Zenyatta Mondatta: 1980/81

THE POLICE: Law and musical order...

Obeying The Police was never so much fun. From the moment this young rock trio took the stage at the Neal Blaisdell Center Arena Wednesday night, they commanded the situation.

They sounded just like they looked-lean, quick, clever, modern. 

Sting, the bassist, lead vocalist, and chief songwriter who comes from England, was usually the centre of attention with his piercing, often shrill, and nervy singing. Among the three kinds of bass he played was a strange electric up- right that must have been lifted from the bar scene in "Star Wars." 

Stewart Copeland, an American and the band's founder, supplied an energetic, quirky brand of drumming, utilizing several tin can-sized cymbals with fine flippancy. His long, lanky frame looked quite normal in a green basketball uniform.

Guitarist Andy Summer, from England, was probably the most innovative member of The Police He eschewed the traditional styling of rock guitar - roaring chord progressions, screaming roller coaster-scale runs in favour of a melodic rhythmic punctuation which effectively wandered just below the surface of Sting's vocals.

Summer's painterly sense of economy, depth, and colour mingled with Copeland's drumming to lay a broad landscape. Which is not to say that he can't stand up front and fire off razor-sharp licks. His solo on "Driven to Tears" proved that.

With machinegun pacing. The Police pumped out 14 songs, mostly from their second and third albums, over 90 minutes.

The familiarity of fans with the band's repertoire was evident when favourites like 'Don't Stand So Close to Me', 'De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da', 'Walking on the Moon', 'Message in a Bottle', and 'Roxanne' were all greeted with knowing applause as the opening bars were played.

The band didn't usually bother to follow the recorded versions of the songs note for note, and that was fine, lending tang and freshness to now-familiar tunes.

Nor did the live sound echo the style of mix on the recordings unfortunately.

Particularly on their latest re- lease, 'Zenyatta Mondatta', the sound is well defined with discernible layering. The performance somewhat lacked this fine separation, due, in part, to the cavernous arena. On the whole, however, this caused only minor annoyance.

As their career began to take off in 1979, the bare, unadorned vocals, the emphasis upon rhythm, and the bleached, coarse look of the three tousled, blond band members caused The Police to be tagged "New Wave."

A performance like Wednesday's - their second here in a year - showed that such a categorization is more convenient than accurate.

Some of the new songs, like 'Voices Inside My Head' and 'Shadow in the Rain', remove themselves from the boppy. reggae-style beat usually associated with the band, into a denser, meandering mode.

But throughout each of the various styles was an originality that hinged essentially on emphatic rhythms.

Their performance showed this rhythmic sensibility to be created with an intuition well-informed by the band's earlier efforts. These spotlight rhythms, often supplanting the melodies in exciting ways. provided a whole new frame or reference for modern rock.

Contrasting this kind of innovation was the opening act, Hawaii's Teazer. This six-piece group - the house band at the Rock 'n' Roll Clinic - recently cut their first album, from which the single, 'Bad News', was taken.

They are very much a bar band, with two guitarists who trade off wailing runs, a rock-bottom bassist and drummer, a keyboardist for colour, and a whiskey-voiced singer.

Teazer was just what the doctor ordered for a good, no-nonsense rock club where you can knock back shots of liquor and work up a sweat. But to play a concert setting requires a little more virtuosity.

(c) Honolulu Star Advertiser by Bill Harby