Summer: 2016

Yoga rocker Sting played well-coiffed adult pop...

The pop veteran oscillated between exuberant and well-meaning indifference in the beech forest.

There are few living musicians who can muster such an abundant hit catalogue as Sting can. The English pop veteran has a bag full of great and popular songs - both back to The Police days in the late 70s and early 80s, but certainly just as much from his more than 30-year career as a partying soloist. There's plenty to take. At Smukfest, the man with the middle name Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner opened the bag well and generously shared out his musical arsenal of stylish, well-coiffed adult pop.

It's almost too superior to open with two such great evergreens as "Every Breath You Take" and "If I Ever Lose My Faith In You", but you can afford that when you're Sting. To be superior. Sometimes, however, he is almost on the verge of being annoying and overly well-meaning. Over the top. He blows up the world-saving yoga-rock barometer.

The trim 64-year-old pop aristocrat and his generally tight-knit orchestra didn't wobble much during the fifteen-minute session at Smukfest. Maybe too little? At Sting n' friends, the dirt is completely under control. The smallest details. There is no room for cracks here. Zero holes in the armor. Not even when he and the band throw themselves into the jazzy jams, reggae excursions and Latin flirtations. They master and can do it all. A little too well. Often in a high school surplus-like way.

In general, there was the most juice and power in the old The Police songs. "Message In A Bottle" and "So Lonely" still possessed a beautiful lonely desperation. "Next To You" had a slightly grim and semi-punk cut. But songs from the solo catalogue also performed well. The chanting "Fields Of Gold" and the heavy C-section on "Englishman In New York" were in the closet.

Conversely, there were also several dead periods in between. "World Is Running Down" was something of a desert trek. "Roxanne" was sloppy, with Sting even having a hard time reaching the high register. A tame version of the Arabic-sounding "Desert Rose" floated unnoticed over the heads of the Smukfest audience. Indifference. 

However, Sting showed that he still has his right as a pop artist. A pop artist who lives high on the merits of the past. But some of his stuff still holds up. Yoga, herbal tea and mid-level t-shirts with low-cut V-necks set aside.

(c) Berlingske by Mads Hendrich