Sting's Back to Bass Tour

[razorboy]

god, he's such a tosspot. i try to do my best to ignore stang's solo exploits, but it's so transparently pathetic that he has nothing left creatively in the tank and is just mining as many areas as he can to make money and attempt to appear relevant. this "back to bass" tour is basically a soul cages-TST reunion band, playing the same old stuff from that era and the same old police tunes. i know he could still make genuinely interesting music if he'd open up to real collaboration with artists of similar stature (andy & stewart AHEM), but it'll never happen. this is the same rigid ar$ehole who treats changing a setlist like it's altering the mona lisa. he's so far up his own ar$e in superstar land that he has no one around him to push him or tell him the truth. all artists deserve the chance to rest on their laurels (brian wilson) as they age, but for someone who was as creatively stubborn as sting (at least through the early 90s, his records have been crap since), it seems pathetic and somewhat insulting to longtime fans to keep treading the same water.

i don't know what brought that on... i haven't posted here or at the police forum in a couple years. i was spent after the 07-08 tour, battling with people about what a dick sting was, but something set me off today. i was through with him before he reunited the band, but he had credit to burn with me during the reunion, which he quickly did by returning to tighta$$ passive-aggressive dictator form, and by the end, i despised him as much as i did when i'd seen him performing sacred love at a victoria's secret special or guesting with the backstreet boys. idiot.

thanks for the rantspace... i love the police.

[TheEqualizer]

Wish I had gone to the Wiltern show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xLMAkAXnag

THUNK!

Sorry, but that performance confirms for me that there is no reason to see Sting live anymore (I haven't seen him solo in well over 20 years). He is just a shell of what he was. Now THIS is a THUNK worthy performance, and my memory of watching this back in the day is what make it almost impossible for me to bear the shit he's doing nowadays:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6JNtEZwTLw

To me, that performance shows genuine emotion and feeling. Now he's just going through the motions.

[dneckels]

Saw the tour in Denver, 11-20-2011.
I feel very lucky to have made it to the tour because:
1) Sting was rock and rolling; no flutes and dulcimers and stuff. Like the name of the tour, bass and rock!
2) small venue. Perfect sound system. Close enough to tell he was enjoying himself.
3) Nice mix of tunes, plenty of police songs.

This was my first time seeing Sting (I missed the police reunion due to foolishness). Besides feeling really great because I've always loved his singing (he's 1/3 of my favorite band!!) I took away what an awesome musician he is.
Get that much PA system and the talent of Sting and Vinnie (and others) and it leaves the mind in shards...
I could go on and on, this is probably not the place, but the bottom and the dynamics that Vinnie laid down, one word: wow! I never knew you could play a flam that hit every surface of the drumset before seeing him play

Even those sort of old folky easy listening tunes, e.g. Hounds of Winter, with that band and Sting's great talent for live arrangement were totally captivating!

I prefer the electric guitar version of 'Message in a bottle' too, (thinking the end of the movie Bring on the Night) but the classical guitar version was really awesome as well. Have to be careful with the sound of those youtube videos, some come from the mixer, some from just a lousy little phone speaker....

[dneckels]

Dagnabit, okay I'll double post on this one. I've just been fantasizing about exactly how I can just cash the bank, get a plane ticket to Europe and catch another one of these shows. It was the best thing I've been to in a long time (yeah, okay I promise to get out more, see more concerts....). I'm not a soul of great means, but god I'm sitting here fantasizing about doing this, it was such a great show!!!

[dneckels]

I'm just warming up for the big NYE, so I'm a little buzzed. I saw Sting in 1988 at the Shoreline Ampitheater in Mountain View, CA. I went against my then boyfriends (Pierre) advice. He told me that Sting was nothing without The Police. I went anyway. I was only 18 and I believe I was The only 18 year old there. Everyone was in their 60's it seemed through my then very young eyes. I was bored and I just wanted to leave and 'get down' with my Stewart look alike boyfriend, Pierre. Please keep in mind that I was only 18 at the time and I wanted Rock. Or to get rocked. I'm sure he's totally changed...
I'm now a grown up.

I went to college near there (same time, 1987 ish). I used to bicycle out to the movie theatre near the shoreline (total recall, terminator II, yeah!!!) and could hear the music... funny....
You know, there where some boring old bastards at the show, but enough of us just stood up and rocked out that it was okay.... Maybe part of what made it so cool was the small venue, too. And Vinnie. There were only a couple thousand at the show...
thanks for the story, Jemma!!

[dneckels]

Thank you for the thank you! Shoreline redeemed itself for me a couple of years later. My friends first cousin was in a little band called Janes Addiction. He gave her backstage passes, she gave them to me. I went. Let's just say this: I enjoyed myself. I actually think it was that Lollapalooza hoo hah...either way...I made some 'friends'.

Hmmm... Nothing like the sun, one of his more powerful records....Branford Marsalis, Kenny Kirkland, Marvin Smith on skins (i think)....ah well...

[Divemistress of the Dark]

You need to meet empty, Jemma. You two would have a ball. (She hasn't been around much, got married recently, but should be by sometime...)

Saw that '88 Sting tour. The one and only solo Sting show I've ever seen, and I intend to keep it that way. Now I Blame Coco, on the other hand....

[dneckels]

brutal, brutal, swimming in this tide Ah well, each is moved in different ways.... or not, i guess, being the issue...