Police Reunion: 2007/08

Perfectly synchronized - Message heard...

Last night, The Police established a musical bridge between artists and audiences at the Monterrey Arena, resulting in a delight for the trio's 7,000 fans who had waited 20 years for a unique evening.

Emotions suppressed for a long time often end up emerging, generating an explosion like the one that occurred yesterday at the Monterrey Arena, after the long wait to see The Police on stage.

The fans, and the band members themselves, had to wait more than 20 years to unleash their full energy to the rhythm of the punk that the British band established in the brief musical history they wrote between 1977 and 1986.

The Police arrived in Monterrey with the tour that began in Vancouver on May 27 of this year, and which by mid-2008—when it is scheduled to end—will have seen them perform more than 100 concerts around the world.

The London band's show was prodigious, featuring robotic lighting, high-definition images, and impeccable sound, allowing fans to hear every single hit through the nearly 100 speakers surrounding the stage.

Which wouldn't have been much use if the show designed by Sting, Andy Summers, and Stewart Copeland wasn't focused on emotions, like seeing them sharing the stage with the maturity they lacked in their prime to prevent the breakup of a band that had defined an era.

The moment of explosion barely occurred, and Stewart Copeland emerged on stage behind his drum kit, setting the tone for Sting and Summers to begin "Message in a Bottle" with the banging of a gong.

In this way, The Police's songs continued, most of them blending punk with the reggae rhythms that influenced the band—not for nothing is the band's appearance on stage preceded by a Bob Marley song.

'Synchronicity II' revealed the band members for the first time on the screen in the background, which provided a close-up view of each member's experience with at least seven cameras spread throughout the arena.

He rarely addressed the audience, but when he did, Sting showcased his Spanish in well-structured phrases that he interspersed throughout his songs, almost always to ask his fans for more energy with lines like "Louder, please."

The Police gave a detailed rundown of their discography, including songs like "Walking On The Moon" and "Voices in My Head." The vocalist himself gave his official crowd count for the Monterrey Arena, which wasn't at full capacity.

"We have 7,000 people here, so I want to see 14,000 hands," he expressed.

Sting appears as a smiling man who looks knowingly at his bandmates, who are mostly focused on their instruments while he walks around the stage during the musical breaks he gets.

"Don't Stand So Close To Me," "Driven To Tears," "Hole In My Life" with its six-piece set, and "Truth Hits Everybody" continued to alienate the thirty-somethings who dominated the audience.

By then, The Police had already captured the entire audience, but without needing to deprive them of their freedom, allowing everyone to enjoy their concert at their leisure.

The individual brilliance of the three musicians on stage stands out when listening to Summers' guitar solos or when Copeland took over the percussion with timpani and drums behind his drum kit.

"Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" became the most celebrated song of the night up to that point, the one that completely merged the band and audience with that famous "ooo / ooo" that was irresistible to sing along to.

After "Wrapped Around Your Finger," The Police offered a glimpse of social consciousness with their protest dedicated to those politicians (all of them) who only engage in gossip that ends in an unintelligible "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da."

Each verse and musical bridge announced the inevitable end of the encounter with The Police, one of the basic components of punk history in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

It was impossible for it to happen without those glimpses of the unmistakable hits the band left behind in rock history many years ago.

"Invisible Sun" showed on the screen images of children living in extreme poverty with Sting at their side, as if dedicating the song to them.

With "I Can't Stand Losing You," they filled the atmosphere with rock music before the classic chords that heralded the arrival of that famous streetwalker named "Roxanne" were heard.

The first false farewell left the stage empty for just two minutes, before The Police returned to finish with "King of Pain," "So Lonely," and "Every Breath You Take," which, more than lavishing musical beauty, echoed the emotion of listening to a contemporary rock classic.

A final breath with "Next To You" before they called it a day, finally bringing to life for the audience that fraternal embrace and bows that brought Sting, Summers, and Copeland as close as possible.

(c) Milenio