Reggatta de Blanc: 1979/80

The Police were not at all arresting...

The Police in concert at the Orpheum last night.

The Police are baffling. They make some of the most provocative music on the new wave scene, yet so far in their Boston visits they just haven't lived up to expectations on stage.

Last year's Paradise show was, frankly, a flimflam con job. The Police, by their own admission, hadn't rehearsed enough songs. Not only did they stretch songs exasperatingly (their hit 'Roxanne' became a flabby 10-minute-plus opus), but they ended up repeating their 'Can't Stand Losing You' number as an encore. It made for a disturbingly overblown evening.

Last night was less of a let down, but a let down nonetheless. The main culprit was an atrociously muddy sound mix - lead vocalist Sting might as well have been yelling from the centerfield bleachers for all that was heard and this factor severely undercut the band's impact. Hopefully the sound was better over the air (WBCN did a surprise live broadcast), because what went down inside was flabbergasting to say the least.

Granted, it was important to mike the bass and drums loud in order to dramatize the reggae feel the Police like, but it was quite another thing to submerge Sting's subtle lyrical postures into an inexcusable din. The result was often music befitting a garage recording.

Yet the Police themselves have to shoulder part of the blame for last night's let down. Their experiments with bass synthesizer and endless mike echo (as on last night's "The Bed's Too Big Without You") extended well beyond their album work and became overly gimmicky. A reggae/rock feel combined with futuristic electronics makes for chic, pioneering terrain, but the Police don't always carry it off with either modesty or restraint.

And where the band's new album, 'Reggatta de Blanc' (which is recommended listening despite the erratic nature of their live act) is laced with humour, especially in its outlook on modern neurosis, the band in performance is dry and overly serious. Even 'Walking on the Moon', which humorously compares the giddiness of love with "giant steps" on the moon, came off in a lukewarm cast last night.

This was hardly a joyous night comparable with some of this fall's best shows - Tom Petty, Robert Palmer and Garland Jeffreys to name a few. The Police still have not been able to translate their true esprit to the stage. Undoubtedly, many in last night's near sellout 2400 got off on their reggae rhythms, but the Police are much more than just a reggae band and the intricacy of their sound was again missing.

(c) Boston Globe by Steve Morse