Soul Cages: 1991/92

Softened Sting fails to stun...

It was short and not so sweet.

The Friday night Sting concert at the Smith Center lasted for little more than an hour, but the minutes seemed to drag. 

The problem, however, wasn't the performer's lack of stage time, it was his song selection.

"Soul Cages," Sting's latest album, chronicles an emotional period in the pop star's life. After a three-year writing hiatus and the death of his parents, the native of Newcastle, England, took up his pen again. What transpired were songs that dealt with death and life. The troubled musician. went back to his roots and began a healing process.

Sting's soul-searching added a new dimension to his music, semi-autobiographical ballads and a jazzier sound. The "Soul Cages" material is touching. The words, however, must be audible, and the atmosphere laid-back.

That doesn't happen in an arena that houses nearly 11,000 people. So, although the music is pleasant, the grandness of a rock tour works against Sting's solo repertoire. In a utopian society, last Friday's show would have been in a lounge or a smaller concert hall. It's hard to feel the emotional passion in the upper deck (even in some lower sections) of the Smith Center, where performers look like specks on stage. The former chief of the Police is an actor and uses exaggerated movement to its fullest, but it's not enough. People who weren't in the floor seats got a raw deal.

Sting's popularity works against him. Not many promoters will pass up sure sales. Booking a huge arena might be necessary to accommodate all the fans, but one way to keep them happy would be to play smaller shows, more nights.

Given the circumstances, Sting and his band put on a technically correct show. The sound was tight. David Sancious' keyboard deftness added vitality to a sedate show; Dominic Miller provided licks on the guitar and drummer Vinnie Colaiuta pounded out a core rhythm. Sting stuck to the bass, except for the brief encore, when he pulled out an acoustic guitar and gave a quieting rendition of 'Fragile', from his 1987 album, 'Nothing Like the Sun'.

But emotional enthusiasm was missing throughout the show. Sting looked listless, and lacked vigour. It seemed like his trip to the Smith Center was a gig he had to do, so he did it.

It wasn't all bad, but it could have been much better.

Sting, clad in black from head to toe, began the show by sauntering on stage, wasting no time, starting into 'All This Time', one of his newer songs. It's not a get-down-and-jam tune. The next two, 'Mad About You' and 'Jeremiah Blues', slowed the pace even more. While the band sunk into a rhythmic groove, members of the audience reclined in their seats.

It took the sixth song, 'Roxanne', from Police days, to jolt the audience out of sluggishness.

Instead of an immediate cooldown, 'When the World is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around', followed by 'King of Pain' were cranked out for those who remembered the 39-year-old from the early '80s. 'Message in the Bottle' provided another trip down memory lane. It's not that Police tunes weren't welcomed, because they drew the most hoots and applause. It seemed like robbery, though. Sting is solo, now. Some of that old stuff, has to be left behind.

However, it's a good thing Sting brought yesterday's gold along, because the crowd yelled for more and more.

Vinx, a conga drummer, and Jeff Campbell, a familiar face to many Triangle residents, joined the band on stage for 'If You Love Somebody'. Campbell, a Chapel Hill High School graduate and a native of Carrboro, has previously toured with Sting. These days he makes a living playing music in New York City.

Campbell stuck around for two songs, and did a one-on-one string jam with Sting for 'Every Breath You Take'.

During the final songs, the band actually showed some spunk. They had lacked that raw quality that adds to a performer's desirability.

They seemed so schooled; if only they had cut loose.

There wasn't enough soul to bring them out of their cages.

(c) Chapel Hill News by Anne Blythe

Perfect pace keeps Sting in full swing...

Whether the fans packing the Smith Center had come to experience Sting in the obligatory concert to support his new album or were hoping for a Police retrospective, the point is moot. They got plenty of both.

'The Soul Cages', his new A&M Records release, represents Sting's unshackling of a three-year writer's block, caused in part, he says, by his failure to deal with the death of his father in 1987. But by immersing himself in childhood memories and honing storytelling skills learned from Brazil's Kaiapo Indians during his work with the Rainforest Foundation, he finally broke through. So it can be argued that the current tour is a celebratory affair, and Friday's concert sure felt like it.

This was essentially the same Sting who hosted NBC's 'Saturday Night Live' in January. Clad in black, from T-shirt, jeans, boots and even fretless black bass, the 39-year-old native of Newcastle, England, appeared anything but brooding.

The crowd was his from the moment he took the stage, and he wasted no time getting to the new material, kicking off with 'All This Time', the first single from 'The Soul Cages'. Dispensing with the oboe, saxophone and Northumbrian pipes that coloured the studio effort, his tight four-piece band locked into a rock-jazz groove and didn't relinquish it all evening.

Stripped of excess instrumentation, the songs from 'The Soul Cages' were more immediate. Sting, whose lyrics at times seem deliberately ambiguous, displayed a sense of humour that belies the seriousness of his image. For a little ice-breaker, he served up a quick cup of tea (in the Smith Center, not the Sahara) to make himself feel at home. And between numbers he challenged different sections of the arena to a hooting contest.

''We're playing South Carolina tomorrow night,'' he told them. ''You don't want them to be louder than you are, right?'' And for a little extra flash, there was some righteous hip-shaking (feminine squeals noted) during 'When the World is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around'.

Through it all, Sting pumped away on his bass with two-handed fury, turning at times to face his mates in virtuosic rapture. David Sancious soared on keyboards. Dominic Miller recalled former Police guitarist Andy Summers on some cuts and staked out new territory on others. And Vince Colaiuta tempered the rhythm with timepiece precision. Arguably it's Sting's best unit ever.

The material was evenly distributed, with six cuts from 'The Soul Cages' and other numbers from his Police and solo repertoire. He baited the crowd, calling for requests and got several. 'Roxanne' was at the top of the list, and with it he launched into a series of Police hits, including 'Bring on the Night' and 'King of Pain'.

Wrapping up the night was an incendiary version of Jimi Hendrix's 'Purple Haze', followed by 'If You Love Somebody Set Them Free' segueing into the seductively malevolent 'Every Breath You Take'.

For the encore, he exchanged bass for acoustic guitar and delivered the hauntingly delicate 'Fragile' from '...Nothing Like the Sun'. The perfect coda to a concert flawlessly paced and executed.

Concrete Blonde, an L.A. threesome, opened with a punchy if muddy set. Former Roxy Music drummer Paul Thompson's bass thumps echoed like cannon shots. Surprisingly, singer/bassist Johnette Napolitano was most effective on the acoustic 'Wendy'. James Mankey's guitar seemed lost in cavernous mix. Percussionist Vinx, sort of a stand-up with a conga drum, worked the crowd for the main attraction. Then Sting took the stage and the thunder came down.

(c) The Raleigh News & Observer by Chuck Waters

Sting still intimate playing to thousands...

Sting is one of the most cerebral figures on the rock scene.

His success offers encouraging evidence that there's still room for intellect in pop music. He values the subtlety of musical expression and rarely panders to his audience, although he's capable of writing a hit almost at will.

His new album, 'The Soul Cages', is a brave and introspective look into the self, triggered by the death of his parents.

A comfortably packed house at the Dean E. Smith Center welcomed Sting with open arms Friday night. His music received a hearty, visceral response from 10,525 fans, who leaped to their feet from the opening number. The fans seemed willing and eager to sway along to anything that contained a semblance of a beat. Sting played nearly every song from 'The Soul Cages', wrapping blocks of material from that album around what amounted to a run-through of greatest hits by his old band, the Police, a segment occupied the middle portion of his two-hour show.

He seems to have made peace with his past as a Police man; earlier solo tours found him avoiding their repertoire almost entirely. In any event, the crowd was plenty tickled to hear the choppy chords and reggae beat of 'Roxanne', which has long since passed into the realm of rock standard. He also offered 'King of Pain', 'Message in a Bottle' and, as a climactic finale, 'Every Breath You Take'. During the show, Sting also worked in two cover songs: Bill Withers' 'Ain't No Sunshine' and Jimi Hendrix's 'Purple Haze'.

The former seemed designed to let keyboardist David Sancious take a long solo turn. 'Purple Haze', on the other hand, came off kind of silly and completely removed from Sting's suave, unruffled persona. Why bother?

The last time he played Chapel Hill, Sting had a quasi-jazz band in tow, with saxophonist Branford Marsalis as the instrumental centerpiece. There are no real jazzers in the current touring band, however. Sting fronted a small combo, playing bass himself and being joined by Sancious, a guitarist and drummer.

Maybe economics has something to do with the reduced scale, but it all worked to the good, as the playing was clean and uncluttered. There were few pyrotechnic peaks of the kind rock fans are accustomed to witnessing in the course of a concert.

Most everything along that line belonged to the opening band, Concrete Blonde, which played a well-received set. Instead, Sting's ensemble chugged along at a polite, musicianly simmer. Most of the time, it suited the calm, collected temperament of his music. On occasion, though, it skirted boredom, becoming almost too genteel and aloof for its own good.

Still, Sting communicated the emotional essence of his new album without resorting to stagy gimmickry, and the audience was willing to give him the latitude to express himself. The effect was particularly stunning on 'The Wild, Wild Sea', which gradually built over about ten minutes to a crescendo that sounded and felt like a storm at sea.

Music this intimate rarely works in arenas; Sting proved to be the exception to the rule.

(c) The Greensboro News & Record by Parke Puterbaugh

Sting sinks into ennui...

Although I'm not that big a fan of his music, Friday night was the fourth time I've seen Sting in concert, more than any other major rock figure.

The first was 1982, a loose, hot, exuberant show by his old band, the Police. By the time the group rolled back through two years later as superstars, they sounded forced and humourless. In 1988, at the Smith Center, Sting seemed relaxed and enthusiastic again, but he was backed by an oversized, jazzy aggregation, and the music was unfocused.

That's why I attended his return to the Smith Center Friday night with cautious optimism. He was playing bass again, touring with a small combo. His new album, 'The Soul Cages', retains the artsy pretensions of his previous solo albums, but at least he's incorporating more of the pop hooks that made the Police so memorable.

Before I and about 15,000 other attendees got the chance to judge Sting's latest incarnation, the L.A. trio Concrete Blonde played an energetic set of blustery rock tunes, led by Johnette Napolitano's singing and bass playing. With her big, booming voice and images of vampires and beasts, love and loss, Napolitano came across like a cross between Ann Wil son of Heart and Stevie Nicks. Though somewhat histrionic, Concrete Blonde's set was moving and effective, particularly 'Tomorrow, Wendy', a chilling rant at God after a friend's death of AIDS.

Sting first emerged to introduce Vinx, an unremarkable solo singer-percussionist from L.A. (given to jokes that put him dangerously close to Uncle Tom territory) whose soon-to-be-released debut album of jazzy soul tunes he produced. Three players backed Sting - a guitarist, drummer, and a veteran keyboard player, David Sancious on a relatively unadorned stage backed by a black curtain. He maintained a warm, friendly demeanour throughout his concert, cracking jokes and asking for requests before launching into a series of Police songs.

But while he started his set off right with 'All This Time', the best pop song on 'The Soul Cages', he quickly faded, sinking ever deeper into boring pretense. Sting's choice of Jimi Hendrix songs to cover highlighted the difference between his last tour and this one. In 1988 it was 'Little Wing', which worked OK as a jazzy ballad; in '91 it was 'Purple Haze', which eludes a mannered hunk like Sting, though it did serve as a long overdue changeup after yet another in- terminable ballad.

Much of 'The Soul Cages' lyrics deal with Sting's working-class British childhood, and like many other self-made working-class people before him, he con- fuses technical complexity and perceived respectability with engaging music. In theory there's nothing wrong with his attempting to outgrow the Police's polyrhythmic pop, but in practice he's tried to do so with formless, tiresome attempts at art.

Sting's show was split about evenly between dispassionate music from his solo career 'Set Them Free', 'Fortress Around Your Heart', much of 'The Soul Cages' - and far superior Police numbers - 'Roxanne', 'Message in a Bottle', 'Every Breath You Take'. Unfortunately, the Police songs were almost all marred by drawn-out, improvisational interludes completely inappropriate to their tight construction.

If anything, the smaller band only accentuated Sting's distance from the contemporary classical music he professes to admire and the kind of rock'n'roll show he tried to stage at the Smith Center. At least in 1988 he seemed to be presenting his music in a way that mattered to him; Friday night he came across as a bored pop star looking for every excuse to veer off into breezy noodlings.

(c) The Herald Sun by Eddie Huffman

Sting performance shows grace, vigour, style...

Sting stopped off at the Dean E. Smith Center Saturday night with a deliberately streamlined 'Soul Cages tour'. Performing two hours before a capacity crowd, he provided an evening of wonderful entertainment.

Sting and his three-member band performed with minimal staging and lighting. The focus of everything was music, not rock flashiness, and the band did a superb job.

Sting's vocals, on the whole, were outstanding. He growled 'Roxanne', belted out 'Purple Haze' and was intensely moody on such songs as 'Every Breath You Take'. There were no back up vocalists; none were needed.

Sting, who turns 40 later this year, opened the show with his current hit, 'All This Time', a moving tribute to his late father.

Sting seemed to have realized his own mortality and sang his songs with an a wistful passion, particularly three from his latest album, 'Mad About You', 'Jeremiah Blues' and 'Why Should I Cry For You'. The band then performed 'Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone', turning it into a jazz-influenced free-for-all. Changing directions, Sting charged headlong into high energy versions of 'Roxanne', 'When The World Is Running Down' and 'King of Pain'.

The singer altered the mood again when he sang the contemplative and eerie 'Fortress Around Your Heart', 'The Wild Wild Sea' and 'The Soul Cages'.

His voice was haunting and evocative.

Sting is a musical chameleon; he went from eloquent surrealism to raucous. The band's version of 'Purple Haze', the rock anthem of the '60s, was a show stopper.

Special mention must be made of David Sancious' keyboard work. He was nothing short of brilliant, especially on 'When The World Is Running Down' and 'Mad About You'.

Dominic Miller was on guitar and his best work was 'Purple Haze' and 'King of Pain'. Drummer Vinnie Colaiuta was fantastic during 'Message In A Bottle'.

Sting played the bass throughout the show, but switched to the guitar during the encore song, Fragile. His voice and playing for this quiet piece were clear and pure.

Sting is a consummate performer. His current work is solemn and thoughtful, yet he can still rock with the best of them. If the 'Soul Cages' tour is any indication the singer is approaching middle-age with style, grace and vigour. Rock audiences are very fortunate.

(c) The Sanford Herald by Roxie Ray