Nothing Like The Sun: 1987/88

It's hard not to like Sting in concert...

A favourite pastime of many rock critics these days is to pick on Sting. In various publications, he has alternately been called pompous, pretentious, platitudinous, and an aristocratic rock star dilettante.

Amazingly, at the same time, he's hard not to like, particularly in concert. Saturday at the RPI Fieldhouse, Sting exposed all of the above negative qualities, but since he kept them in check for majority of the 22-hour set, he was more than bearable. The bottom line is he writes catchy songs, he's charismatic, he's entertaining and he puts a lot of energy and effort into his concerts.

In the end, the ex-Police frontman gets the thumbs up sign.

Refreshingly, music was at the forefront of the show, devoid of any fancy stage set-up and pyrotechnics. A huge screen above the stage projecting close-ups of the band, with video tricks like split screens and stutter frames to make it more fun, was as gimmicky as it got.

The music still retains some of the "jazz" flavour - jazz purists never liked to call it jazz - of his first solo tour, in support of "The Dream of the Blue Turtles" album, but now it's got more rock, reggae and Latin influences thrown into the mix. For lack of a better word, call it Sting's brand of pop music, what he likes to term a more challenging version of that form for the average listener. He says he's trying to change the form.

But change, particularly if slightly radical, comes slowly. Sting's concerts are selling out in this country, but not instantaneously, as Police shows used to do. And the Police songs he did Saturday night in order, 'Too Much Information', 'One World (Not Three)', a medley of 'Bring On the Night' and a speeded-up, sing-along 'When the World is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around', and encore songs 'Roxanne', 'Don't Stand So Close To Me' and 'Message in a Bottle' were generally the most well-received.

Fortunately, they don't sound stale. In fact, 'Message in a Bottle' was far more moving and 'Roxanne' far more poignant done solo by Sting, and the rest got a jolt of electricity with nine band members working on them, in stark contrast to the Police's sparse three-piece arrangements.

The mere fact Sting included Police songs shows his desire not to alienate his audience by playing an esoteric concert of jazz improvisation. He couldn't do that now, but he easily could have on his more jazz-oriented first solo tour, when his supporting band was comprised solely of talented black jazz musicians (which he had to explain and defend on numerous occasions for the press).

Interestingly, Sting has mixed the band now, he played only three songs from 'The Dream of the Blue Turtles' two of the hits, a very danceable 'If You Love Somebody Set Them Free' and an encore of 'Fortress Around Your Heart', and the jazzy 'Consider Me Gone' and he has only two of the band members, Branford Marsalis on saxophone and Kenny Kirkland on keyboards, back on this tour.

Essentially, Sting concentrated on his latest album, 'Nothing Like the Sun', playing a dozen songs, opening the show with a rousing version of 'The Lazarus Heart', 'We'll Be Together' and 'Englishman in New York'.

Among the slower, more sombre songs that worked well were the opener of the pensive second set, 'They Dance Alone' (a song written about the public dance done by wives, daughters and mothers of Chilean political prisoners who have disappeared), 'History Will Teach Us Nothing', 'Sister Moon' and 'Fragile'. Sting picked away gently on acoustic guitar on the latter, even throwing in some bars from Jimi Hendrix's 'Voodoo Child' before starting into Hendrix's 'Little Wing', with a very rock-sounding solo by guitarist Jeff Campbell.

There were up tempo songs and plenty of dancing, jamming and celebration to overshadow any low points, the lowest of which came when Sting delivered an unnecessary instructional speech before 'Straight to My Heart'.

"This song is in seven-fourths time," he explained. "What does that mean? Any music students here?"

Who cares? Yet he went on.

In the grand scheme of things, that could be forgiven. As Sting said in an interview in Musician magazine, "I think you have to seduce people. Basically, you have to make them feel welcome, feel warm, and maybe during the set, disjoint them." He did that (although maybe he didn't have "seduce" by stripping off his blazer at the end to make the girls scream). Despite any cockiness, he appeared extremely happy to be at RPI playing his music. Again, he was hard not to like.

(c) The Berkshire Eagle by Carol Sliwa

Sting sounds jazzy in RPI gig...

Saturday night, one Gordon Sumner - a.k.a. Sting brought his crack eight-person band to the sold-out Houston Field House of Troy's Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. One of the most dynamic performers in rock music, his charisma had some unfortunate side effects.

Aided by Troy's narrow byways, and the university's back-street location, there was the biggest traffic jam, I've run into in a year's worth of Capitol district concert going. As I snaked my way to the arena, he was already beginning his generous three-hour show.

The concert featured nearly everything from his most recent album, "...Nothing Like the Sun." He also drew from his prior solo endeavour, 'Dreams Of the Blue Turtles'. Also from earlier work with the band that propelled him to superstardom, the Police.

The selections culled from those earlier releases were ones that fit his present stylistic framework. A decade ago, the Police used the sounds of Jamaican reggae as the springboard for a more amorphous, but instantly identifiable sound. You could identify a Police recording a mile away, even as you were struggling for the adjectives to describe it.

Now Sting borrows from the cool ethereal jazz that characterized the mid '60s work of Miles Davis and Weather Report. Aiding him in this endeavour, both on record and onstage Saturday, were two of jazz music's best and brightest - saxaphonist Branford Marsalis and keyboardist Kenny Kirkland.

When in combat with the legends of jazz, Marsalis can blow up a storm with the best of them. With Sting, he favours the more delicate tones of the soprano sax. On pieces like "The Lazarus Heart" and "Englishman in New York," he provided subtle shadings that stated as much in a few bars than an army of rock techno-wizards could say in a 10 minute solo.

Cool was definitely the word of the evening. The same single-mindedness that Sting brings to his music is likewise channelled into his image.

He left nothing to chance. He was bathed in bright light that created sharp shadows on the back of the arena. He spoke in a very refined British accent, that one one would associate with Public Television's 'Masterpiece Theatre'. Stage patter from him sounded as forced as from the Queen of England.

His undeniable good looks had numerous women around me shrieking "STIIING! STIIING!" at every break in the music. But his icy features made for an emotional barrier that kept those same fans from rushing the stage. A giant video screen mounted above the stage only made the gap between performer and audience seem more distant.

His only blatant display of vanity was stripping off his jacket towards the end of the show. Underneath he was bare-chested, wearing one of those suspendered jumpsuits, favoured by male dancers, and a Chippendales' stripper he isn't!

Image mongering aside, Sting's short second set showcased his most challenging music. 'They Dance Alone' depicted the grim solo dance by the wives and mothers of political prisoners whose activities have run afoul of Chile's Pinochet regime. A variation of a traditional Chilean dance, the women perform it outside prisons, and in other public places, with pictures of their loved ones pinned to their clothes. It's a powerful statement of both grief and protest, by those whose sorrow outweighs any concern for personal safety.

As the centrepiece of 'Nothing Like The Sun', 'They Dance Alone' is a haunting piece of music. As the opener of Sting's second set, its impact was unfortunately diluted, the message lost to those still returning to their seats.

The echoey textures of his latest hit 'Be Still My Beating Heart', fared better, as did the wispy cadences of 'Fragile', with some spare, but expressive Spanish guitar by Sting.

The set closer was Jimi Hendrix's 'Little Wing'. The loose feel of the Gil Evans-produced rendition from 'Nothing Like The Sun', was eschewed in favour of a version more faithful to the Hendrix original, right down to a blazing guitar solo straight from 'Electric Ladyland'.

His encores included compositions from his Police days, including 'Roxanne' and 'Don't Stand So Close To Me'. It's a measure of Sting's popularity that virtually the entire audience knew the words to 'Roxanne', a song that barely cracked the American top 40 when released nine years ago.

Though some may pine for the return of the Police, there's no doubt that Sting has found his own voice, and a medium to present it in its best light.

(c) The Post Star by Mike Curtin