Sacred Love: 2003/05

Sting in Zurich...

No fewer than nine Sting concerts from early May, including the one at Antwerp's Sportpaleis, were postponed until the fall. Eight affected Sting fans went with Radio Donna to explore the 'Sacred Love' tour in Switzerland. Sting was clearly no longer bothered by a sore throat on Sunday evening in Zurich.

The Swiss audience adored Sting, even though his voice drowned out the first three songs in the overly composed instrumental work. With the quieter songs from the old days like 'Fragile' or 'If I Ever Lose My Faith in You,' Sting once again managed to plant a sting in your skin without it being painful. Yet, the lion's share of the set came from his latest offering, 'Sacred Love,' which, like so many albums over the past three years, bears the marks of September 11th. 'This War,' with its message "don't do nothing," is particularly thought-provoking. Sting didn't keep the audience waiting until the encore for his Police-era hits. With "Walking On The Moon" and "Every Breath You Take," he refreshed our collective musical memory without letting it get boring. The stage was a deep red for his Mount Everest of the set: "Roxanne." Sting had planned a long, relaxing mountain hike, but culminated with a powerful rock version of the song. "The concert was very innovative," concluded Sting fanatic Dimitri Nuytinck (27). "Sting likes to change his timbre and rhythms. Compared to the "Mercury Falling" concert at the Vooruit in Ghent a few years ago, he was much more relaxed, Nuytinck believes.

"Love you too," Sting called out to a fan on Sunday evening while playing with his mouth spray. That bodes well for his concert in Belgium this fall. Sting ended with "A Thousand Years." Sunday evening, you got a taste of his eternity.

(c) Het Nieuwsblad

Old and new freshness...

British pop singer Sting has escaped the danger of disappearing behind his own cliché. This was evident at his two Swiss concerts.

Sting graced the Swiss audience twice: On Sunday, the die-hard fans who had booked tickets early came to the Hallenstadion, and almost 10,000 people flocked to the additional concert on Saturday. They were right to do so, as Sting treated them to one of his best shows of the past 10 years.

There was hardly any hint that he had recently recovered from laryngitis. Sting sang confidently, mostly playing bass and sometimes acoustic guitar, flirting with the backing singer in duets, subtly pushing the pace on faster numbers, and revelling in ballads. He was supported by a five-piece band that seemed extremely confident and well-rehearsed, but not overly experienced. The percussionist is from Morocco, the drummer from Mississippi, but the band has an intuitive feel, like an animal that darts and roams, that experiences various moods throughout the course of an evening, yet the whole always feels cohesive.

Perhaps the fresh blood flow has done the ensemble some good: Sting has brought new musicians on board alongside the tried-and-true Dominic Miller on guitar and Jason Rebello on keyboards. The main part of the show consisted of songs from his current album, "Sacred Love," which revolve around personal matters as well as the great human questions of the search for meaning, war, and spirituality. Sting sings love songs, hymns of introspection, confessions, and captures energetic contemplation in words and music.

But whatever songs he chooses for such an evening, it's always Sting, essentially weaving his life's work further: combining diversely inspired pop music with atmospheric density and thematic persuasion. To the engagingly political lines of 'This War,' cartoon airplanes zoom across the video projection screens, dropping bombs, then we see oil derricks and refineries. The lyrics enumerate all the conflicts that threaten our existence, from the real war in Iraq to the destruction of nature and gender war to the cuts in education spending that cement social inequalities.

For several albums, clarity has been a danger for this highly gifted musician – that in the wave of harmony-drunk intensity, the fractures and contradictions that are also part of the world, of life, of properly understood music, disappear. On his current tour, however, Sting navigates these pitfalls with ease. He has now also managed the balancing act that threatened to strain his musical program for a while: His songs are designed to appeal to the broadest possible masses, and yet the singer can once again be experienced more strongly as an individual entertainer with his own goals and personal edge. The days are over when Sting threatened to disappear behind his own image. The 19-year-old songwriter Nellie McKay also made a refreshing impression in the supporting act with her debut 'Get Away From Me'.

(c) Tagblatt by Thomas Kramer