Synchronicity: 1983/84

Police provide an intense rock show...

Sting of the rock group Police knew he'd have to explain the postponement of Wednesday's concert - blamed on his sore throat - sooner or later, so he chose sooner. Just before the band tore into There's a Hole in My Life at Joe Louis Arena Thursday night, the bassist, singer and prettiest face in the trio explained that he attended his first baseball game Tuesday night at Tiger Stadium.

''I shouted my f------ head off for your team,'' he said to a thunderous ovation. ''It was nothing. Anytime.''

If that type of humor seems uncharacteristic for Sting or mates Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland, then you don't know the Police. Their recorded work, with its musical intricacies and brooding (though witty) lyrics, may indicate a serious bunch, but they're not quite that way in concert. When rock's latest gods - they have the No. 1 album (Synchronicity) and single (Every Breath You Take) in the country - play the world's leading arenas, it's an unpretentious, intense rock'n roll show that's pleasing to the terminal hipsters as well as the Journey-loving teenagers.

Take the highlight of the evening, one of the finest live videocasts to grace a rock stage. It wasn't touted like inferior counterparts for Journey and Simon and Garfunkel. And though the light show was arresting, there was little pre-show boasting about it.

So it's not unusual for this humble trio to bounce around like the Three Stooges or flash funny faces at each other. On Thursday, a three-minute mid-show rest was even referred to as a tea and biscuits break. But the music never suffered. Stripped of its studio polish, the Police - with the help of three backup singer-dancers - delivered its songs with raw urgency. Sting's bass and Copeland's snare-happy drumming carried the repertoire, while Summers alternated between blankets of synthesized guitar and crunching power chords.

The show was rich with hits, of course. 'Message In A Bottle', 'Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic', 'Don't Stand So Close to Me', 'Invisible Sun' and the rest often sounded like different songs, while the numbers from the band's first album, 'Outlandos d'Amour', - 'Roxanne', 'Next to You', 'So Lonely' and 'I Can't Stand Losing You' - sounded the most natural. Also strong were the wealth of tunes from 'Synchronicity'. Eight were played, all sounding more upbeat than the somber tone of the album.

The evening's only drawback had nothing to do with the band. The crowd uniformly misbehaved as fans crowded the aisles and jumped between seats they didn't have tickets for. One fight in the Lower Bowl after the show injured a few innocent bystanders.

Opening act Joan Jett was the mediocre portion of the evening. Her 45-minute, 12-song set was also high on energy but short on the refreshing talent that makes the Police such a formidable live or studio attraction.

(c) The Detroit Free Press by Gary Graff

Police arrest 18,000 suspects...

The Police, with guests Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Thursday and tonight at Joe Louis Arena.

Here's one for liberals: The Police are gaining more powers of arrest and there are no complaints, least of all from the 18,000-odd at Thursday's concert.

The English rock trio is stronger and less idiosyncratic these days, making more emotional music, and its concert performances reflect the fresher, direct appeal.

Flashier and more self-conscious than previous years. Thursday's edition of The Police showed evidence it's only starting to tap its strengths. The less said about Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, the better. Suffice to say, the group was totally misplaced as a warm-up.

No longer is Sting The Police's sole visual attraction. Andy Summers is high-stepping now, too, while still providing those ever-shifting shades of sound on synthesized guitars. 

Stewart Copeland doesn't leap over the drum kit much now, but he gets around. In addition to the drums, he's playing an assortment of percussion instruments on a separate podium and he keeps busy hopping from one place to the other.

The Police are also using an excellent large screen video set-up this tour. Understandable. 100, because one of the tour sponsors is the video cable television network. MTV. The switching and camera angles were professional Thursday, not distracting like the recent Journey video production but certainly not the dull, pedestrian system Simon and Garfunkel employed at the Silverdome.

Number three was 'Walking In Your Footsteps', led by Sting blowing the opening notes on a pan pipe and Copeland responding on glockenspiel and congas. A popular 'Message In A Bottle' followed, hepped up by an adrenalin injection from Summers, then Copeland grabbed back the spotlight in 'Demolition Man'.

The difference an inventive, musical drummer can make to a band is plain when the blond American, Copeland, plays. He's as important as Mick Fleetwood is to another English band of renown.

Another 'Synchronicity' song, 'My God', preceded the hit, 'De Do Do Do De Da Da Da', which featured three back-up vocalists on harmonies. They were dressed in Arabian gowns, reflecting the 'Tea In The Sahara' references on 'Synchronicity', maybe, but they were never introduced. A pity, because the harmonies helped sculpt The Police melodies in a way the brass sections or Sting's high-pitched howls on past tours never could.

The first seven songs were played non-stop. FM-radio style, and by the time there was a breathing space on the new ballad. 'Wrapped Around Your Finger', all 18,000 fans were cheering. The pace The Police establish should be copied by other rock bands they ignore the usual fast-slow-fast format for a series of mounting crescendo but they always leave enough energy in reserve for the finale. And there's thankfully little blather between songs.

Actually, this year's Sting model is a more fuel-efficient performer, less intent on skipping around and more concerned with emphasizing the vocals. Gone, too, is the stand-up bass that was an early career trademark.

The sore throat which led to the cancellation of Wednesday's show, Sting informed the enthusiastic crowd, was the result of cheering for the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday watching his first-ever baseball game.

Not everything about Thursday's show was pleasing. The group messed up 'Spirits In The Material World' when Sting lost control of the bass line and 'Invisible Sun' was accompanied by a gimmicky, uninspiring video collage of scenes from Northern Ireland, a stale political statement that was out of place in the context of the rest of the show. 

There was a three minute tuning break half-way through, then the group played its biggest hits, like 'Every Breath You Take', 'Don't Stand So Close To Me', 'Roxanne' and an encore of three songs from the first al bum. It wasn't until the encore, in fact, that strains of the old reggae returned.

And Joan Jett? She proved stolen chords from the Rolling Stones. The Who and the Beach Boys don't make a rock band.

(c) The Windsor Star by Ted Shaw