Jun 23 2007
The Police: Phoenix and LA
Monday night was the Phoenix show and last night was Los Angeles at the Staples Center. In all, the shows were good but Sting was up to his old tricks.
He seems to look back and turn up his nose on The Police’s early works. He may be all about jazz and the lute these days but punk/ska/reggae was their calling card so suck it up and play it. As expected, he messed around with tempo, obstensibly making fast refrains into slow moving trains. According to what I’m told by friends, a Rolling Stone article says Sting wanted to change every song but Stewart and/or Andy put their foot down. Thank god.
The first few tracks at Phoenix lacked energy but it got better a few songs in. Andy rocked out far younger than his 65 years. Stewart, aside from an identical mop of now-gray hair, bangs out the beat like not a day has passed since Synchronicity.
The LA show was a bit different. Far more energy from the get-go but Andy wasn’t on his game. Stewart, as always, rock solid. At both shows Sting’s vocals were strong, even if he loves to slow it down for whatever self-serving reason. This was my first time seeing the same band twice in one tour and I’d do it again for any band I’m passionate for.
The set list included a good mix of older tracks but the order was off. Starting the show with Message In A Bottle is polar-opposite of every Sting show I’ve seen since he went solo with Dream Of The Blue Turtles; Synchronicity II should have been first. The Phoenix set ended with So Lonely, a great song with fast beats. In Los Angeles the set ended with Next To You which bombed because it’s a lesser-known track and doesn’t leave a lasting impression. The right closer is Tea In The Sahara which was strangely missing although it made the rounds for the original Synchronicity tour.
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