It took me 25 years, but now I can say that I’ve seen one of my favorite groups in concert.
Great show — made even more so by the fact that they played my favorite Police song of all time, the non-single “Regatta de Blanc” (which they included as part of a mash-up with “Can’t Stand Losing You.”). This more than made up for the fact that they didn’t play “Synchronicity II” (the only track from the wiki-listed “North American III” set list that was missing).
Perhaps the best part, though, was watching the people around me — folks who really only knew the big hits and are the sort targeted by the ret-conning of “Sting AND the Police”. It was great watching their faces as they suddenly discovered that Andy Summers is a guitar virtuoso and Stewart Copeland is, as
Elvis Costello’s set was a nice collection of older material and some tracks from his new album (including one which I featured on last week’s Friday Music) — he didn’t play “Radio, Radio”, which disappointed me — but Sting came out for a duet on “Alison”, which was quite nifty.
The Sprint Center is a nice play to see a show — I especially enjoyed the giant HD screen behind the stage, which gave us amazingly clear close-ups of Sting’s beat-to-crap and well-loved P-bass, and Andy Summers’ “Oh My God! They Killed Kenny!” guitar strap.
Waiting 25 years means that today my ears are ringing and I’m sore, but I finally got to see The Police — and I got my tour shirt, which, in true gamer fashion, I’ll wear for the NEXT 25 years.
