Summer: 2012

Sting at Arena Zagreb - Teacher Žalac and a happy 'hive'...

Although the wave of hysteria surrounding the state matriculation exam is behind us, and although the wave of high school and university enrolment is just getting going, on June 27th, Zagreb, at least judging by the 'halved' Arena, welcomed an English teacher with relative restraint who came to give a few commendable 'lessons' with a group of five musicians.

Sting, while better known as Gordon Sumner, worked as a school teacher, and then his teaching field changed, so he 'taught' the Police to play and sing, and then, for a long time now, Sting has been giving good 'lessons' on how to keep his musical career in the commercial zone and out of the banal zone. When we have such a teacher, it's a shame that so many mainstream students have 'marked' - we don't know if this is due to the recession, or the shortened weekend and the call of the Adriatic.

Sting, as an empathetic teacher, did not take the 'marking' as a bad thing, but played a solid, professional and solid concert that justifies the title of the tour "Back To Bass", with the proviso that it could easily be called "Back To Rock". So, during the hundred-minute concert, Sting demonstrated the breadth of his authorial style and let the backing band do their thing (sometimes perhaps too much, but that's a matter of taste), sounding fierce and lively, by no means on autopilot.

The least enjoyable thing about the concert was the introductory music that put the gathered crowd to sleep, which is convenient if you sit down and take a few rounds of naps before Sting's performance, but those standing in the stands heroically fought against sleep to that music.

And when the English Gibonni came on stage, they lined up 'stabs': the opening trio with 'All This Time', 'Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic' and 'Englishman in New York' did not give peace to even the calmest pairs of limbs in the audience, the excitement was represented with 'Demolition Man' and 'I Hung My Head', and singing with the audience in 'Heavy Cloud No Rain'. Sting was accompanied by a five-member band (drums, guitar, violin, keyboards, backing vocals), for which the graffiti 'Urban &4, Sting &5' can be thought of because they are very well tuned and coordinated, for the rating 'excellent'.

The encore included 'Desert Rose' (which I never understood why it was so popular), and 'Every Breath You Take' (both of which were met with great approval from the audience) as well as the rocker 'Next To You', and Sting saved perhaps his best performance for the very end, the song 'Fragile', which has been performed, covered and reworked so many times that it sounded simple, fragile and lovely during the encore at Arena Zagreb. Sting managed to breathe life into it again, even though he had probably performed it thousands of times.

Although he did not perform some of his most famous songs ('Roxanne', 'Tea In Sahara', 'Don't Stand So Close To Me', 'If I Ever Lose My Faith In You'), the crowd did not lose confidence in Sting. On the contrary, judging by the singer's own satisfaction, it seems that Zagreb and he will see each other again.

(c) Muzika.hr