57th & 9th: World Tour

Rocking Sting is a living advertisement for yoga...

An enthusiastic audience heard Sting still hitting all the high notes. And saw how perfect the 65-year-old artist looks today.

"Be yourself, no matter what they say": the audience sang along to the chorus of "An Englishman in New York" for minutes, celebrating one of Sting's greatest qualities. Since trading his teaching career in 1977 for a career as a rock artist, he has continued to forge ahead on his own. This year marks his 40th anniversary on stage.

In Vorst, which was nearly full, Sting played a friendly set that included eight Police hits and seven songs from his album 57th & 9th, released last year. The most important thing to note about that album was that Sting traded the lute for the rock guitar, a move that many no longer expected from the man who had become increasingly introverted in his recordings and considered his prowess on the cello more important than re-exploring the language of rock.

The new songs didn't perform particularly well. The ecological wake-up call "One Fine Day" lacked the fire of "Spirits in the Material World" (before) and the melancholy of "I Hung My Head" (after). "Down Down Down" drifted by while we were still enjoying "Fields of Gold." "Pretty Young Soldier" briefly sparked, but was blown away by an unleashed "Message in a Bottle."

But one song will definitely join the ranks of Sting classics. After he let his son Joe sing "Ashes to Ashes" for a few minutes - Joe Sumner's voice is a cross between Bowie and Sting - that song segued into "50,000," and that Prince homage was rock solid. And when "Walking on the Moon" and "So Lonely" followed, the house went wild.

A few striking observations about this concert. First of all: Sting may be 65, but he looked fantastic. That lifestyle of yoga and meditation, macrobiotics, and Tuscan olive oil may be easier to follow if you're a millionaire, but it clearly does a person good. In his tight black shirt, Sting was a living billboard for a healthy lifestyle.

Also striking was the enthusiastic presence of the youngsters. Guitarist Dominic Miller brought his son Rufus, Sting brought his son Joe, and Joe brought his friends from The Last Bandoleros. Thus, rock music became a family affair, with the youngsters belting out the old man's choruses with their fists raised high. So much so that "Roxanne" almost took on a musical quality.

Finally, the lighting. Remarkable, that orchestra of LED lights that treated the audience to bright white and blue light for almost the entire concert. But also clever, firing such a wall of white light into the audience's eyes when singing "woke up this morning." The light show was aggressive and alert, exactly how Sting wanted to come across.

(c) De Standaard by Peter Vantyghem