Sting still has it under control...
He is the son of a hairdresser and a milkman and is a trained school teacher. He has taken something with him from his origins and his past. His hair continues to grow lushly, the man lives a healthy life, and he likes to tell those around him about all the right things we should do: save the rainforest, help endangered animals and respect human rights.
Sting is doing well. He is 65 years old. Well-trained with big arm muscles. Yes, he had his 41-year-old son, Joseph, on stage in Mølleparken in Sønderborg, and from a distance it was difficult to see who was father and son - despite the age difference.
Could Sting still impress the audience with songs from the old days - or does he himself belong to the endangered species of "rock singers who have lost their artistic potency"?
No, Sting is not endangered. He kept that shame going for almost two hours, avoiding the traps set for an old rocker who has more life behind him than ahead of him. Once - just after delivering the Police song Message In a Bottle - he called his son on stage for a short break.
But otherwise, Sting hit right into the post-punk era with Roxanne (the song about a lovable prostitute) and Every Breath You Take, which today would almost give him the predicate “stalker”. But you never got that slightly clammy feeling that an artist showed up with the nostalgia attitude in reverse to cover up the real agenda: A lucrative day at the office spiced with a little name-calling. Not at all. In addition, Sting is a fabulous singer and songwriter and also extremely gifted.
The setting in Mølleparken was perfect this June evening. It was dry, the sun was setting, not a single wind was moving, and the atmosphere was wonderfully relaxed. Probably also because the majority of the audience had long since given up on their horns. Most of us were a bit old to hear Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, whose nickname comes from a black and yellow sweater that in the 1980s made him look like a bumblebee.
However, that didn't make Sting save his energy. The songs from the Police period and his own earlier solo career have a long life, and Sting steered the boat up and down by playing ballads like the pensive Shape Of My Heart one moment and pushing the up-tempo song Petrol Head the next. That's what Sting can do - both call for prayer and meditation and fire up a party. Give it a good dose of devilish dynamics on top of small, quiet revelations of beauty.
He didn't waste time talking between songs, but let the songs flow into each other - sometimes he also mixed the songs into each other in versions that differed from those on the albums. This was done with a very convincing musicality, the right dosage and a lyricism that can appeal to most people without being indifferent - for example with fine versions of So Lonely and Next To You from the Police era. The interaction with the young band resulted in a pleasant soundscape in the small pot that is Mølleparken.
Almost 5000 people - not completely sold out like for the Elton John concert in the same place a week and a half before - could live in their own bubble for a few hours with the selection from Sting's box set 25 Years. Sting has roots in jazz and fusion music and mixes it with pop, punk and rock with a natural authority and a voice that is still - Sting.
(c) kulturkapellet
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