Zenyatta Mondatta: 1980/81

Police 'theft' makes an exciting, articulate brand of New Wave...

Generally, when rock bands incorporate musical influences from other distinct classifications of music and call it their own, the theft is blatant and fairly superficial. Seldom do they fully appreciate or even understand the spirit of the music.

The Police are the rare, intelligent exception. This British New Wave trio has fully absorbed the tricky, syncopated rhythms, the deceptively simple melodicism and purposeful social conscience of reggae - not for the purposes of plain exploitation - and applied it to its own musical concerns to produce a singularly unique, deftly (articulate and viscerally exciting brand of music that knows no categorical bounds.

In concert Thursday night in the Music Hall, the band "displayed its tastefully well-thought-out musical prowess in a provocative, virtually flawless performance that went much farther than the band's three superb albums in showcasing the group's exceptional talents. It was a show well worth waiting for which is precisely what many of the near-full-house of knowledgeable fans did during opening act XTC's overly-loud, grating set of mediocre punk pop.

But the opening act was quickly forgotten as soon as bassist Gordon "Sting" Summers led guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland onstage and the band thoughtfully started winding through its hypnotically rhythmic repertoire, touching on reggae syncopations here and exotic African rhythms there, yet always maintaining a firm foothold on its rock 'n' roll roots.

As vocalist, chief songwriter and rhythmic anchor, Sting is, of course, the focal point of the band. His voice is impressively strong and marvellously clear - even when he adopts a vaguely Jamaican accent on distinctively reggae-influenced tunes like 'Walking on the Moon'. 'Man in a Suitcase' and 'Shadows in the Rain'. But to credit him for the success of the band would be to overlook both Summers' crisp, sure electric guitar chording and Copeland's intricate, but accessible percussive patterns. The band is a very cohesive unit, emphasizing ensemble "cooperation and syncopation over individual virtuosity.

And - despite its rather staid appearance and unusually intellectual outlook - the band is far from humourless or passionless. Sting introduced lolling Bring on the Night as a "cowboy" song as if cowboys rode the ranges in the exotic cultures from which the Police derive their strongest musical influences and followed it with the delightfully absurdist nonsense of 'De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da'. And Summers in a rare display of solo instrumental prowess inserted a searing, stinging guitar solo into the surging 'Driven to Tears' while Copeland laid down a consistently intriguing. involving beat that had the appreciative crowd dancing in the aisles for the duration of the band's set.

Of course, most of the crowd's enthusiasm was reserved for the band's most popular tunes the laidback singalong on 'Message in a Bottle' and the rousing finale. of 'Roxanne', which earned the group two earnest encores that less self-respecting rock bands would've easily manipulated into three or four.

(c) Houston Chronicle by Dale Adamson