Memories from THE POLICE at Tokyo Dome 2008
Posted: 25 May 2010 17:35I found it and want to share with you... COPY + PASTE article from a POLICE FAN called Faiz Kazi (I think is from Asia):
Sun, 17 Feb 2008
THE POLICE Live At The Tokyo Dome
This post is 3 days late, but that's because I was too busy watching video clips of The Police, mostly from this tour, earlier (relatively ancient) tours and also a lot of interviews.
Like I said, I'm a fan.
About the concert: Needless to say, it was a fabulous experience, the only real downside being that it's now over.
This was the first really big concert I've been to. Big in the sense of the whole Arena Rock sort of thing (not that one can label The Police's music itself as 'Arena Rock'; for the term has negative connotations) - I mean, I simply did not realize how far from the stage we were going to be until we actually walked into the Tokyo Dome - that place is huge. My first worry as soon as I laid eyes on the stadium was not that the band would appear as barely perceptible miniscule dots; it was the fact that the (a) It was going to be very loud and (b) However good the sound system turns out to be, clarity, dynamic contrast and sonic detail would suffer thanks to the physical constraints of having to fill such a large venue with sound. At least, that would be the case from where we were sitting (well, we only sat as long as we waited for Sting, Andy and Stewart to arrive). I instantly regretted not having sunk the cash for whatever premium tickets were being sold. Perhaps the sound would have been much better closer to the stage.
The opening act was Fiction Plane, and since I didn't know right then that the singer/bassist was Sting's son, I actually wondered for a moment why there was something vaguely Sting-ish about him. Unlike his Dad, though, it appeared that he put in quite a bit of time with his Japanese.
The band itself was OK, but the biggish-ness of the sound began to worry me. Since for the most part, I listen to Jazz these days, Rock, especially when played really loud (and that's usually at a level beyond the threshold of pain), sounds lacking in detail and feels hard to listen to at such volume levels.
But the sheer excitement of watching the band that wrote some of the most memorable songs of my childhood (though I really began to listen to them more closely past the age of 16) walk onto the stage, and break into 'Message in a Bottle', sans the big video displays (they came on only during the next song, "Synchronicity II"),
Streaks of color from the Synchronicity album cover
lasted long enough, through the entire show. It was utterly brilliant. And it would still have been, even without the help of all that light and sound power.
Message in a Bottle itself seemed like a bumpy start, performance-wise; (but like I said, it didn't seem to matter) I mean, the main guitar riff sounded muddled, and as is the case with so many big concerts, the first song ends up feeling like a sound-check - levels of this and that kept going up or down till they find their optimal position.
I've always thought that Synchronicity II was rock-anthem material, sound-wise at least, and performance-wise it was awesome. I'd picked up a copy of the programme, and in it it said that The Police had sort of worked out their mix of improvisation while keeping the songs as familiar-sounding as possible. This they got right. The improvisations were awesome (so long as you had not already seen them on those YouTube videos of earlier shows on the tour - these seemed to be rehearsal-time improvisations, not performance-time); During Synchronicity II, when Sting sings,
Sting appears on the monster screen:
We have to shout above the din of our Rice Krispies...
Grandmother screaming at the wall...
I was instantly reminded of Vasanth, an old friend from school, who also played bass and sang at the same time - the wall.. part of that line sounded so similar to something Vasanth would have done with his melodic improvisations (Vasanth, as I remember his, was also famous for improvising with lyrics, since he could never remember them. At some times, it would end up being pure Scat).
Stewart Copeland was utterly amazing. While Andy Summer's guitar sound did take a hit or two in terms of detail loss, the percussion was clear, precise and super-tight. Well I suppose it's one of the inherent difficulties of playing live as a 3-piece band - for the guitarist, I mean - you can lay down tracks in a studio, but on a stage a guitarist sometimes has to drop a solo or improvise in such a way that things do not sound empty. Look at any live performance of The Police from the 80's and you'll see what I mean. Maybe too high levels of sound really take away more than they give. Maybe even at the Tokyo Dome, the sound was probably superb on stage, coming out of the monitors.
Another thing is the song-writing value. Sometimes you know a song for it's lyrics; which have a certain context, an interpretation (that you may or may not even be right about). Some of this feels lost when performed in uniform, stadium-filling rock-anthem spirit: many of the Police's songs are in my opinion subject to this slight skew - when performed with an energy and spirit not really connected with the song. Let's face it: So many Police fans simply love the not-so-upbeat lyrical twist to the songs, which in their studio versions are laid out with sparseness and precision, preserving all the cynicism, imagery, and sometimes outright darkness. I suppose that these things, highly subjective that they are, are especially hard to get right, even if one so wishes, in a large adrenaline-charged concert.
He walk unhindered through the picket-lines today
He doesn't think to wonder why
... another Vasanth-esque improvisation on the 'why' ...
Well I may sound confused and self-contradictory, but man, was it a brilliant show or what. Nothing feels sadder at this moment, than the fact that it's over and there's nothing quite as great to look forward to.
Author: Faiz Kazi
Source: http://parsedparticiple.org/blog/music/ ... _dome.html
Sun, 17 Feb 2008
THE POLICE Live At The Tokyo Dome
This post is 3 days late, but that's because I was too busy watching video clips of The Police, mostly from this tour, earlier (relatively ancient) tours and also a lot of interviews.
Like I said, I'm a fan.
About the concert: Needless to say, it was a fabulous experience, the only real downside being that it's now over.
This was the first really big concert I've been to. Big in the sense of the whole Arena Rock sort of thing (not that one can label The Police's music itself as 'Arena Rock'; for the term has negative connotations) - I mean, I simply did not realize how far from the stage we were going to be until we actually walked into the Tokyo Dome - that place is huge. My first worry as soon as I laid eyes on the stadium was not that the band would appear as barely perceptible miniscule dots; it was the fact that the (a) It was going to be very loud and (b) However good the sound system turns out to be, clarity, dynamic contrast and sonic detail would suffer thanks to the physical constraints of having to fill such a large venue with sound. At least, that would be the case from where we were sitting (well, we only sat as long as we waited for Sting, Andy and Stewart to arrive). I instantly regretted not having sunk the cash for whatever premium tickets were being sold. Perhaps the sound would have been much better closer to the stage.
The opening act was Fiction Plane, and since I didn't know right then that the singer/bassist was Sting's son, I actually wondered for a moment why there was something vaguely Sting-ish about him. Unlike his Dad, though, it appeared that he put in quite a bit of time with his Japanese.
The band itself was OK, but the biggish-ness of the sound began to worry me. Since for the most part, I listen to Jazz these days, Rock, especially when played really loud (and that's usually at a level beyond the threshold of pain), sounds lacking in detail and feels hard to listen to at such volume levels.
But the sheer excitement of watching the band that wrote some of the most memorable songs of my childhood (though I really began to listen to them more closely past the age of 16) walk onto the stage, and break into 'Message in a Bottle', sans the big video displays (they came on only during the next song, "Synchronicity II"),
Streaks of color from the Synchronicity album cover
lasted long enough, through the entire show. It was utterly brilliant. And it would still have been, even without the help of all that light and sound power.
Message in a Bottle itself seemed like a bumpy start, performance-wise; (but like I said, it didn't seem to matter) I mean, the main guitar riff sounded muddled, and as is the case with so many big concerts, the first song ends up feeling like a sound-check - levels of this and that kept going up or down till they find their optimal position.
I've always thought that Synchronicity II was rock-anthem material, sound-wise at least, and performance-wise it was awesome. I'd picked up a copy of the programme, and in it it said that The Police had sort of worked out their mix of improvisation while keeping the songs as familiar-sounding as possible. This they got right. The improvisations were awesome (so long as you had not already seen them on those YouTube videos of earlier shows on the tour - these seemed to be rehearsal-time improvisations, not performance-time); During Synchronicity II, when Sting sings,
Sting appears on the monster screen:
We have to shout above the din of our Rice Krispies...
Grandmother screaming at the wall...
I was instantly reminded of Vasanth, an old friend from school, who also played bass and sang at the same time - the wall.. part of that line sounded so similar to something Vasanth would have done with his melodic improvisations (Vasanth, as I remember his, was also famous for improvising with lyrics, since he could never remember them. At some times, it would end up being pure Scat).
Stewart Copeland was utterly amazing. While Andy Summer's guitar sound did take a hit or two in terms of detail loss, the percussion was clear, precise and super-tight. Well I suppose it's one of the inherent difficulties of playing live as a 3-piece band - for the guitarist, I mean - you can lay down tracks in a studio, but on a stage a guitarist sometimes has to drop a solo or improvise in such a way that things do not sound empty. Look at any live performance of The Police from the 80's and you'll see what I mean. Maybe too high levels of sound really take away more than they give. Maybe even at the Tokyo Dome, the sound was probably superb on stage, coming out of the monitors.
Another thing is the song-writing value. Sometimes you know a song for it's lyrics; which have a certain context, an interpretation (that you may or may not even be right about). Some of this feels lost when performed in uniform, stadium-filling rock-anthem spirit: many of the Police's songs are in my opinion subject to this slight skew - when performed with an energy and spirit not really connected with the song. Let's face it: So many Police fans simply love the not-so-upbeat lyrical twist to the songs, which in their studio versions are laid out with sparseness and precision, preserving all the cynicism, imagery, and sometimes outright darkness. I suppose that these things, highly subjective that they are, are especially hard to get right, even if one so wishes, in a large adrenaline-charged concert.
He walk unhindered through the picket-lines today
He doesn't think to wonder why
... another Vasanth-esque improvisation on the 'why' ...
Well I may sound confused and self-contradictory, but man, was it a brilliant show or what. Nothing feels sadder at this moment, than the fact that it's over and there's nothing quite as great to look forward to.
Author: Faiz Kazi
Source: http://parsedparticiple.org/blog/music/ ... _dome.html