United We Stood, and stood, and stood!
United We Stood, and stood, and stood! YIPEEEEEEEE!
From start to finish, everything was fantastic! Dom started at 7:00 and played beautifully for 15 to 20 minutes when Sting joined him for 'Shape Of My Heart'. After that, Annie came on and was absolutely ''fired-up''! She was a rock star - totally. Her voice was so awesome, she really was amazing. I can't remember all the songs, but I do remember, 'Cold', 'Walkin' on Broken Glass', 'Missionary Man', 'Little Bird', 'Why', 'Sweet Dreams', she was so cool! After Annie, Dominic was going to be 3 floors up in the arena signing his 'Shapes' CD so I hauled up there from 2nd row on the main floor, to find a super long line, but I filed right in and security was hustling people through with only 5 minutes left to meet him - I was one of the lucky ones - praise God...
Dominic is such a beautiful, talented, charming man. He said he recognized me from down in the front, and he signed my CD ''To Arpeggio'' and then his signature. My hands were shaking so much I couldn't open the CD, so he said he would do it for me... funny. And with that, time was getting short and I hauled back down 3 levels to get to my seat before Sting started.
What can I say...it was absolutely the best time in the world! They sounded so great, and they are such a happy group of musicians. We (the crowd) really were feeding off their energy. The heat from the lights, their smiles, the music, the dancing... it was just really wonderful - and we stood, and we danced!
Sting was just terrific, he really made it possible for me to get some wonderful pictures of him, as did Dominic by coming over to my side of the stage a lot! The set list is the same as many have remarked already. Of course Kipper, and Joy were all a glow and smiley as usual - really trying to interact with the audience. It's got to be hard because the Target Centre holds thousands of people, and to try and interact with the whole audience must be difficult. However, the audience seemed pretty happy.
I turned around at one point just to look at the rest of the audience, and it really made me realize how close I really was to the stage. Some of the audience looked so far away, like little peas... poor souls. Anyway, at the end, I was able to shake Kipper, Joy Rose, and please forgive me, is the other back up singer's name, ''Donna''? I gratefully shook her hand as well.
Sting wasn't touching anyone's hands this time like he did back at the Northrop but I can't blame him, he did get terribly ill and have to cancel shows there for awhile... maybe he's being cautious this time... or maybe not. I still love him and he did a WONDERFUL JOB! They are such a tight group, you can tell they love each other a lot. It was SO MUCH FUN! STING ROCKS!
Have fun all who have yet to experience this leg of the tour.
(c) Arpeggio for Sting.com
Rare show of raw emotion...
Sting might have been the king bee at Tuesday's Target Center concert, but Annie Lennox had all the buzz.
From two of the leading U.K. pop bands of the 1980s - the Police and Eurythmics, respectively - each singer smoothly made the transition to the adult-contemporary music world as soloists in the 1990s. Their different approaches were on full display Tuesday, though, as Lennox had spunk and verve, while Sting coasted on New Age vibes.
Just slightly less so than his albums, Sting's concerts have become as conventional, numbing and self-serving as all those back-massage chairs on sale at the Sharper Image. Tuesday's 100-minute set did not differ a whole lot from his last Minneapolis performance, in February at Northrop Auditorium. The most noticeable difference was probably Tuesday's elaborate stage and giant video screen, offering oh-so-mystical images of belly dancers, mountains and moonscapes (oh, my!).
Lennox, on the other hand, has only done two tours in the past 10 years, and neither came to the Twin Cities. Sting even called her appearance ''a very rare treat'' when he came out to introduce his ''very dear friend.'' The two later performed together during Sting's slot, charmingly dueting their way through his jazzy '90s hit 'We'll Be Together'. But even that wasn't as spirited as Lennox's entire set.
Coming out in torn jeans, stylish shades and short hair as golden as her voice, the Scot looked and acted half her 49 years. Hers was the rare performance - much less the rare opening set - that started out mighty with 'Legend in My Living Room' and only got stronger and stronger.
Her soulful power-ballad 'Cold' couldn't have been hotter, hushing the crowd to pin-drop quiet in some parts and bringing her first standing ovation of the night. And that was only five songs into the 13-song set. She sharply contrasted that with hard-rocking versions of 'Missionary Man' and 'Sweet Dreams' in which she strutted around the stage with her microphone in hand, coming off like a feminine Steven Tyler (more feminine, that is).
Lennox didn't have to move anything except her wind pipes for 'Why', the soaring, tear-jerker of a finale. Even rarer than an Annie Lennox concert were the chills that song provided.
Sting's set simply never rose to those heights, although his legion of 8,000 or so fans (a smaller crowd than in the '90s) was, nonetheless, enamored with his every cocky gesture.
Old favourites like 'Roxanne', 'Every Breath You Take' and 'Synchronicity II' were wheeled out, all carrying the light-jazz baggage of his solo albums.
Maybe this tour with Lennox will convince him to put a little soul and more personality into it, or at least get his friend to tour more often.
(c) The Star Tribune by Chris Riemenschneider
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