Nothing Like The Sun: 1987/88

Sting takes crowd through changes...

Sting, who was formerly the lead voice and bass player for the now-legendary Police, has gone through a lot of musical changes in recent years. He has embraced jazz, for example, eliminated the forced accents in his voice, and written some very impressive and intellectually deep material along the way.

At the Dane County Coliseum Thursday night, Sting (will the real Gordon Sumner please stand up?), backed by an illustrious eight-piece band, stepped miles away from his days with the Police and frequently took about 6,800 patrons on the excursions.

It certainly didn't hurt to have some of the hottest musical hired guns - Branford Marsalis on tenor and soprano saxes, and Kenny Kirkland, an early-days compatriot of Branford's brother, Wynton - on your side, either. The rhythms came fast, furious, slow and simple, sometimes within the same tune. For openers, the band worked up a brief rock exercise and then shifted confidently into one-drop reggae.

Although he covered bass and lead vocals with the Police, Sting strolled onto this black multi-leveled stage barehanded, looking calm, confident and comfortable in a patterned black smoking-style jacket, leather pants with red side seams, and no shirt.

He bathed in the glowing mood of the overlapping rhythms for awhile before settling into the main matter at hand: Showing Madison that he's still as good a performer, singer and songwriter as he ever was. He also recalled the first-ever rock show at the newly remodeled Madison Civic Center almost 10 years ago.

Opening the set was sizzling salsa, which was lowered to a glowing torchy ballad, and then a slow dance with one of his backing singers. Moving to the other side of the stage like a musical monarch, he surveyed Kirkand's solo bit and smiled in approval.

There was real soul in Sting's impassioned tale of 'Sister Moon', and the crowd was enraptured. Mere moments later, the onetime lead Police man (who may again take that position, according to music business grape vines) encouraged the crowd to 'Rock Steady' and really started working the audience by shifting to a jazzy shuffle pace.

Before 'Murder By Numbers', Sting took a jab at televangelist Jimmy Swaggart for declaring the tune was written by Satan, and an evil thing. Sting brustied off the four-yearold commentary by whipping himself up to a real tent show frenzy, finally stating calmly, "I wrote this song."

He did most of his own stuff, but the Police tunes went over best.No matter. Most of them were his anyway, and at this show, they sounded great.

(c) Wisconsin State Journal by Michael St. John

Big ego, rambling concert take too much 'Sting' out of music...

Sting's show at the Dane County Coliseum Wednesday night was more than just a concert - it was downright yuppie heaven. The designer-clad crowd, like the music it heard, was cool, lacking in any real soul, and downright safe.

Which is a shame, because Sting has assembled some very talented musicians for this tour, such as saxophonist Branford Marsalis. He has even spoken about how much more "freedom" his band has than most pop groups. Unfortunately, he kept the players reined in, rarely allowing their talents to run free.

Sting wasn't a winner in Madison but he was in New York, where Grammy award winners were announced Wednesday night. Sting and his 'Bring on the Night' won a Grammy for best pop vocal performance, male.

There were glimmers of brilliance in the Madison concert, but these exceptions were few and only served to prove the rule. For the most part, the material from his latest record, '...Nothing Like the Sun', was just as lifeless and flat as it sounds on the album. Even the funky 'We'll Be Together Tonight' and the driving 'Rock Steady' were given lacklustre performances.

The band only seemed to break out on the songs from Sting's previous record, 'Dream of the Blue Turtles', and his older Police tunes. Most notable was 'One World (Not Three)', which the band turned from a bouncing reggae beat to a subtly forceful pulsing groove that was highlighted by Kenny Kirkland's jazzy piano solo.

The one song from the new record that really worked onstage was, surprisingly, Sting's version of Jimi Hendrix's 'Little Wing'. He managed to incorporate into it Hendrix's 'Voodoo Chile' and the Beatles' 'From Me to You', and the tune was brought to a raging climax with a stinging, distortion-laden guitar solo. It was an intense finish to the regular set.

The encore included the same tired versions of 'Roxanne' and 'Message in a Bottle' that Sting has been playing for years, and a ridiculously drawn-out 'Don't Stand So Close to Me'.

This exemplified one of the problems that marred the entire show. Sting had a tendency to stretch out the songs into "jam sessions" that really went nowhere. What were listenable pop (not jazz, no matter what Sting says to the contrary) tunes were turned into pointless, eight-minute ramblings.

The other major annoyance was Sting's obvious self-involvement and incessant spotlight-grabbing. Whether he was making references to Joyce and Proust that he knew quite well were going right over most of the heads in the audience, or taking the attention away from the soloists with his mugging and Solid Gold-style dancing, it was obvious that his ego still rules his actions.

When he took his shirt off to reveal his bare chest to the screams of teeny-boppers, any hope of being taken seriously was lost.

Police fans will remember that Sting once wrote a song called 'Peanuts', about rock superstars and their narcissism. He said that at the time it was aimed at Rod Stewart.

Too bad it's become autobiographical.

(c) The Capital Times by Eric Rasmussen