Sting's long career shines in rock retrospective...
 
Sting has done a lot of experimentation in his 25 years as a solo artist. He began as something like a punk but when he broke up with his band The Police, he ran into the arms of jazz legends rather than rock gods.

His literary lyrics and heavy use of world beats made him the intellectual's choice of early '80s pop music - a sort of thinking man's Phil Collins. And like Collins, Sting has done his fair share of soundtracks, including a little Disney.

In the past few years, he has dabbled in lute music for his album Songs From the Labyrinth and most recently toured with a full orchestra. All this variation has made for a strange discography.

The Back to Bass tour that brought him to Vancouver this time around, however, was billed as a straight-up rock show, an unadorned retrospective of his long career.

So, understandably, nostalgia was heavy at Queen Elizabeth Theatre as the crowd filtered in for the sold-out first night of Sting's three-show run.

The age range spanned his career as completely as the setlist - parents with teenage kids who couldn't have been born when Sting first reached his ascendancy.

When a lithe-looking Sting, with a clean-shaven head, white T-shirt and jeans, took the stage with that beloved bass, he and his five-piece backing band hopped straight into 'All this Time'.

The crowd was all smiles and bobbing heads.

When it was time to introduce his band, he said: "Musicians get too old and decrepit to go on the road so I've very shrewdly hired Mr. Miller's son," referring to his longtime guitarist Dominic Miller, whose son Rufus joined the band for the tour.

Next up was The Police hit 'Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic', that featured a crowd singalong, encouraged by house lights that brightened during that famous "way-ohoh" chorus.

Two fiddles backed him up for a heavy rendition of 'Demolition Man'. And the band took a small departure from the tour's setlist with a mellow rendition of 'I Hung My Head'.

"One of my hobbies is to attempt to write country music," Sting explained afterward. He figured he was vindicated because Johnny Cash covered that one.

Sting explained that his songwriting process often starts with the music. He arranges it, puts it on his iPod, then lives with it for a while. For 'Stolen Car', he imagined a psychic car thief who can see the whole lives of his victims just by sitting in their seats. The performance of the song, which had a sultry feel, included bringing forward his backup vocalist for a musical theatre style duet.

Sting gave each member of his band a chance to shine. 'Driven to Tears' brought out a squealing guitar solo from the elder Miller and 'Fields of Gold' featured a gentle acoustic solo from the younger.

The tone stayed up and poppy until 'Ghost Story' from 1999's 'Brand New Day', which Sting introduced as a story inspired by his late father. The song was a slightly uncomfortable mix of English folk ballad and pop song but seemed to strike a chord with the audience.

He picked up the mood with a heavy bluesy rendition of 'Heavy Cloud No Rain' from 1993's 'Ten Summoner's Tales'.

He drew the night together with biographical detail, proclaiming the secret to a long marriage (vulnerability) and reminiscing about his favourite musical (Seven Brides for Seven Brothers).

If this evening was any indication, it's been a wild 25 years for Sting.

(c) The Vancouver Sun by Erika Thorkelson

Back to Bass concert review...

Sting kicked off his long weekend in Vancouver last night with an amazing 2 hr + performance in front of a sold out crowd at the Queen Elisabeth Theatre. There are 2 more shows scheduled and it’s possible that there are tickets still available for Saturday’s one.

In the past, Sting’s entourage on stage ranged from the +2 when he played with The Police to full symphonic orchestras. This time around he brought with him small but superb troupe, which looked little odd on the stage but sounded impeccable. What was odd about it was the age difference between the “stage right” and the “stage left”.

On one side were Sting who just recently turned 60, Dominic Miller, his trustworthy guitar player for the past few decades and Vinnie Colaiuta one of the world’s top session drummers who played with pretty much everyone from Frank Zappa to Michael Buble.

On the other side were much younger but nonetheless talented half of the band. Dominic’s son Rufus on guitar was surely making his dad proud, especially when the crowd erupted into applause during his solo on “Fields of Gold”. There were a few cute father- son moments on the stage but it was obvious that Rufus didn’t become a member of this band because of his blood relation but because of his impressive skills.

Next to Rufus was another very young musician who, beside maybe Sting himself, left the biggest impression on the crowd. Peter Tickel is a twenty something violinist from Sting’s hometown Newcastle and his energy and his solo performance on several songs had the (mostly older) crowd finally jump to their feet. Last but not least there was Jo Lawry, Australian jazz singer who backed up Sting on vocals and Tickel on violin and had several show stealing moments herself, especially during “Hounds of Winter” when her voice reached superhuman levels reminiscent of Clare Torry’s legendary cameo on Pink Floyd’s “Great Gig in The Sky”.

Sting himself was impeccable in every way. His beat-up looking bass guitar came to life under his fingers, his voice hit every high note including the goosebumps inducing “sending ooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuut” scream during “Message in the Bottle” in the final moments of the 3rd encore after he already sang for over 2 hours without a break. He looked closer to 40 than his actual age and he showed it off by wearing an extra tight t-shirt.

All in all it was an almost perfect concert experience in a great venue, with possibly the most talented group of musicians assembled in a very long time. The only negative thing was few obvious gaps in the set list. On what was supposed to be a “greatest hits” tour some of the best known songs from Sting’s solo career, like Mad About You and Shape of My Heart were completely omitted and it seemed like he totally forgot that back in 1987 he made a brilliant album Nothing Like the Sun (Englishman in New York, Fragile) since not a single tune from it made it into the show.

(c) Daily Hive