gabriel sought to incorporate a visual representation of the moon into the performance to reflect the latter's decision to release one song from the i/o album every full moon. The two expanded on this imagery by creating other planets and celestial objects to augment the stage design.[7]
When assembling his touring band, Gabriel enlisted the help of Tony Levin, David Rhodes, Manu Katché, and Richard Evans, all of whom had previously performed live with Gabriel. At the recommendation of Brian Eno, Gabriel was introduced to Don-E, who joined the touring band after playing synth bass on Road to Joy. Josh Shpak was asked to join the touring band after one of Gabriel's engineers, Oli Jacobs, was visiting a flatmate and overheard Shpak playing trumpet. Gabriel also recruited Ayanna Witter-Johnson and Marina Moore to contribute strings and vocals.[8]
With the exception of Gabriel, who used a wireless DPA 4288 headset microphone, the touring members were equipped with Shure 98H/C headset microphones to contribute vocals. Britannia Row Productions supplied the concert sound system for both legs of the tour.[9]
The tour was split into two sets with no opening act. Gabriel began each performance by lighting a campfire situated at the front of the stage. Starting with Tony Levin, members of Gabriel's touring band joined him in a semicircle around the campfire behind a projection of the moon to play either Washing of the Water or "Here Comes the Flood" depending on the performance.[2] [6] This configuration continued for the next song, "Growing Up", after which the band dispersed throughout the stage to play the remainder of the first set. The stage was augmented by LED screens displaying artwork that Gabriel selected to represent each song.[6] [10] Gabriel then performed three songs from i/o, including "Panopticom", "Four Kinds of Horses", and "I/o, which were prefaced with explanations of their origins.[6] These songs were followed by "Digging in the Dirt", which showcased trumpet playing from Josh Shpak. A series of additional songs from Gabriel's i/o album before the first set concluded with "Sledgehammer", where Gabriel pretended to strike his head with clenched fists imitating sledgehammers and danced in tandem with Levin and Rhodes.[11] [12]
Darkness served as the opener of the second set, where Gabriel performed behind a transparent scrim, sometimes with only his silhouette visible. Gabriel continued to position himself behind the scrim for "Love Can Heal", where a painting by Antony Micallef was also displayed. "Road to Joy" followed, which featured artwork by Ai Weiwei. Three songs from So were also played during the latter portion of the set, starting with "Don't Give Up", with Ayanna Witter-Johnson covering Kate Bush's vocals. "Solsbury Hill" served as the set closer and was one of Gabriel's only tracks from his first four albums to be included in the setlist.[6] With the exception of certain performances at the end of the North American leg, where "The Tower That Ate People" was played as the first encore,[2] "In Your Eyes" fulfilled that role instead and was performed with an extended intro and outro. The final encore for every show was "Biko", where the band exited the stage one by one during the outro until only Manu Katché remained.[6]
This set list is representative of the performance on 25 June 2023. It does not represent all concerts for the duration of the tour.[13]
During tour stops in Germany and Switzerland, Gabriel replaced "Washing of the Water" with "Jetzt Kommt Die Flut", a German rendition of "Here Comes the Flood". "What Lies Ahead" appeared during the first three tour stops but was dropped from the setlist until his performance in Denver, and was played for the remainder of the tour with the exception of Dallas. "So Much" was played five times during the tour, with the first occurring on May 30 in Copenhagen. The song did not reappear in the set until his performance in Denver, where it was played at all remaining shows of the tour. "The Tower That Ate People" was first played in Columbus on September 25, where it appeared as the penultimate song of the first set. The song resurfaced again on October 14, when it was played as the first encore.[2]
Encore: