Hartford performance falls short for Sting - Band has few kinks to work out on tour; Concrete Blonde solid as opening act...
The last couple of times Sting played Connecticut, it seemed it was he was well enough along into his tour that the band was cohesive, the set list logical and the evening satisfyingly musical.
His return engagement at the Hartford Civic Center Friday, however, was among the first of the arena dates for 'The Soul Cages' tour.
So some wrinkles had not yet been ironed out (as had not been the guitarist's shirt, as the Stingmeister playfully pointed out).
The bandleader, looking trim and sleek in black T-shirt, jeans and boots concentrated mainly on the new album.
Kicking off with the infectious 'All This Time', though, it wasn't as if these were unfamiliar tunes to the surprisingly young crowd.
But whereas Sting could formerly count on a seasoned, jazz- steeped band to stretch out his songs, here it seemed the spare backing-guitar, drums and keyboards to Sting's bass-had fewer places to go.
David Sancious, the former Bruce Springsteen and Peter Gabriel sideman, provided a few outstanding piano solos and briefly displayed some guitar virtuosity as well.
But guitarist Dominic Miller, with a rock background, didn't mesh particularly well with Sancious' approach, and at any rate was underused overall.
Instead of shifting backwards and forwards in time subtly and building to the crowd pleasers and surprise cover tunes, Sting plunged right into things like 'Roxanne' and a confounding 'Purple Haze' early on.
His pop songwriting style is fairly airtight and normally doesn't allow for a lot of improvisation. So when he stretched out songs past their recorded perimeters, they seemed to largely wander.
An exception was a perfunctorily short 'Fortress Around Your Heart'.
The Police classics lacked the sheer precision of his former bandmates.
Sure, they were can't-miss selections that made the crowd sing along. But it was less clear how much Sting cared about those old songs.
When he returned to a pair of songs from 'The Soul Cages' toward the end of the set, it was obvious how much more he had invested in them-providing probably the best moments of the night.
A one song encore (featuring the only song from his last solo album) seemed a skimpy way to end.
Here's hoping the tour comes around again this summer, this time fully road tested.
It wouldn't be a mistake to bring along the same opening acts: the percussionist Vinx who played briefly and L.A.'s top-notch Concrete Blonde, who turned in a solid and diverse performance.
(c) Hartford Courant by Roger Catlin
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