Soul Cages: 1991/92

A stunning end to summer - Sting rocks FLPAC with tight set and a killer light show...

It was the swan song for summer concerts at the Finger Lakes Per- forming Arts Center, and thanks to Sting, Bonnie Raitt and Chris Isaak, what a superb farewell weekend it was.

Those three acts- appearing on two separate nights over the Labour Day weekend - drew more than 18,000 people to Canandaigua and delivered two of the summer's finest shows. Raitt and Isaak kicked off the double play on Saturday night, and then last night, Sting closed the house with a lean, tight and highly visual show that seemed to please all of the people all of the time.

Over the years, Sting has consistently dabbled in various musical styles-jazz, reggae, pop - but last night's concert came from Sting the Hard Rock Musician. Sure, the jazz touches were there - most notably in David Sancious' piano solos and the band's frequent, groove-happy jam sessions - but from the opening notes of 'All This Time', Sting and his hard-working, three-man ensemble came out with their instrumental guns drawn.

And almost as impressive as the music was the light show, which covered the palette in terms of colour schemes and added visual kick to each and every song. When 'King of Pain' started, for instance, Sancious was imprisoned by alternate bars of lime green and gold light, and by the time the rest of the band joined in, each was similarly jailed. And for Sting's scorching rendition of 'Roxanne' - a song replete with free-form scat vocals and Dominic Miller's sharp guitar slaps the smoky stage was criss-crossed by royal blue and sea green beams one minute and drenched in a murky red bloodbath the next.

Sting took the stage and immediately ploughed into material from his recent 'Soul Cages' LP, a pleasant way to kick things off simply because the album is so good. After 'Time' came 'Jeremiah Blues (Part 1)', the foreboding ballad 'Mad About You', and, after a quick break to revive the classic 'Ain't No Sunshine', the plaintive 'Why Should I Cry For You?'

The crowd already seemed plenty ecstatic- not to mention appreciative - but when Sting plucked the first bass notes to 'Roxanne', the audience roar exploded into thunder. Like most of the songs before it, 'Roxanne' was given new life by Sting's solo-filled rock arrangement, and his roll continued with songs like 'King of Pain' (another Police tune), 'Fortress Round Your Heart', 'The Wild Wild Sea' and a blistering version of the Jimi Hendrix hit 'Purple Haze'.

All the while, clouds of stage smoke were trying to engulf the light beams, and that sort of creative lighting continued through super-charged renditions of 'If You Love Somebody Set Them Free', 'Walking on the Moon', 'Every Breath You Take' and 'Message in a Bottle'. For his lone encore, Sting chose the quieter Fragile.

As far as personality went, Sting sat directly opposite Bonnie Raitt: He was as aloof as she was chatty, as cocky as she was humble and as hard rock/reggae as she was blues and folk-pop. But if the two share one thing, it's respect for their music and audience, and this weekend, fans got the rare opportunity to experience both.

(c) The Times Union by Karen Krenis

Bad Sound mix mars beautiful music but concert still had its moments...

Sting fans expecting to hear songs from his stirring new 'Soul Cages' album at the Finger Lakes Performing Arts Center Monday night left disappointed.

So did those looking forward to enjoying classic tunes from Sting's earlier career, with The Police, on this warm September night.

Sting performed these songs, from 'Message in a Bottle' to 'All This Time'. He even threw in a few surprises, such as 'Purple Haze' and a song he noted he didn't write but just felt like singing: 'Ain't No Sunshine'. Yes, Sting performed them, but the audience didn't hear them.

The concert's sound mix was atrocious, often painful to the ears. Fans couldn't hear the music for all of the noise. The technicians at the sound board must think 'This Is Spinal Tap' is a training film.

'Spinal Tap' is the bitingly funny Rob Reiner parody of heavy metal, in which a guitarist for the title band shows off his personalized amplifiers, whose volume can be turned up, not to 10, but to 11, to give Spinal Tap that extra edge in concert.

Beautiful, haunting Sting melodies - 'Mad About You', 'Why Should I Cry For You', 'King of Pain', 'Be Still My Beating Heart', 'Wild, Wild Sea', 'Fortress Around Your Heart' - were almost impregnable Monday night, protected from enjoyment by great barriers of distortion.

Some of the blame for this sonic disaster inevitably must rest with the band - Dominic Miller on guitar, David Sancious on keyboards, Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, and Sting (looking extremely fit in a faded black T-shirt, tight black jeans and black boots) on bass.

Is it possible Sting was oblivious to how his band sounded? Did he did not notice folks pressing their ears closed when Miller would lay down one of his irritatingly high-pitched guitar solos, which he did with unfortunate regularity?

Perhaps the band was unaware, for it performed at that level for most of the night.

The evening was not without its highlights, however. He must have performed 'Roxanne' 10,000 times by now, but Sting offered the crowd an energetic reading of the signature Police tune. The performance never seemed obligatory. Everyone stood and cheered, and helped Sting send choruses of ''Roxanne-O!'' across the hills.

The concert closed with its most enjoyable moment, when Sting returned to play a single, quiet encore of 'Fragile', from the '...Nothing Like the Sun' album, joined by members of Special Beat, the English ska band that opened the show, and Vinx, a percussionist whom Sting has taken to producing.

''On and on the rain will say, how fragile we are, how fragile we are,'' Sting sang, accompanying himself on guitar.

At last, the audience could listen to the music, instead of being assaulted by it. But then Sting was gone, and the house lights came up, and a lot of people left feeling like they had missed something.

(c) The Post Standard by Grant Podelco

Sting's music has some real sting to it again these days...

Sting lived up to his name Monday night at the Finger Lakes Performing Arts Center.

After spending most of the '80s in pursuit of a lavish and lush new form of jazz-rock fusion, the mercurial superstar has returned to his hard-rocking minimalist roots. He fronted a bare-bones rock quartet for a loud and generous concert that was full of sharp-edged, prickly energy. Perhaps for the first time since the Police years, his music did, indeed, sting.

That's not to say Sting hasn't benefitted from his jazz-oriented, 'Bring on the Night' foray, for his new rock has a maturity, exuberance and the spontaneity to stretch and extend the rock sound from his days with the Police.

The new, lean-and-mean approach to the rock was evident throughout the night from Sting's skin-tight black- shirt appearance to a spectacular choice for a cover song late in the set: Jimi Hendrix's magical 'Purple Haze'.

Sting's aggressive new approach well as the night's instrumentation the singer-songwriter into a range of tunes that were mostly from his most recent 'Soul Cages' album, or from his even more minimalist Police days. Not many songs were heard from 'Dream of the Blue Turtles' or 'Nothing Like the Sun'.

'Soul Cages' offers a wealth of material, however, including the hard-driving 'All This Time', with which Sting and his three musicians opened the set.

On this, and most of the night's songs, Sting expanded the original studio versions by giving his instrumentalists plenty of solo leeway. Guitarist Dominic Miller responded with solid, attacking solos, while David Sancious added vitality and spice on piano.

Sancious, remembered for his appearances on Bruce Springsteen's first two albums, was the star instrumentalist of the night, keeping the jazz spirit of improvisation alive amid the high-energy rock of the Sting of today. In fact, his incredibly long yet inventive solo on 'When the World Is Running Down' provided the night's most memorable moments.

Sting seemed happy to be back on the bass - he's played guitar on his albums and appearances between the Police and 'Soul Cages' and he responded with a big, full, slapping sound that propelled the music. He also was in fit vocal form, articulating his often-poetic lyrics with his well-known smokey voice.

Though he structured most of the 110-minute set around the moody, artful 'Soul Cages' songs, Sting also re-energized some of his best Police material, delivering well-received new versions of 'Roxanne' and 'Message in a Bottle', and ending the set with a boisterous rendering of 'Every Breath You Take'.

(c) The Democrat and Chronicle by Jack Garner