Monday, June 11, 2007

The Power Trio

Last night, I finally realized one of my childhood dreams: I saw The Police in concert.

Amazingly, they hadn't broken up already on the tour (a legitimate concern considering their vitriolic history), and it even seemed like they were having a good time together on stage.

The opening act was pretty good (the lead singer was Sting's son Joe's band, Fictionplane), and from our seats (the very last row in the highest level of the Pepsi Center), I could see Sting standing off-stage watching the show.

As for the main event, it was amazing. They changed some of the songs enough that it wasn't like they were playing straight off the albums but they didn't change them so much that they ruined my favorite songs, if you know what I mean. It was as if they were really working together creatively again.

There were big screen TV's up above the stage and at least 6 cameras working the show (perhaps for a concert DVD), and when they scanned the audience, I realized how old the average fan was: there was a man with a hawaiian shirt and a full grey beard singing "De do do do, De da da da" and I just laughed. I'm 30, but I was barely alive when the band first formed, and I wasn't even in grade school when the actually (though not officially) broke up. Sting is 55, Stewart is almost 55, but "the legendary Andy Summers" (Sting's words) is 65. But what a show. They played like they were still in their prime (with a little less jumping off of amplifiers, etc.)

It was definitely worth the price of admission (at least for the cheap seats), and I'm glad I got to go before they broke up again.

2 comments:

Matty said...

Welcome back to cyberspace.

I'm glad they didn't ruin anything for you. There is always that chance when a band barely even remembers how their best songs even sound. I am hoping to eventually see Pink Floyd live and I hope they live up to my expectations as well as Sting&Co did yours.

Anonymous said...

Welcome back! I was starting to twitch from withdrawals. My problem is that the only time I've seen The Police, it's been with Aaron, Bryan, or Matt. I was impressed by how much they looked like the REAL police! They even had their own replica car with lights AND radios. Cool.