In my review of Santana, I mentioned the (relatively) new MGM Music Hall at Fenway Park. Still an excellent venue. But my seats weren’t as good and I was near the back by the (noisy) bar. Also, they did have monitors but some dumb fuck focused a static overhead camera that felt further away than the stage actually was. Sent a message to them to get their shit together.
Sting is touring as a trio with two other guys who, if their names were Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland would cause the show to be held at mega-stadia. The Stingmeister walked out and spoke to the audience and I couldn’t hear a fucking word he said.
In any event, he introuced his opening act, a jazz pianist named Eric Lewis who calls himself ELEW. Now, ordinarily I’d be all over it with a jazz pianist, especially one who reminded me so much of Keith Jarrett. But the problem is this – I came to rock! Or at least engage in whatever combination of rock and soft-rock Sting is proffering these days.
The audience, to their credit, seemed to dig it but I found myself restless and impatient to hear The Poli – er, Sting. Plus he decided to get up and talk into the mic before every single song. So, very good but just not what I was in the mood for. Here’s his video which you may well enjoy and yes, for some reason he plays standing up.
So how was Sting’s band? Excellent, of course. Dominic Miller is his guitarist and has played with Sting since (at least) 1991’s The Soul Cages. The drummer is Chris Maas, a Luxembourg-born guy who is best known as Mumford & Sons touring drummer.
As expected, the show was a mix of Sting-isms and Police stuff. Here’s “Wrapped Around Your Finger” as sung by the (still in great voice) main man and the audience.
The guys sometimes laid back, sometimes rocked out. At the ripe old age of 73, Sting isn’t rocking out with the same frenetic energy as the Police did but they still get it on. (Would it kill them to do “Demolition Man?”)
Here’s “Message in a Bottle.” The people in front of us were pretty funny. A mother and father, their adult kids and boy/girlfriends. Dad knew every nuance. (Note – E-yo-oh is Sting’s favorite thing to sing as he did it on many a tune).
I’ll leave you with the beautiful “Shape of My Heart,” which he co-wrote with Miller .
And if that’s not enough, here’s the whole show:
Setlist
- Message in a Bottle
- If I Ever Lose My Faith in You
- Englishman in New York
- Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
- Fields of Gold
- Never Coming Home
- Mad About You
- Why Should I Cry for You?
- All This Time
- I Burn for You
- Driven to Tears
- Wrapped Around Your Finger
- Can’t Stand Losing You / Reggatta de Blanc
- Shape of My Heart
- Walking on the Moon
- So Lonely
- I Wrote Your Name (Upon My Heart)
- Desert Rose
- King of Pain
- Every Breath You Take
Encore:
- Roxanne (with snippet of “Be Still My Beating Heart”)
- Fragile
