Sting's music more selective and so is his B.C. audience...
As the music of Sting becomes more selective, so does his audience. A year and a half ago, the blond, square-jawed, 41-year-old British rocker attracted 9,000 fans to the Pacific Coliseum concert bowl. By comparison a relatively scant 6,400 seats sold in advance of Tuesday night's gig.
Nonetheless, fans are fans, and those having graduated from radio-ready hits such as 'Roxanne' - by Sting's former outfit, The Police - to the jazzier noodlings of his five solo efforts were not disappointed. Arriving on stage in black jeans, black suede boots, white frill shirt and tux tails, the man known to his barrister as Gordon Sumner brandished a sunburst bass guitar and hardly looked his days.
He still primps preens and balances - albeit in a considerably more mature manner, and, hey, wouldn't we all like to look that good. Though the band and audience started off the evening as though a more exciting time could be had at the city morgue, spirits picked up by song number three and 'Love Is Stronger Than Justice (Munificent Seven)'.
An inexplicable offer of The Beatles' 'A Day In The Life followed shortly after, reinforcing the edict that certain songs - the Faces' 'Maggie May', The Stones' 'Midnight Rambler', Dylan's 'Like A Rolling Stone' among them - should not be rehashed by other artists. In a redeeming move, however, Sting dredged up a handful of Police hits, performing 'Synchronicity', 'Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic' and 'Roxanne' in a row.
The crowd responded with a thundering ovation and the singer relaxed considerably, offering witty between-song banter and amusing ancedotes before once again launching into the kind of chord structures Keith Richards and Ron Wood have never seen before.
A few more Police biggies arrived, notably 'King Of Pain' and the encore of 'Every Breath You Take', in addition to some genuinely moving pieces such as 'Fields Of Gold'.
Lets face it - he looks good writes swell songs and is probably the best rock bassist since Paul McCartney, but he often over does it lyrically and musically to the extent that you some times have to ask, ''Hey, Gord, who really cares?''
Opening with 'If I Ever Lose My Faith in You' from his latest, 'Ten Summoner's Tales', Sting and company - keyboardist David Sancious, guitarist Dominic Miller, and drummer Vinnie Colaiuta - proved their worth.
(c) The Vancouver Sun by Greg Potter
Crowd stung by musician's depth of song...
As soon as they heard that plaintive cry, the crowd of 6,000 knew they were going to hear what they had come to hear... at last.
"Roxanne!"
They jumped to their feet. They sang along. When the bass-playing singer engaged them in a brief call-and-response routine, they happily went along with that, too.
When the song was over, the bass-playing singer, Sting by name, looked around the Coliseum where he held centre stage and patiently waited for the appreciative applause, the loudest he'd received all last night to that point, to settle down.
This, and other Police biggies and a few of Sting's popular solo hits, is what they'd come for.
He had obliged by giving them 'Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic', 'King Of Pain', 'An Englishman in New York' and others.
But the rest?
The rest, well... most of the rest was drawn from Sting's current LP, '10 Summoner's Tales', and these created moments that must have tried the patience not only of Sting but of an audience that does not seem as certain that it likes this phase of Sting's career as much as it did the reassuringly popular and acceptable early era.
But Sting and his trio of David Sancious, Vinnie Colaiuta and Dominic Miller soldiered on anyway, summoning most of those 10 tales, a few of which, notably 'Fields Of Gold' and 'She's Too Good For Me', were among the evening's highlights.
With a basic black stage setting putting the focus entirely on the small combo, which in turn placed all its energy in supple, jazz-flavoured ensemble work, Sting's concert set seemed designed to scale his popular image down from crusading, imperious rock star to something more human - dedicated (but confident) musician, maybe, or just a guy who happened to write 'Every Breath You Take' or that other song... 'Roxanne'.
It is this transition that will supply the tales to be summoned in the future.
(c) The Province by Tom Harrison
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