by GinaSuperCat on 28 May 2007 16:18
Time of my life, honestly...not only seeing Stewart play drums for his band, live, but to get to hang out with the most awesome people imaginable just cannot be topped...everyone, esp. DirtyMartini, SamburuSunset, and Conroy has been very kind and so very patient with one very 5150 SuperCat <grin>
I had the presence to put in my wallet a very small (micro) pad of paper and pen to scribble set list and random notes I felt compelled to write...while never stopping dancing (ya, the handwriting is brilliant, truly…)
Random Notes: [trying to sleep...failing...so typing those random musings instead…Please beware, organization and other elements of sound composition have both just been cast-aside, I just can’t think straight…]
Warning, Spoilers Ahead!!!
If you don't want to hear details about the arrangements, incidents, song or show details etc.
Please disembark immediately and don't read any further <grin>
**
Last chance, before I just sing like a canary…
I was so nervous, I felt like current was running through me right before the show and I kept saying “I fell like I’m the one to take the stage tonight.” At this point I realized that I have eaten only breakfast, and pretended to pick at a salad when I had lunch with Gert and James (videographer), who are both just awesome, lovely, and fascinating to hang out with…I don’t drink alcohol anymore but have become accustomed to 2 gallons of water a day, so the lack of food and the fear of having to leave the show even for 60 seconds has driven me to not take in anything but a few sips of water, resulting in a strange altered-state where, evidently, my body is pumping all sorts of its own special vintage/reserve moonshine plus pharmaceuticals in response, almost as if my body was saying “cheers to you, old gal…if you aren’t going to celebrate, I’ll provide the chemicals for you!” <grin>
Before the show starts, I meet all the people around me, we are all like kids on the way to a Wiggles show, and Macarten from Dublin asks which song will be the first, we all run through some ideas, I say I’d love to hear SynchI kick things off but knew that wouldn’t be so (not unless they are trying to kill of Stewart on this tour) and so I just throw out that Message builds with the right intensity…<grin>
They come out, make a short announcement about the special FC show, to be prepared for a few mistakes, etc. and then they go back offstage…was kinda like something you’d never expect to see the Police do, a special speaking-directly-to-the camera moment before they make their proper entrance, signaled brilliantly with Stewart starting a soft roll ending with a full-crash of that BIGGEST F’IN GONG!!
DSSCTM: Ok, people's opinions invariably vary here but I liked it much and was struck with the idea that this could have been the 86 remake if Stewart was in one piece {and the band, as well, for that matter}...it's like a what-could-have-been-DSSCTM-86 (the 86 version I've never really cared for) and I liked it very much in that way...It takes a very sad (at least for me, with the vid, and all it meant, etc.) version, and redid it in a contemporary way, transforming it once again...that alone is beautiful...Further proof Stewart's Drumming Matters <grin>
Stewart definitely had his Synchronicity-Era-Game-Face on for the first few songs…I mean, ya, I imagine it’s surely the time precisely for that…but starts just grinning his ass of on the Voices/World jam, like the rest of us <grin>
Driven to Tears: umm, live...what is there to say…? Stewart releases the hounds and they just demolish one super cat, it was death by a thousand cymbal crashes!!! Lots of Sting and Andy meeting mid-stage and just jamming off each other...a version that rocks the house, wholly, completely, totally <grin>
Ok, I have to say that I was dancing my ass off the entire show...didn't care that I was the only one for rows moving (except for the awesome guys from Dublin on my right who were rocking out, as well as the two awesome lads to my left who were from...after all this way I traveled...South Carolina, mere miles from me at home…all 5 of us rocking out: cheers, fellas!!!!)…Lot’s of people (seemed like most) just chilling, listening intently, sitting…to each his/her own but sorry to those behind me while I was pulling out the pogo and other moves from my leet repertoire…hahaha, I was the Kinetic Kat, no doubt…A thousand hugs to the darling who kept passing back her excellent field-binoculars to me so I could check out Stewart tearing apart his set at various intervals…watched Regatta this way, THANKS!!! Was bummed that the SCnet people were all over the stadium but was super lucky to be surrounded by a pocket of the rockinest people to share concert with!!!
During a great Walking on the Moon the camera (display screens=awesome views of the three for the whole concert with this vid setup, must say…beautiful) pans back behind Stew giving an awesome view of him whacking away at widgets but, lo and behold, what is this I see before me but a fucking sharpied set list taped to the hats-stand...you can take solace in the fact some things never change!!!!
At least that's what I thought I saw...I'm completely outta my mind so buyer beware on my 'report'...ya, maybe I should have *started* with that disclaimer...that would’ve been sensible <grin>
Mmkay, here's where I say this: anyone worried about whether Andy was up to snuff, there's no f'in doubt after tonight...he fucking rocked, was brilliant, as ever...really let loose here and there, actually stole my attention from Stewart's stickwork on several, several occasions…the telecaster only came out for a bit, if I was seeing things right (and am not so super sharp about his equipment…I know…only…things upon which one hits <grin>) but the sound was different….he is, however, in good form seriously! <happiest cat grin>
ELTSDIM: the reworked version that y'all saw snippets of in the Vancouver docks footage...reggae'd up the guitar in the chorus just an ever so slightly bit...
Wrapped: dramatic recast, surely to be one of the most talked about…Stewart with a drool-worthy perc set-up, running back to kit for the last verse, runs back to perc (and totally trips en route this time...sorry Stewart: yes that was me that let out the loudest freaking yelp when this happened...but this incident was all taken in stride with a grin from Stewart, who, of course, doesn't miss a beat in all the while)…just mesmerizing, leaving one cat completely transfixed…
Murder By Numbers: the shock of the night, in my view…still don’t really believe it but alas my notes tell me so…Sting references 1983 and Falwell calling it the devil’s music or somesuch as intro…Stew breaks a stick and chucks it stage-right during the slow-burn-sizzle of this groove…Andy all out jams, just brilliant…brilliant…brilliant <drools on self while repeating “brilliant” for seven minutes…)
I’ll say this here, even though it’s an overview or summative comment: I loved every note, every space, every second: call me an unquestioning sycophant, if you must…but nothing can take me down at this point <grin>
Invisible Sun simply smolders, was in disbelief to hear it tonight, serious-ass-groove…just brilliant, really!
(I’m actually cutting a lot out of what I remember, you know like when Eddie Vedder inducted REM into the RRHoF and said he’ll keep his speech short’ <grin> He was there in row 8, btw)…
Ok, we’ll just cut to when Stewart hops out from behind the kit, tears ass in a long, stage-area-width circle back to the percussion area, which is located behind his kit, and yells something about being held captive behind his kit and subsequently ‘freeing’ himself in this fashion to kick off Footsteps …Stew running between kit and perc area…back to the kit from brontosaurus verse to the end, they just rock this one out…I mean it rocks, I mean it kicked ass, I mean…Lee, the fellow I just met moments before the show from South Carolina, whispers “umm that was better than the original version”…
Rearrangements 2007: they are not playing a lot of things in the same as before but I find there’s much excitement that they are taking things in new, updated directions even if I happen to be really fond of those standard arrangements. I honestly don’t really know what I think about some of them, since I realize it’s hard to make those evaluations when emotions are just effusing from me, but I want to give myself time to evaluate rather than rushing to an assessment, particularly a critical one hinging on the fact that it’s not what I thought it ‘should’ be. I am trying to be open to the excitement of the new, to really learn to ‘let go’ of those attachments and although I’ll likely form more specific and distinguishing reactions to the songs they play on this tour, at this point I’m ecstatic about the fact that it’s even happening. Many will not be happy with the 2007 arrangements, which is fully ok as well, but just the fact that they are reworking really makes me happy. There are several points where it seems like they are trying to balance both the need for the old ‘feeling’ while also providing something ‘new’…my guess is that they’ll fine tune this a bit more as the tour goes on, perhaps a bit more of the old will reappear where it may be best, perhaps a bit more on the new where it’s just brilliant, and so forth…
CSLY/RDB: wow, this was worth the price of admission…or an E ticket ride, for those kickin’ it old school…by now I’m bouncing, punching the air with the snare (no didn’t have the quarters to air drum <giggle>), throwing in my own CHA’s, you name it, it hits me like a nice good clean charge from the defib paddles…I feel, at this point, utterly convinced I won’t sleep for a week!
Roxanne: by the time the opening chords of this come to light, I have to laugh hysterically at myself because I had forgotten that this song, of all songs, was the one guaranteed-to-hear-number of tonight…I’m like, “of course I almost forgot about Roxanne!”…Sting wails it full-tilt, Stewart goes all out, sounds great…Roxanne-oh sing along part, as customary, and all…This is where the set ‘officially ends’
When the come back for the encores, Stewart shouts “SSSTTIINNGG!: MY king of Pain” to which Sting retorts along the same lines to Stewart…Stewart hits one of the small cymbals so hard (last accent before heading back to kit) that it just comes flying off the rack, like a shiny brass UFO traveling top speed laterally…I’m pretty sure that really did happen…<grin>
So Lonely: one of the classic Police songs I’d just about have died to hear live…here it is, with clever alternating lyric substitutions for “welcome to this one <or ‘three’ in the live> man show…first time it was “Welcome to Andy Summers’ show” second, “Welcome to Stewart Copeland’s show”…sorry again, that last-breath-death-impending-blood-curdling-scream was me at this line…its not the full-tilt live version we’ve all seen on vid (or live), but I saw the Police play it live, good enough…let me predict this: it will pick up steam as the tour progresses <grin>
So what can top that…after EBYT ends the official ‘encore’ they leave, come back for a second encore and play Next to You…a new version that refigures the drum-world-epic AK-47 opening with a super-smart, to the essence, one…OK, but here’s the thing: the count-off after the stop (1,2,3,4) marks liftoff, as they then tear into a freight-train-ending of the song…Stewart is actually achieving escape velocity at this point, leaving one seared-super cat back at the launch pad, convulsing…
Stewart and Sting hug…Sting, Stewart, Andy look very very happy…they all come out and take a bow, hands clasped, Broadway theater-style curtain call…
So, either that happened, more or less, or I just left the solar system on one very creative-thinking mind trip around the universe: one or the other <grin>
OK, I think it’s bed time…more like “time to go completely unconscious because I need to be up, fed, ready, and transported across town on public transport in 8+something hours”…I’ll probably have a better take upon second or third hearing of songs, but was so caught in my own atmosphere of excitement that everything was gold-tinged…
Best wishes, love, and Police-soundtracked dreams to all who could not be here,
GinaSuperCat
PS: passed out before posting this last night [looks like fours hours will have to do…I bolted up at 7:30am like I was gonna miss a show or something]. I wanted to read it once again before posting my delirious ramblings…Looking at it now, it would take too much work to render it coherent and it’s more close-to-the-heart and indicative of my high (even hours after the show) as is, so sorry about that <grin>
PPS: I haven gotten to read the rest of the thread yet, so apologies for any redundancy, etc...I just left it as is <grin>
MMMMEEEEEOOOOOOWWWWWW!!!!
Thanks for the reviews. Can't wait for Bonnaroo and St Louis.
