Sacred Love: 2003/05

Sting' solid sound - high energy at Oakdale...

For all the mellowing of his sound, Sting is one of the few artists whose new work remains consistently interesting and commercially viable. Wednesday night, an enthusiastic full house at careerbuilder.com Oakdale Theatre capped off St. Patrick's Day with a high-energy show by the 53-year-old performer, a program that had its soft spots but was always remarkably polished.

Former Sting band member Chris Botti opened the show with a half-hour of fluttery jazz, blending his supple trumpet with the light keyboard ring of '1,000 Kisses Deep' and pumping up the R&B chop his four-piece band built into the core of 'Miami Overnight'. There was a pleasantly evocative melancholy when he alloyed his soft phrasing with the spare piano of 'My Funny Valentine', but his smooth jazz offerings were generally generic.

Sting's unique instrumental voice has always been the bass, so his emphasis on that strength was in his show's favor, beginning with his plucking at an acoustic upright bass for a jaunty jazz reinvention of the 1979 Police tune 'Walking on the Moon'. He shifted to an electric model on the pulsing techno-style romp of 'Send Your Love'.

The slithering funkiness of the bright pop-rock number 'Let's Forget About the Future' allowed Sting to work out the yelping high end of his voice, after which he moved to a supple breathiness on 'Dead Man's Rope'. Judged against the high standard of the hugely entertaining bands early in his solo career, Sting's current seven-piece troupe had a difficult time stacking up but was solid and well suited to carving out the thunderous rock of 'Synchronicity II'.

Sting's singing added presence to the catchy 'I Was Brought to My Senses' as Botti re-emerged to briefly adorn its thick bounce. But nothing Sting did with the lyrics of 'Whenever I Say Your Name' could validate its thickly slathered lite rock groove. His emphatically whispered singing gave focus to the consciousness number 'Fragile', but the heavy-handed imagery of bomb-dropping planes on the video screens behind him pushed the electric churn of 'This War' into realms of pretentiousness.

His tour, which will return to Connecticut on a bill with Annie Lennox at the Mohegan Sun Arena July 5, focuses on his current album at the expense of many of his hits. He skipped a couple of his solo albums entirely and avoided many Police highlights, but he did include an almost too-lengthy stroll through the hearty reggae of 'Roxanne' before he closed with the insistently buoyant 'Never Coming Home'.

When he led off his pair of encores with the rippling, Middle Eastern-tinged 'Desert Rose', it was one of several reminders of his interest in world music. Comfort and relaxation were hallmarks of Sting's entire performance, so when he eased off the stage with the hypnotically airy 'A Thousand Years', it was a fitting closer.

(c) The Hartford Courant by Thomas Kintner

Classic Sting thrilled crowd...

Thousands of dedicated fans packed the careerbuilder.com Oakdale Music Theater to capacity Wednesday night to see the unofficial king of contemporary pop.

Though currently touring in support of his 'Sacred Love' album, Sting opened his nearly two-hour set playing the acoustic bass on the Police classic, 'Walking On The Moon' from 1979's 'Regatta de Blanc'. But the rock legend was quick to play heavily off of 'Sacred Love', including the single 'Send Your Love' and the album opener, "Inside." Sting and his backing band were undoubtedly on. Every song sounded studio quality or better, yet as clean and full sounding as 'Sacred Love's' tracks were, they lacked the catchiness and groove of much of 

Sting's earlier work, like the ballad 'Field's of Gold' from 1993's 'Ten Summoner's Tales', which the crowd grabbed at joyously.

Songs like 'Dead Man's Rope', 'Forget about the Future' and the title track 'Sacred Love' were pleasant enough, but failed to stay in one's mind shortly after they were done being played. Still, 'Stolen Car (Take Me Dancing)', an odd tune about a psychic car thief, pleased the crowd with its light chorus and 'Whenever I Say Your Name', arguably the best track off of 'Sacred Love', flirted with serious soul. Though the album version of 'Whenever' finds Mary J. Blidge sharing vocals with Sting, backup singer Joy Rose did an absolutely stunning job belting out the song's powerful vocals in concert.

Nonetheless, it was the classics that truly thrilled the crowd. Most of the audience shot to its feet upon hearing the first few notes of 'Englishman in New York' from 1987's 'Nothing Like The Sun', and were similarly delighted with a lovely performance of that album's 'Fragile' featuring Sting on electric guitar.

But perhaps the highlight of the evening was Sting's performance of the classic 'Roxanne' from 1978's 'Outlandos d'Amour', which saw the audience sharing call-and-response vocals with the onetime Police bassist and frontman.

Sting continued to score with fine performances of 'Desert Rose', a catchy tune with a world music feel from 1999's 'Brand New Day' and the pop classic 'If I Ever Lose My Faith In You' from 'Ten Summoner's Tales'.

As clichéd as the song has become, there was still an undeniable pleasure in seeing the pop icon close his set with The Police's signature tune, 'Every Breath You Take'. Sting returned to the stage for an all-too-brief one-song encore of 'A Thousand Years', also from 'Brand New Day', leaving the crowd wanting just a little more vintage Sting.

Chris Botti, Sting's Trumpet player from his 'Brand New Day' tour, opened with his own 30-minute set of contemporary jazz, including the self penned 'Miami Overnight' from his 2001 release 'Night Sessions' and 'Why Not' from 1999's 'Slowing Down The World', peaking with his inspired performance of 'My Funny Valentine', as heard on his latest effort 'A Thousand Kisses Deep'.

(c) The Republican by Philip D'Amour