Synchronicity: 1983/84

Police in Fine Form, High Spirits For an Arresting Performance...

The Police, the hit British rock trio, wound up the North American leg of their world tour Wednesday night in Memorial Auditorium in fine form and high spirits before a wildly enthusiastic sell-out crowd.

The group toasted the occasion with champagne as it played the first of two encores, while the opening band, Re-Flex, which is booked by drummer Stewart Copeland's brother, cavorted around wearing plastic garbage bags. A burly crew member popped from the wings and did a flip.

In a set that extended an hour and 45 minutes, The Police brought forth 18 songs that summed up the early and recent stages of their career, while largely ignoring the middle. Conspicuously absent was their 1981 hit, 'Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic'.

They opened with three progressively moodier numbers from their latest album, 'Synchronicity' the title track, 'Synchronicity II' and 'Walking in Your Footsteps' - before tapping into the lighter sentiments of the past for 'Message in a Bottle'.

Virtually all of the songs from 'Synchronicity' got played, but not everything was delivered with the same verve. They kissed off last summer's monster hit, 'Every Breath You Take', and treated some of their other successes rather diffidently as well. The familiar choruses of 'De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da' were so askew with odd harmonies that the melody was lost.

But the rest was superb. 'Living in the Material World' shimmered. 'Invisible Sun', which protests the troubles in Belfast, burned with dark power as singer Sting took to his synthesizer, and a crew member came out to play bass.

Dancers in the aisles revelled in 'Don't Stand So Close to Me'. The exit number - their first hit, 'Roxanne', which they have every right to be tired of - was brilliant, enhanced by a clumpy Sting bass solo and a vamp full of echo effects.

The most obscure number in the set was 'Murder by Numbers', which appears on the 'Synchronicity' cassette, but not the album. For the encores, they celebrated the past twice more with 'Can't Stand Losing You' and 'So Lonely'.

Sting was a dazzling blond gypsy in yellow jacket, red tasselled pants and tall laced boots. In fine voice, he pranced and leaped, added touches of oboe and Irish pipes and exhorted the crowd to yell responses and sing along on the various "Aa-ooh" choruses.

Guitarist Andy Summers cut a more intense figure in yellow pants and black robe with gray cuffs and collar. He cracked his absorption long enough to leap with Sting in an electrifying moment in 'One World Is Enough', saving his single show-off solo for the final moments of the encore.

Drummer Copeland, in shorts and a sports jersey, commuted from his regular kit to a full set of percussion devices on a riser behind him.

Filling the band's rather sparse arrangements were what seemed to be occasional taped rhythmic and synthesized backdrops. A trio of female singers in drum majorette outfits gave resounding depth to the harmonies.

Fans of concert technology may have noted that The Police packed gear that had touches of the old and the new. Sting's bass was cordless. Summers' guitar was not. Overall, the sound mix seemed quite good.

A massive lighting grid above the bare, wide-open stage included standard floods as well as snazzy, computerized varilights and rows of white lamps that lit the audience in the final numbers. Nonetheless, lighting effects were employed sparingly.

While The Police infused their narrow, reggae-based rhythmic groove with considerable grace and feeling, the opening quartet, Re-Flex, seemed stuck in the single pop-funk mode that characterizes its debut hit, 'The Politics of Dancing'. Indeed, they seem better suited for moving feet than moving emotions.

As for the scalpers, some of whom were asking as much as $200 a ticket last week, showtime found them cutting prices and begging for customers.

(c) The Buffalo News by Dale Anderson

Caught in the act...

There's something starkly hypnotizing in the form of Sting telling 17,000 frenzied fans that he's 'So Lonely'. Maybe the King Of Pain is the champion of isolation but he's certainly got plenty of disciples willing to share in his personal anguish.

Actually, it's pretty hard to buy Sting's alienation routine. They certainly haven't alienated too many people over the past 12 months in ascending the throne of rock music's most popular working group and they were in high spirits at the Aud. in concluding their US tour commitments.

The components which made this concert work so majestically are the same elements which have made The Police so universally popular. Great songs, simplistic delivery and a boyish enthusiasm for their work which is totally invigorating.

A bare stage with no backdrop and an efficient but not particularly awesome lighting grid stripped the show down to its naked essence - three musicians whose combined chemistry filled the lofty arena with an aura of warmth that was totally infectious. The fluidity of motion from the opening beat of 'Synchronicity' to the show-closing 'So Lonely' marked The Police as being at the peak of their powers. Their delivery was crisp and direct yet loose enough to suggest they were having as much fun as their audience. Sting ran through his vocal repertoire with such a disarming ease it was almost as though the songs were pre-recorded, while Andy Summers, the consummate low-key guitarist, dispatched his chores in workmanlike fashion. Driven along by Stewart Copeland's propulsive percussion and afforded only the luxury of three female backup singers, The Police still manage to concoct a sound that is sparse yet technically proficient.

If The Police enjoyed this show as much as they appeared to, I don't think there's any worries about a premature retirement. These guys are having too much fun to quit now.

(c) Music Express by Keith Sharp

As they say in the radio business, the hits just kept on coming. It started with 'Synchronicity', and about 17,000 people in the Buffalo Auditorium. screamed to their feet.

It continued with 'Walking in Your Footsteps', 'Message in a Bottle', 'Don't Stand So Close to Me', 'King of Pain', 'Every Breath You Take', and on and on.

The occasion was the first Buffalo appearance in four years for the Police, the three-piece supergroup that's had a reserved spot at the top of the charts for the past few years.

And judging by last night's concert, the group's still hot.

From the first notes of 'Synchronicity' (surely the biggest word in many a high school student's vocabulary these days it means something like "meaningful coincidence"), bass guitarist and lead vocalist Sting demonstrated he is still in great vocal form, even though the band is just winding up a United States tour.

Three young female singers, who swayed seductively behind Sting to the reggae-influenced music, helped fill out the back- ground vocals. A pre-programmed synthesizer also brought the sound up to recording studio standards.

But even without the extra help, the three-piece group (drums, bass and guitar) would have had a surprisingly full sound, with drummer Stewart Copeland providing a solid underpinning along with Sting's bass and guitarist Andy Summer filling in with tasteful chords and solos.

However, judging by the screams from the young audience, it was the fair-haired Sting who held their attention, not the tasteful chords or synthesizer parts.

The six-foot tall sex symbol responded to the adulation by leaping about energetically, at one point using a small trampoline to gain more height.

But it was the audience's turn to jump up and down when the band broke into 'Roxanne' at the end of the show. One of the band's first hits, Sting still sounds great singing about that mysterious lady of the night.

(c) The Standard by Brian Collins