The Police Patrol At Stages Night Club...
Like the heat in some old apartment buildings, The Police is one band that plays in spurts. The three-man band hit enough hot streaks Thursday night at Stages to be an exciting live act.
There was a lot of excitement surrounding the band's appearance at the night club. You could tell by all the record company types in the audience. The house was packed.
The Police is a different sort of band. It has a New Wave reputation but plays a good deal of acid reggae. Also, New Wave bands aren't supposed to use a lot of special effects and this one did. I guess that makes this British band kinky instead of New Wave.
The band that is riding the crest of its single 'Message In A Bottle' had a lot more to offer than just that. For one thing, the band members knew how to work an audience, not that it wasn't worked up already. After only a few numbers there were a lot of bobbers - not weavers - in the crowd. They were led by Sting on bass who took his job as half sportsman and half musician.
Sting did all the lead singing and was generally effective. He displayed a lack rock of confidence in his vocal talents by his heavy reliance on an echo effect on his voice. Actually he was good in a rough-and-ready way without it. The reverberation effect did work well, though, on a tune called 'Walking On The Moon'.
Stewart Copeland on drums and Andy Summers on guitar had reggae phrasing down to a science. It chopped and clicked. Occasionally Summers would stretch it out on guitar and sound like a regular rock'n'roller. The two of them sometimes contributed backing vocals, which added a barbaric touch. This was not a group to wallow in lush harmonies.
The only dull thing the band did was to get repetitious on a few reggae licks. Otherwise, the musicians created a lot of pleasant havoc considering there were only three of them. Their style was stabbing. It was not the kind of music you could listen to for hours but it was not intended that way.
(c) The St Louis Post-Dispatch by John S. Cullinane
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