I'm just back from yesterday's Sting concert in Slovakia. It was simply awesome! Great news that he changed his set-list a little bit. I'm really tired at the moment, so here are the songs and there will be more details soon:
Incheba Hall - Bratislava, Slovakia
The band:
Set list:
1st encore
2nd encore
1 hour 55 mins.
It all began with a meeting one of my friends from the Hungarian Sting Mailing List, Balázs Megyesi at a Belgian brasserie in Budapest on a Sunday evening, 20 February 2000. He told me about the fantastic 'Brand New Day' concert he attended on Tuesday in Prague, Czech Republic. He also showed me some photos that were taken by him and some merchandise stuff he bought there. We were sitting over our 'Kriek' cherry beers and decided to go to Bratislava, Slovakia in March to see Sting live again... And finally we did it!
It was a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon when I met Balázs and his girlfriend, Lívia and his car, a Mitsubishi Colt to try our luck. I had never been to Bratislava before, what we only knew was the name of the venue and that the show was sold out for more than a month. We were listening to my Sting rarities CDs during the journey, which lasted about two and a half hours. We had to ask a lot of people to be able to get to the huge building called 'Incheba', a congress and exhibition hall. It was about two hours before the start of the gig but there were already a lot of people waiting outside pavilion C.
Because we did not have any tickets, we had to try to buy from the dealers, who were walking outside the building, so we joined to a group with 'We want to buy tickets...' signs. They were Canadian and Spanish students from Kecskemét, Hungary. First, it all worked fast and we managed to buy one ticket for a very nice price. Then we had to wait about an hour to get the other two, which we were buying from four Slovakian guys for about three times higher than the original price. They wanted to go to the concert originally but when they realized that they could sell their tickets for so much money, they decided not to get in. When we bought those tickets together with a Polish guy, the Slovakians said 'Happy birthday!' when they saw we were so happy. Balázs told them that it was my name day that day, which was true by the way. 'Have a nice party!', I replied to them. They seemed to be a bit upset because they had to go home and they said 'Fuck Sting!'. I told them that Sting would have a concert in Budapest in June, so if they wanted to get such expensive tickets, they could contact me.
Fortunately, I also managed to get in my little Sony tape-recorder despite the strict guards and the thorough search. We were able to stand 7 or 8 meters from the stage on the right side during the one and a half hours of waiting and the whole show. The 'Incheba' is a modern congress hall with only 2500 seats and 4000 standing places, which proved to be one of the reasons that the show was sold out so soon. The venue was packed to capacity of course with mostly young people. We saw the technicians on the stage: Phil Docherty, Danny Quatrochi and Donald Fitzimmonds. They tuned up the instruments, they also set up the lights etc. while we were waiting for the start. It was time for some fun as well, i.e. we sang some old Beatles tunes and Phil shook his bottom to the audience, which received a huge ovation. At 8:30 p.m. suddenly all became dark and we heard the first sounds of 'A Thousand Years', the huge curtain rose, and the crowd went crazy when Mr. Sting appeared on the stage with his guitar in his hand...
I had been waiting for this moment for almost four years! The 'I still love you' part was the best part of the opening song, in my opinion. After that he took off his strange leather jacket (which is well-known from the video of 'Desert Rose') switched to his bass guitar named 'Brian' and started to play 'If You Love Somebody Set Them Free'. Sting looked very relaxed, he was full of energy and, above all, he had a superb voice. He wore a black vest and dark trousers with pockets and the guitarist Dominic Miller had almost the same clothes as Sting. 'Perfect Love... Gone Wrong' came next, so we discovered that the usual set-list was changed significantly. Chris Botti, who had short hair and an elegant dark-coloured suit, played an unbelievable Miles Davis-like trumpet solo. Manu Katché made the French rap-part with great success in his white baseball cap, and Jason Rebello did a short but fantastic keyboard solo as well. After the song was over in an interesting way, one of my favourite tunes came next from the new album 'After The Rain Has Fallen', which was mixed with 'We'll Be Together'. Sting greeted the audience 'Dobry vecer Bratislava!' (Good evening, Bratislava!) between the two songs. Dominic made some really exciting guitar solos and the new backing vocalists did a great job too. Sting shouted 'Dakujem!' (Thank you!) and introduced his band. Dominic Miller changed his guitars very frequently during the show and I noticed that he did not use his new yellow Stratocaster at all, which could be seen at the Los Angeles gig on television. Except for some usual solos he remained in the background and he seemed to be a bit bored. Once Sting went up to him and he tapped him on the arm twice as if he had wanted to say 'Come on! Wake up!'. The backing vocalists, Mation Taylor and Darryl Tookes really enjoyed the whole show. They were dancing all the time and made some percussion stuff as well. The drummer, Manu Katché played pretty well in the first half of the show but after that, somehow he lost his energy and his drumming became rather monotonous.
Sting's co-producer and keyboard player, Kipper wore a red waistcoat and sunglasses. He really was in good mood while playing the synthesizers, samplers and drum machines. He also sang background vocals to add some more feeling to all the great songs. The trumpeter, Chris Botti did awesome solos but at the end of the show the volume of his instrument was really low, so it was almost impossible to hear anything. While he was waiting for his turn, sometimes he played percussions or he was just simply looking at the audience. Once I managed to draw his attention by waving my hand. When he noticed it, he nodded and smiled at me. He also left the stage for several times because he was not involved in every song. The pianist, Jason Rebello waved and smiled at Balázs as well. These young musicians really had a good time on the stage having fun together. For example, Chris suddenly threw his sordino (a part of his mute trumpet) to Kipper, who managed to catch it, and Chris also pushed some buttons on Jason's keyboard, so poor boy had to reset his instrument soon before something really bad could happen.
After the beautiful but sad ballad of 'Mad About You' it was time for some fun with 'Seven Days'. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with Manu's drumming in this song because Vinnie Colaiuta did it absolutely different and in a more stunning way. The next two songs were the surprise 'country-part' of the night because Sting and his band played 'I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying' (the only song from 'Mercury Falling') and it was immediately followed by 'Fill Her Up'. It is a pity that Sting did not pick somebody from the audience to sing with him! Balázs and I replaced the James Taylor-parts of this song with shouting 'goddamn' and 'that's it' in the right time. After a great bass-line and some amazing minutes of improvisation, 'Fields Of Gold' came next when some lighters and what is more, some green fireworks appeared in the audience. The first Police song was 'Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic', which made a cheerful atmosphere in the hall and it was a great sing-along as well. Manu broke two of his drumsticks during this tune, which were thrown high to the air. Before the start of the renewed version of 'Moon Over Bourbon Street', huge balls appeared on the stage symbolizing the Moon. At this occasion Sting did not sing on his Louis Armstrong-voice but on his normal one. The song ended with a great howling and with the 'Mr. Chris Botti on the trumpet!' introduction by Sting. The next number was 'Tomorrow We'll See' where Branford Marsalis' clarinet solo was replaced by Chris' trumpet; Dominic also did a long and remarkable heavy metal solo. When the line of 'These new heels are killing me' was being sung, the whole crowd went nuts... After a quick change from side A to B of my tape, the classic song 'Englishman In New York' began with a nice drumming by Manu and it was filled with cool piano solos by Jason. Everyone sang 'Be yourself, no matter what they say' and 'yeah-yeah' together with Sting, which made an incredible feeling at Incheba. I think, one of the peak points of the whole gig was when we heard the first chords of 'Brand New Day'. During this optimistic and very dynamic love song, Kipper and Jason were moving simultaneously on their seat behind their keyboards as if they had been dancing. It was fun! Then 'Roxanne' came next with an acoustic intro and it all ended up with a huge reggae-rage, which was simply brilliant. The current single 'Desert Rose' was fantastic even without the Algerian rai-singer, Cheb Mami. As far as I remember, the audience liked this song the most and it was also a great spectacle to see some red and yellow fake-flames on the stage. I almost became deaf when this tune was over... During the 10-minute-long Police-medley of 'Bring On The Night/When The World Is Running Down, You Make The Best Of What's Still Around' Jason Rebello paid tribute to the late Kenny Kirkland with an astonishing jazzy piano solo. The first part was over but after a few seconds of applause and boos the band came back to the stage to perform 
'If I Ever Lose My Faith In You'. It started without drums and Manu joined only at the first refrain, but I have to admit that I really missed Vinnie. When Sting was singing 'in you' he always pointed to one part of the audience and he received a great ovation in return. After 'Every Breath You Take' Sting introduced his band once again and they all left the stage. The second encore included an unplugged version of 'Message In A Bottle' and the all-time final song, the touching 'Fragile'. Surprisingly, Sting played both songs on Dominic's acoustic guitar and not on his own Gibson Chet Atkins while Dom played the bass. After that we heard the very last note of 'Fragile' the curtains fell gently to the floor. Finally, Sting thanked the audience for coming and listening and all the band members bowed and waved to us. When he said his usual 'See you again!' then I thought of the concert in June in Budapest, of course. He also made a few handshakes with some people in the first row then he left the stage.
At 10.25 p.m. exactly we started to get out of the building very slowly. During the very popular 'Desert Rose Melodic Club Mix' some people were dancing and singing, including me. It really was a great enjoyment to entertain ourselves while going outside. Some guys were listening to 'If You Love Somebody Set Them Free' and 'Russians' in their cars but after some minutes of silence we turned on the stereo and listened to the whole bootlegged gig in Balázs's car. After the two hours of travelling, 'Fragile' closed the night for us again when we arrived home in the end.
This was truly an unforgettable night with Sting (it was my second chance to see him live), and now I am even more eager to see him again in Budapest as I had been before the Bratislava show. So, I am really looking forward to seeing the concert on 12 June 2000. Thanks Sting!
The End
EDITOR'S NOTE: all the photos were sent to me from Greg and when you get a chance, check out Greg's SYNCHRONIsite website!
You are visitor
since this page was designed on March 17, 2000.
Index 
The Web's Too Big Without You! Items For Sale Who
Am I? What's New?
Again, thanks for visiting my homepage. I hope you will come back and visit soon.
For questions, comments or information on this home page, please send e-mail to blueturtles01@hotmail.com.
This page hosted by 
. Get your own Free Home Page.
Copyright © 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 , 2001 by blueturtles01@hotmail.com. All rights reserved.