Brand New Day: 1999/01

Sting's 'Day' for night at the Bowl...

"Men go crazy in combinations. They only get better one by one," sang Sting on his darkly personal 1991 'Soul Cages' album. Though he and his former Police bandmates hadn't officially called it quits, this seemed a definite declaration that the enigmatic pop visionary was determined to chart his own musical journey in the coming years.

But since then, he has put out three largely unremarkable albums to gradually decreasing sales. And the once brooding and serious artist seems no longer burdened by the need to prove much of his recent material in concert.

In Sunday night's performance at the Santa Barbara Bowl, the corporate-sponsored showman pleasantly and entertainingly performed an arsenal of old hits to his loyal remaining audience.

Dressed in a black tank-top and khakis, Sting looked as fit and tan as ever as he walked on stage to a standing ovation. But the mostly 30-and-over crowd soon regained their seats as the band eased into the mellow drone of 'A Thousand Years' from his latest CD, 'Brand New Day'.

Despite incorporating new flavours of country, Middle Eastern and rap, Sting's latest effort still suffocates in the uniformly polished lite-rock production that has characterized much of his recent work.

Fortunately, the songs were energized by the skilled live band, particularly versatile veteran drummer Manu Katche, who even surprised the audience by popping out from behind the drum set to bust the French rap in the middle of 'Perfect Love... Gone Wrong'. 

A loose and jam-filled 'We'll Be Together' had mop-topped guitarist Dominic Miller finishing many of the vocal lines with bluesy, distorted riffs. And during the jazzy combination of 'Bring on the Night' and 'When the World is Running Down' that Sting's bands have played for years, pianist Jason Rebello showed his chops in a dazzling solo, deftly mixing chunks of jazz standards and James Brown riffs into a building, churning frenzy of notes and chords.

Sting's many years playing live have taught him how to work a crowd without ever seeming to break a sweat, and he's one of the greats at leading and he's one of the greats at leading arena audiences in sing-alongs. Before starting 'Englishman in New York', the English gentleman himself York," the English gentleman himself stepped offstage to shake hands with a few fans, and later brought the music down to lead the enraptured crowd in the song's chant of "Be yourself, no matter what they say."

But the ex-Police man may be growing a little too complacent, as the show suffered from uneven pacing in several spots.  A tight and inspired 'Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic' once again brought the crowd up out of its seats, but momentum was lost when he shifted gears into the slower 'Moon Over Bourbon Street' though he cheekily growled his best Louis Armstrong impression as trumpeter Chris Botti responded with a dizzying array of fills.

One of the few spontaneous moments of the evening occurred when Sting invited two fans (who had been holding a sign reading "I will belly dance for you, Sting!") on stage for 'Desert Rose'. To the techno-Arabic pulse, the tank-top and jeans-shorted ladies' slithery bump and grind gave the show a needed breath of fresh air and unpredictability.

Sting still isn't afraid to reinterpret his decades-old classics, to varying degrees of success. 'Roxanne' started moody and atmospheric, and gradually built to an all-out rock attack during the chorus. But the ridiculously upbeat and cheesy handling of 'Every Breath You Take' down-played the paranoid/obsessive irony of its lyrics in favour of milking the melody for maximum crowd appeal.

He was somewhat redeemed with the final encore. Bathed in purple light, his solo performance of the audience sing-along 'Message in a Bottle' accentuated the song's theme of shared loneliness in a way the recorded version never did. And, against a backdrop of gold stars, the lovely flamenco guitar of 'Fragile' finished out the evening with style.

(c) Santa Barbara News Press by John Roshell

Sting-Driven Thing...

Sting at the Bowl confirmed my worst suspicions. Not that Sting has the biggest ego in jazz-rock, but that big touring shows at the upper end of the price range (and at $50-$120, these seats were top dollah) are over-produced (sonically) to the detriment of the music. "I can't hear his voice," said the singer who went with me to the show. It was there all right, but buried in reverberations, set back with expensive echoes, and washed over with chorusing and other technical sound effects. Our own wonderfully acoustic. Santa Barbara Bowl has its own, very natural dynamic that provides more than enough ambience, and der Stingle's voice and band sounded over-drenched in sonic meddling.

The band was great though, in a top session player kind of way, with phenomenal guitar from Brit Dominic Miller, exciting improvisational jazz piano from Jason Roberts, and trumpet from Chris Ponty. The Stingster knows his stuff pretty well, too. He's not too much of a multi-million-dollar pop star to play his own bass on almost all of the songs, even busting out some Spanish guitar on the encore.

The song list was unsurprising, mostly Sting's solo hits, the elegant, 'Fields of Gold', the overly pop 'Every Little Thing', the pompous '(I'm an) Englishman in New York' (which had an amazing piano solo - and some great walking jazz bass from the Stingulator), the New Age 'If You Love Somebody (Set Them Free)', and a couple of blockbusters from the Police days. 'Roxanne', the song that essentially broke the Police into the charts, was subjected to an airy jam section, diluting its otherwise interesting lyric. The encore, 'Message in a Bottle'," was played solo by the Stinger, exposing the great songwriting behind it.

Row upon row of largely female attendees stood up too easily at the merest hint of a flexing by the tank-topped, parachute-panted Stingling, and he worked his easy popularity and charm like a Vegas pro. To give him his props, he hasn't lost his voice at all, and the yoga champ is as fit as a fiddle at 50-ish. But his unexciting new radio hit, 'Desert Rose', was delivered sans Algerian back-up singing, and wafted mildly over the ears of the otherwise rapt audience. That's until the Stingkenator invited two "I will belly dance for you" sign-bearing girls up on the stage. One of them lay on her back and started writhing, head and cleavage toward the audience. When Sting came over and humorously stood astride her, pounding his instrument, she was visibly overcome. Now that was entertaining.

(c) Santa Barbara Independent by Duncan Wright