Notes about "The Soul Cages" tour.
We saw the first two shows of the tour at the Berkeley Community Theater. If you can imagine this, the BCT is actually the Berkeley High School auditorium.
Its seating capacity is about 3500, so the show were very intimate. Anyone walking through the neighborhood and passing the theater could hear the afternoon rehearsals.
At one point in the show, Sting solicits song requests from the audience. He didn't look too happy when he heard shouts for "Roxanne." In fact, he almost looked angry (in a playful way), and then went into singing "Every Little Thing" which didn't come off too well. By the middle of his Los Angeles stand (the 2nd stop of the tour), he had permanently added "Roxanne" to his play list.
He was fairly nervous during the Berkeley shows. The band also looked a little confused whenever they played Police material - like they weren't quite sure what Sting wanted them to do. This was much less a problem by the end of his run in Los Angeles. Although our seats were far from the best, the capacity of the Wiltern Theater is even less - just 2300 people - and the show had grown to be both fun and exciting. During the Los Angeles run, there were at least two parties (guests included Don Henley, Bruce Springsteen and Joni Mitchell), and an appearance on the Arsenio Hall show. Other faces are the same - Danny Quatrochi and Miles Copeland (doesn't he ever smile?). Stewart and Andy also popped in for backstage visits. Whether or not they actually performed onstage with Sting, I don't know. The Los Angeles Times gave Sting a rave review.
At each of the three shows, Sting graciously announced both of his opening acts Kennedy Rose and Vinx, both of whom he has produced on his Pangaea label. I don't care for Kennedy Rose, but I agree that Vinx is a real talent. When he performs, he wears one or two big African drums over his shoulders. He said that they weigh about 60 lbs each. To everyone out there who hasn't seen the show yet, get to the arena early enough to catch Vinx.
The playlist from the Los Angeles shows (in order) was as follows:
The Wild Wild Sea, The Soul Cages, and When the Angels Fall are performed together, almost as though they were a three part symphony. Beautiful and very well done. I agree that David Sancious is the strongest of the three new musicians in Sting's band. Sting's bass playing, though, is still top-notch. He starts off the show with a fretless, but switches over after about the 4th song.
Sting can't hit the high notes like he used to, but he sounded fine on "Roxanne" and his singing is better all around. I think that he has better control of his voice and better projection now, a lot of which is due to his involvement in THREEPENNY OPERA, I'm sure.
After his US tour is over at the end of March, Sting breaks for a few weeks, then begins his 35+ city European tour in his hometown of Newcastle. After he completes that, I hear rumours that he will be returning to the US to do a few big arena shows. Not my favorite, but it'll give people who didn't catch him earlier another chance. The tour began on February 1st, only about 10 days after the CD was released. My impression is that alot of people didn't yet know that he was touring: The Berkeley shows came and went so quietly.
Although the LA shows were done on a larger scale, the theater capacity was so small and it was still so early after the CD release that I know that a lot of big fans got shut out.
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