Broken Music: 2005/06

A bottle of Sting...

The second Sting concert in Latvia on July 29th - enjoyed by 13,000 listeners

Sting is one of those artists who has no problem filling the Riga Arena with listeners. Because, like U2 and Depeche Mode, Sting has gradually become an idol of the masses, whose songs are heard everywhere, from an elite artist, whose songs are heard everywhere in the 1980s. Already the first Sting concert in Latvia at the Nemo water amusement park several years ago makes you think that an excellent concert is his everyday life - Sting not only works like a clock (even tells the time), but as a good stage artist, when emotionally singing his songs, it seems that he can also turn gray again every time. If necessary. But no need, because he has always been blond.

This time, Sting was warmed up at the Arena Riga concert by the band Fiction Plane - Joe Sumner (that's also Sting's real name) has a voice that's as good as Sting's, but as for the songs, those who say: nature rests in children of genius will be right.

The beginning of Sting's concert with The Police's 1979 hit 'Message in a Bottle' already gave us the hope that the majority of the songs would be old. In fact, such expectations were quite justified, because since the very last 2003 album Sacred Love, nothing new has come out from Sting, and so far this Broken Music Tour concert tour is not dedicated to a specific album. Sting's recent works, disappointing fans, have caused even the older records with many excellent songs to sink into the dustiest shelves, and now, played one after another, it seems as if sharp nails are peeling away the thickened upper layer of skin, revealing memories from the distant eighties, when these songs sounded on tape recorders, creating a sound background for a large part of a very important event at that time. Therefore, a real passion can be read in the faces and movements of the audience, moreover, the music is performed not only qualitatively and massively, but also innovatively, varying both with rhythms (Sting's drummer is especially outstanding), and with instrumental and vocal parts. This is allowed by Sting's experience, playing both jazz and pop music with elements of world and classical music during his solo career.

For example, the famous song Roxanne is combined with another hit from The Police's 1978 debut album 'Outlandos d'Amour', 'So Lonely', although for the fifty-four-year-old Sting, as a happy father of many children who leads a healthy lifestyle and practices yoga, there is no reason to sing about loneliness. However, work is and remains work - the audience has come (there are 13 thousand of them) and they should expect what is expected - even the stinging or stinging Sting (his ability to get into a role has also been fixed in nineteen action films, but the translation of the word sting from English is sting)...

When after a whole marathon of long-known hits, something surprisingly reminiscent of The Beatles with an apocalyptic orchestral interlude in the middle sounds, this association seems to be just mine, but it is really broken by a small excerpt from the same creative framework of Lennon and McCartney's song 'Day In The Life'. The audience exploded several times to the much-heard superhits 'Englishman In New York' and 'Walking on the Moon', and, of course, the opening of the final part was the most popular The Police song of all time 'Every Breath You Take' with the famous leitmotif, which was once popularized by Ainars Mielavs, but in the nineties the rapper Puff Daddy used his piece and further carried it to the masses. Gustavo, the leader of the hip-hop scene who was watching the concert nearby, smiled and reminded that this is not the only case when Sting has sampled fragments of his work and carried rappers further with his music, undoubtedly increasing the circle of Sting's own fans.

And The Police play again - it is the punk energy-filled opening song of their debut album 'Next To You', which Sting is also joined by Fictionplane. Why not, if the joint tour is already ending in Lithuania the next day? 'Fragile' sounds to the audience's relief, and the concert is over. Everything was, as could be predicted, brilliant, but the harsh reality of life teaches us that the first times are the most beautiful and unforgettable. And if this time too could create an addiction to Sting's concert, forcing us to never give up the opportunity to visit it again, then the tradition of daily listening to his song recordings is and remains history. Sting says a heartfelt goodbye until the next time and until then (at least for now everyone - in five or ten years) he has had enough - on the way home I listen to The White Stripes again.

(c) Diena by Uldis Rudaks