Back to Bass Tour: 2011/12

Sting to perform intimate concert at the Cirque Royal in Brussels...

Just okay isn't good enough.

You'd usually expect a superstar of Sting's calibre — his reunion tour with The Police is considered one of the most profitable in history — to be in a stadium, a sports centre, or somewhere at the very top of a festival bill. And indeed: the now sixty-year-old Brit will soon be back at the top of the bill at TW Classic. But in the meantime, Sting is currently on a tour that takes him to much smaller venues, and on Sunday evening he stopped for two concerts at the Cirque Royal, a venue that, given his status, was practically the equivalent of a living room concert. Tonight's performance is also sold out.

It's no secret that Sting is currently taking a creative break. New songs are still lacking, and his recent tours have been built exclusively around old repertoire. There was the tour with The Police, and the Christmas concerts featuring traditional songs from bygone eras. Afterwards, the greatest hits were also performed once again with a real symphony orchestra, and at the end of last year, a beautifully produced retrospective box set was released to celebrate his silver anniversary as a solo artist. It's all wonderful, and it must be said that Sting's repertoire is flexible enough to endure in any format. However, his last CD of self-written new material dates back to 2003, and nothing new is planned for the time being.

The Back To Bass tour was billed as a unique opportunity to hear Sting's songs in a pared-down, stripped-down form. But that narrative wasn't entirely accurate. In Brussels, he was surrounded by a five-piece backing group, featuring his regular guitarist Dominic Miller, his very young son Rufus on acoustic rhythm guitar, and veteran Vinnie Colaiuta on drums. The performance opened with "All This Time," a gem of a song and one of Sting's many classics. However, in Brussels, it wasn't a convincing start. This was partly due to the overbearing backup singer, and the version itself lacked soul. "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic"—sadly early in the set—was already better, but the group really seemed to hit its stride with "7 Days." Sting sang superbly, and his band was made up of excellent musicians. The songs were also absolutely flawless, and as mentioned, you don't see a star of this stature performing in such intimate settings every day.

And yet, there was rarely any magic in the air. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that Sting has been playing the same playlist for months now, and so it was inevitable that a touch of routine had crept into the set. It would certainly explain why the less obvious songs were particularly successful. "Ghost Story" — about the strained relationship with his now-deceased father — and "End Of The Game" sounded tight and fresh, while set closer "Never Coming Home" significantly raised the bar. Violinist Peter Tickell regularly enlivened the songs with a voluptuous solo, and Sting's bilingual interludes were also quite entertaining at times. I certainly never thought I'd hear him say "It's going to hell" in flawless Dutch to introduce "Stolen Car," a song about a wealthy businessman forced to do what he wants by his mistress.

In the encore, the band really let loose. "Desert Rose" was full of Maghreb influences, and the unfailing "Every Breath You Take" received a mouth-watering performance. During "Next To You" — also from The Police's repertoire — Sting and his band disguised themselves as energetic punks. And an acoustic solo version of "Message In A Bottle" still provided a wonderful finale. Impressive, but all things considered, Sting was just okay at the Royal Circus. And that's definitely not good enough for someone with such an impressive track record.

(c) De Morgen by Bart Steenhaut