#130 Milano, Alcatraz, 16.9.2002

Don't have much time to write a proper review/memory of the gig, but here's a clip of Sledgehammer from the first of 2 "interesting & unusual" - but always excellent! - shows in Milan, at the small(ish) Alcatraz club.
The shows came out of the blue, were announced - and sold out in a matter of hours - even before the new album Up was out. (Incidentally, it's funny to think that it is STILL his latest 'normal' studio album :-).

The "newness" of it all was actually very evident from every point of view: the material performed, the presentation and the band's "tightness".

It was probably only the 4th or 5th show with a group of musicians which included the usual suspects (Tony Levin and David Rhodes) and a bunch of newcomers (Richard Evans, Ged Lynch, Rachel Z, Melanie) who did in fact become 'the' PG band for the next 10 years (with the single exception of Rachel, whose place was later taken by Angie Pollock).

Over the 2 shows Peter played almost every track on Up, and the accent was definitely more on the musical than the visual side.
Peter was wearing some weird looking monitoring headphones (instead of the in ear system favoured today), and looked like he had forgotten what to do on a stage... After all his last proper bit of touring went back to 8 years before, for the Secret World shows. Amazingly, the clip shown here is one of the only 3 moments during the concert that he left his position behind the piano and moved to the front of the stage to interact with the audience (the other two being the finale of Growing Up and the encore of In Your Eyes).

A final note to mention that the sound comes once again from an excellent recording by the Digital Brothers.