Soul Cages: 1991/92

Sting "captures" the Arena, but only partially...

The rock star seems to have reached a career plateau, awaiting a breakthrough. The show held up until halfway through, then the tension eased, and the audience booed a few times. Easy tricks and easy repertoire, often touching on his latest album but more readily on songs by The Police.

Sting may be the Hamlet of rock, given his pale princely air and subtle intellectual nit-picking, but the other night at the Arena, he showed up with crystal-clear ideas. Playing the third concert of his Italian tour, he immediately launched into a very muscular, slightly thuggish jazz-rock style, not averse to easy digressions back to his early career, and even quips in Italian like an old beer buddy, just to please the eager audience and belie his image as a haughty rock star. It was reminiscent of the Police, that music always on the elastic, a Police version updated for the '90s: nervous and verbose like certain fusion bands so popular today, Dominic Miller and Vinnie Colaiuta were the Summers and Copeland of the situation, although without the nuances of the originals, while David Sancious added a touch of flair with his brilliant boogie touch on the keyboards.

The show continued until about halfway through, when Sting, convinced he had captured the Arena, indulged in two long, boastful tracks from his latest album, 'Soul Cages' and 'When the Angels Fall,' releasing more coloured smoke from the microphones than he actually did. A sense of regret behind him. It was a minor disaster. The tension immediately dropped, uncomfortable gaps opened up between the instruments, and that sickly sweet, overly perfumed air that anti-Sting weather forecasters always predict in his area began to waft. Even the audience noticed, booing the boring poet a few times and welcoming Zucchero's surprise entrance (so to speak) as a relief. With a few of his trademark jabs at the big target of 'Muoio Per Te' (his Italian version of 'Mad About You'), he brought the concert out of its doldrums and brought the music back to life. Three songs later, the Italian-British duet scene repeated itself, with an 'Every Breath You Take' too easy and trampled to be true; and there, the appearance of the Modena hero became downright embarrassing, because the audience's cheers seemed to point to him as the big star and the other as the provincial guest, something not even the magician from Pescantina would have predicted just a few months ago.

That Zucchero's facile populism is not only compatible with Sting but even manages to teach him something is a surprising and thought-provoking fact. Indeed, the English artist seems to have reached a plateau in his career, where contact with the public matters more than musical strategy. The big ideas may have been spent, his image has begun to define and even crystallize: and, while waiting for who knows what revelation, Sting finds nothing better than to make himself available to his fans, stimulating them with easy tricks and convenient repertoire options, even lowering his profile as a committed and aware artist. The only glimpse of a "social" Sting came in the encore of "They Dance Alone," the song dedicated to the mothers of Argentina's desaparecidos, which was also the emotional high point of the show.

Even the band behind the protagonist seems to fit this choice. Gone are the elegant virtuosos of years past - Omar Hakim, Branford Marsalis, Kenny Kirkland - and the taste for swinging embroidery has given way to psycho-fusion artillery: Vinnie Colaiuta, a former Zappa student, is a brisk light heavyweight drummer, and Dominic Miller is a talkative guitarist like so many these days, devoted to the visionary catechism of St. Jimi Hendrix. It was a pleasure for him at one point to belt out "Purple Haze," a classic piece by his maestro, which Sting spruced up with industrial-metal hues just to wow the audience.

The repertoire often touched on the shores of the latest album, "The Soul Cages," but even more willingly ventured back into the Police woods, almost completely skipping, surprisingly, the famous pages of his early solo LPs. The audience asked for nothing better, and with 'Roxanne,' 'Message in a Bottle,' 'Tea in the Sahara,' and 'King of Pain,' they happily accepted the bait, even though many versions were garbled for the sheer desire to reshape the original; a way of balancing past and present, if you will, a ploy to avoid being seen as simply nostalgic. The Police issue exists, however, and Mr. Sumner would do well to reflect on it, given that the concert didn't point to any other avenues. Perhaps a sensational reunion is on the horizon and in any case, ideas are needed if Sting wants to continue touring the world in music without losing credibility, finding large, affectionate crowds like the one at the Arena the other night.

(c) Arena by Riccardo Bertoncelli (thanks to Valeria Vanella)

The Arena enchants Sting...

The two concerts by the former Police were a success (and sold out) in Verona. But not everything about the show was a success.

As expected, the Verona Arena, with its magic and its enthusiastic audience that packed the stalls and stands, enchanted Sting, warming up a show that had been too troublesome at its Milan premiere to be perfect.

Overcoming a bothersome drizzle that dusted the audience with rain for the first half hour of Friday's concert, Sting was able to perform his entire show, without interruptions. The show was based primarily on old Police hits and almost all of the latest album, "The Soul Cages," with a four-piece supported by the creativity of David Sancious and freed from the burden of computers and complex arrangements.

Sting, however, is not a rock 'n' roll artist. And his personal production is too delicate, too light to compete with the more forcefully immediate sound of the group with which he debuted. And in such a large space, tension drops become inevitable, especially when, during the long moments not supported by the rhythm but suspended in mid-air, much of the audience begins to get distracted and, with loud shouts and paper ball throwing, becomes more concerned with getting those standing in the front rows to their seats than with following the songs.

So the real thrills come when the notes of 'Roxanne,' 'Every Breath You Take,' 'Message in a Bottle,' 'King of Pain,' resound, or when Zucchero hops onstage, sly as a country cat, called upon to help lift the mood.

A success regardless. And the possibility of a few dates in July with an exceptional trio: Sting, Zucchero, and Eric Clapton is already being floated.

(c) Il Veronese by Giò Alamo (thanks to Valeria Vanella)

Sting, a few drops for 15,000 fans...

Is it raining or not? Ten minutes before Sting's highly anticipated concert began, the sky dissolved the secrecy, "washing" the 15,000 people who packed the Arena.

So, at 9:50 PM, when the rock star - dressed in black with a light-colored "fringed" jacket - entered the stage and began "All This Time," the rain was already putting on its own show.

But less than half an hour into the evening, the rain decided to be merciful and finally stopped. A few drops thus accompanied the first part of the concert, greeted by the audience with uncontainable enthusiasm.

An enthusiasm that, from the notes of the remake of "Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone," gradually increases with the performance of "Roxanne" and many other hits, not only by "Sting" solo, but also by The Police.

Between songs, Sting offers brief samples of his Italian: he greets the audience, introduces the band (David Sancious on keyboards, Dominic Miller on guitar, and Vinnie Colaiuta on drums), and even comments on some of his songs. All this to the general ecstasy. A ecstasy that reaches its peak when Zucchero appears on stage, yes, him. The two friends sing together the Italian version of "Mad About You," "Muoio Per Te." The excitement is sky-high, and remains so until the end of the concert, which concludes at 11:35 PM with an encore. To bid farewell to the Arena, where he will be performing tonight, Sting once again draws on his limited knowledge of Italian and repeats "Grazie Verona. Arrivederci" several times, a chant joined by "Sugar" Fornaciari.

For Sting's concert, which featured the usual "sideline" of T-shirt vendors, spectators began queuing at the gates at 2:30 PM.

(c) The Arena (thanks to Valeria Vanella)