Saw the Police last night. The Foo Fighters opened up. Foo’s were good, Police was very good.
I just wasn’t blown away like I had hoped. The Sound was decent, but a bit quiet (as is all outdoor concerts for me anyway).
The thing that sort of bothered me about The Police’s set is that they changed a few of the songs around both in key as well as vibe. The differences in key I found very strange because Sting’s voice sounded PHENOMENAL. Why lower it when he could hit stuff out of the park anyway? Didn’t really make sense. And then when they did do these different keys they were like down a 5th or 4th rather than one or two steps. Just odd.
Then there were some songs, like “truth hits everybody” which I’m sorry is a fricking punk song. But that and De DooDoo Doo De Da Da Da” sounded like the band was playing on a cruise ship. Just too mellow and pulled back. Of course, they still had no idea how to play Don’t Stand so Close to Me since their horrible”redux” from ’86 or whenever.
But those were the low points. The highlights out weighed them. They did Regatta de Blanc, which is not only one of my fave pieces by them, they really let loose on it. Lengthened it and dropped it into the middle of a super extended “I Can’t Stand Losing You.” Invisible Sun, Wrapped Around Your Finger were fantastic sounding. There are others that sounded great but those were the highlights for me.
The band’s sound and performance, for the most part was amazing. I was sorta bummed that Stewart never really did any of his signature fills (the ones he recorded etc), but his playing was great. He seemed to hang around the hihat and ride cymbals a lot more than he does on record. It was great when the camera would get around to him though. Just to see how he choked up on the hihat and where he would hit his stick was fun to get an inside peek. He’s still my favorite drummer ever. Andy’s tones were good, he’d get sloppy in places but for the most part was full and everything. Sting’s performance vocally, like I said earlier was great. Not a big fan of his bass tone per se, but his technical performance was a big wow. He plays with the side of his thumb and you sort of have to ask yourself how on earth he does it and gets it to sound consistent? It’s pretty cool to watch.
A couple more things:
Our seats. In yet another case of squeaky grease gets the wheel, when I got there, our seats were absolutely horrible. No big deal? Well, it is if you paid the highest price! $230 for each! I got these so called “best available” 5 minutes after the tickets went on sale. I checked on seats just two days ago and the same priced tickets were also best available but down on the floor!! It was terrible what a difference. Ticketmaster is such a racket.
The problem was our sight line; yes the band was about 1/4″ tall to our eyes, but that’s no big deal if you can at least see the stage. We were all the way far left of the stage. You couldn’t see the drummer AT ALL, you couldn’t see there was even a screen on stage, and you could barely see the screens which faced the crowd on each side.
So, I started walking around (before the foo’s), and found a customer relations telephone number. Called, and this person(very nice) pointed me to where the “ticket sales” booth was (behind home plate.) I got there and the girl was a little indifferent to my plight, but said she could move us over just a bit. Even still, these sets were ALOT better even if they were still unworthy of their $230 price. At least now we could see the stage more from the front, and we could make out what was going on with the screen. It was still very far left of center but not as bad as those first tickets. Ticketmaster should be ashamed of themselves, making those tickets the higher price.That price should only have been reserved for floor level seats only. I feel bad for people who didn’t go complain. Fricking ridiculous.
But,at the end of it all, I am happy I finally saw one of my top 5 bands, live and in concert. It was a nice experience. Not one that I’ll go away going wow, unbelievable and soooo worth it, or up there with the best concerts I’ve ever witnessed. But I’m still very happy I did.
