Peter Gabriel performs at Chase Center in San Francisco on Oct. 11, 2023. Steve Carlson/STAFF.

SAN FRANCISCO — Peter Gabriel brought a multimedia extravaganza to Chase Center Wednesday night, delivering not just a feast for the eyes and ears, but lots of big ideas to mull over during the marathon, three-hour concert.

The show began with Gabriel onstage alone, dressed in black and talking about time.

“Time is the big boss, but there is one way to wiggle out of those claws: imagination,” Gabriel told the audience as he acted with an illuminated microphone, a meteorite hitting earth billions of years ago, bringing the basic ingredients for life.

Peter Gabriel performs at Chase Center in San Francisco on Oct. 11, 2023.

He then introduced his longtime collaborator and bass legend, Tony Levin, who’s played with everyone from Paul Simon to King Crimson. Together they played delicate and heartfelt ballad “Washing of the Water,” from Gabriel’s 1992 album, Us. The rest of the band, dressed in black, appeared on stage and together they sat in a semi-circle as if arrayed around a campfire. The band then performed another song from Up, “Playing For Time,” which grew from sedate mandolin and stings into a raucous, foot-stomping groove.

Despite a deep back catalog, fully half of the concert—which was divided over two sets with a short intermission—was comprised of songs from Gabriel’s forthcoming album, i/o, due out later this year. The enthusiastic crowd seemed to know many of these songs already, as Gabriel began releasing a single from the album every full moon starting on Jan. 6.

The band retreated from the campfire-like gathering at the center of the stage to form a more traditional backline. Before playing “Panopticom,” Gabriel explained that he had grown up on a dairy farm where the initials AI stood for “artificial insemination.”

Peter Gabriel performs at Chase Center in San Francisco on Oct. 11, 2023.

“Now the whole human race is receiving AI,” Gabriel said.

Other songs from i/o included “Four Kinds of Horses,” with its graceful horn melodies, the lush orchestration of “Playing For Time,” the earthy groove of “This is Home,” and “Court,” which Gabriel said was “a song about justice.”

The crowd remained seated for most of the concert, but several hits coaxed attendees out of their chairs for some lively dancing. Gabriel asked them to sing along on “Digging in the Dirt.” The iconic MTV hits from the ’80s, “Big Time” and Sledgehammer,” the latter of which concluded closed the first set, drew huge cheers.

The visual component was supplied by a set of screens behind the band that displayed artwork created specially in collaboration with Gabriel. During “Road to Joy,” images of rotating middle fingers created by Chinese artist and human rights crusader Ai Wei Wei spun on the screen. Animated and psychedelic paramecium swam on the screens at one point, and elegant oil paintings provided a less dynamic backdrop at another.

Peter Gabriel performs at Chase Center in San Francisco on Oct. 11, 2023.

The backing band seemed to move effortlessly between the various musical dynamics. Ayanna Witter-Johnson provided incredible backing vocals on sentimental ballad “Don’t Give Up,” as well as a cello solo from a platform above and behind the stage during the second set. During “Sledgehammer,” Gabriel, guitarist David Rhodes and bassist Tony Levin, who’ve been collaborating for more than 40 years, went through a series of choreographed dance moves.

Peter Gabriel closed the second set with his debut single from 1977, “Solsbury Hill,” much to the crowd’s obvious delight. He thanked the audience, which then held up phone lights, lighting up Chase Center like digital fireflies.

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