On November 4, 1986, Peter Gabriel played a warm-up show at Poughkeepsie’s Mid-Hudson Civic Center, three nights before the This Way Up tour officially opened in Rochester. So had made him a pop star that year, and “Sledgehammer” had already topped the Billboard Hot 100, but much of the record had never been played live. The Hudson Valley crowd got the live debuts of “Mercy Street,” “Don’t Give Up,” “Big Time,” “That Voice Again” and “This Is the Picture,” alongside “San Jacinto,” “Red Rain” and “Shock the Monkey,” before “Lay Your Hands on Me” and “Sledgehammer” closed it out. Forty years later, it stands as the night the So songs first met an audience.
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