Broken Music: 2005/06

Sting in top form!

Sting was in great shape and gave an entertaining concert at the Romsdal Museum last night.

He still can't compare to the best rockers in Molde history.

It opened with 'Message In A Bottle' and ended with 'Every Breath You Take' and 'Fragile'. Sting delivered exactly what a festive audience wanted; a hit parade with a high sing-along factor. The sound was crystal clear and the concert worked surprisingly well in my ears.

It must be said right away that I was probably more skeptical than the majority of the audience when Sting took the stage two minutes before the announced time, at 7:28 p.m.

I always had in the back of my mind that even though he did strong things with The Police in the early 80s, he then got lost in a kind of quasi-jazz that sounded superficial and never got the depth such a genre needs.

Yesterday it seemed like he had realized exactly that. He concentrated on giving the audience a set of greatest hits. And it might not have mattered that all the hit songs were from the 80s, as long as drummer Abe Laboriel Jr. built a foundation for the songs that atomic bombs could hardly have destroyed.

Together with guitarists Dominic Miller and Lyle Workman, Sting appeared as a semi-professional entertainer. His bass sounded fat, the band was ready and we got 'Walking On The Moon', 'Englishman In New York', 'Shape Of My Heart', and many other treats on a continuous tape. The ballad 'Fields Of Gold' was a highlight.

The problem was that right then I started comparing the concert with what we have heard at Romsdalsmuseet before.

It has been ten years since Bob Dylan and Van Morrison played at Moldejazz, and although Sting sounded nice and strong, he was nowhere near them.

He does not write himself into Molde's rock history in the same way that Bob and Van did. He also can't compete with Paul Simon, who delivered an exceptionally strong concert in Molde a few years later. As a songwriter, he's probably a cut above Eric Clapton, who has also played in Molde. But Stevie Wonder is also considerably greater, even though his concert in Molde two years ago was marred by poor sound.

I think it was Keith Richards who said something along the lines of ''Sting is a fuckin' schoolteacher''. By that, of course, he meant that Sting as a rock artist is too academic and tame.

Richards has his own image to protect, and there's no reason to take everything he says for granted. But I understood what he meant when Sting and his excellent, artisanally perfect band ended the evening with 'Roxanne', before loosening up a bit during the encores.

It was good entertainment, but those who want to hear music with substance and depth have plenty of other things to choose from in Molde this week.

(c) Adresseavisen by Trygve Lundemo