I've just come back from the last three European shows in Orléans, Vienne and Nîmes, and I am a wee bit tired. Andrea, Deborah and I had the honor of travelling with Jeremy. The shows were great - Orléans felt a bit tedious for the band, but Vienne and Nîmes were two of the best shows I've seen (Nîmes had a few excellent surprises.)
I will post a full review of our cheeky adventures tomorrow as I need to get some sleep, otherwise I will go mental. And by the time I'll have recuperated, it will start all over again with the Today show, Camden, PNC, Jones Beach, Buffalo... Central Park... We're so spoiled!
Ok, so before the Today Shows comes along and I can't keep track of which shows I've seen, I thought I'd take the time to write a complete review of the the last three European shows in France.
It was nice to see some familiar faces again when Andrea and I arrived in Paris. We met Jeremy and Benjamin (thanks for picking us up Ben!) and Deborah. It was starting to feel like our last trip to France, minus the Mad English and LBB! We had lunch the following day with a friend of mine who's been to many concerts and who was going to Vienne and Nîmes also. Oddly enough, he recognized Jeremy and Deborah! (I wonder why?!...)
We got to Orléans at 4:30 and there were four people there. They considered themselves hard-core fans since they had come from every corner of France. Their pride was crushed when they learned that we came from New York! We met up with Estelle, Jérôme, Christophe and Eric from the French fan club. They had just seen Sting at an autograph session in Paris. They asked him if he could play Ghost Story, but he said he didn't remember the words. They asked him if he would do Message In a Bottle, and he said "We'll see..."
The concert in Orléans was good, but nothing spectacular. It felt like the show was on autopilot. The tour is obviously taking its toll on the band, and Sting was the only one not showing signs of fatigue. It was nice to hear how the arrangements have evolved since January. Roxanne and Faith have changed dramatically, as well as All This Time and Tomorrow We'll See... Change is good, especially when the setlist remains the same. It seems the band and crew interact a lot whenever Sting has his back to them (which is most of the time!) Jason and Kipper have this sit-stand routine they do during Brand New Day, Kipper and the crew toss Kipper's scratch board back and forth behind the stage during Moon Over Bourbon Street, and the crew makes a hand gesture during the "do-do-dos" in Perfect Love. So not much to say about this concert - it was good, but not excellent. And Sting didn't play Message...
The next show was sure to be different though. The venue was an old open-air amphitheater built on the side of a mountain. It had a very intimate feel (2,000 seats) We contemplated staying there the whole day to see them set up (we got there at 7:00 am when the crew started putting up the scaffolding) but decided to rest, as we had been on the road for 5 hours, and wee little Jeremy was sleeping in the car... But odd impulses can come over you when you lack sleep and are overdosed on Sting...
Oddly enough, even though people showed up early, we ended up easily in the front row, dead center, about 1 meter from the stage. The front section was full of freaks: Jeremy, Deborah, Andrea, Lydia & Marco from Italy, Alain and Pierre from Barcelona, Martin and Fabien (it was nice to finally meet you both) and a few others I might have forgotten...
Somehow, Andrea and I ended up backstage before the show (I know, we're terrible people!) We were told Sting was watching the soccer game, but a few minutes later, his Stingness came out of his trailer and we took pictures. It happened pretty fast, and he disappeared in the blink of an eye... We then went back in the pit with the commoners, and Cheb opened the show. This was the best opening show I've seen Cheb do. His band is really tight and very energetic. They got the whole crowd hyped up.
The intro to A Thousand Years takes a wee bit longer now, since it takes a bit of time for Kipper to get to his seat with his crutches (they moved him close to the backup singer btw.) As soon as A Thousand Years was over, it felt like this show was going to be much different from Orléans. The whole band seemed happy to be there, and were looking up in awe at the amphitheater and the church at the top of the mountain. There was a lot more interaction from Sting (how could he ignore "BELLISSIMO!!!") During Englishman In New York, all of us freaks would go up on the "say" in "Be yourself, no matter what they say" (like he does before "O-o, I'm an alien...") to throw him off a bit. He looked down at us with a smirk on his face as if to say "You guys have been to WAY too many show!" The band had a good laugh when we all did that hand signal during Perfect Love that we saw the crew doing the night before! There were a couple of surprises also, like a brand new Brand New Day! Dom played chords rather than the familiar riff. And Sting kept going higher and higher on the "O" in "Roxanne-O", and the audience followed suite. He was impressed and said "Pas mal!" (Not bad) It was nice to see Cheb Mami and "Monsieur Abdel Nasser" back on for Desert Rose. The only let-down was no Message In a Bottle, but otherwise, the show was unbelievable. Great venue, great crowd, great people in the front row, lots of energy from the band... It might be the best show I've seen so far.
I don't want to turn into the guy that all would envy, but Andrea and I ended up backstage again (I know, we suck!) We took pictures with Cheb Mami who was more than happy to do so. It's amazing how a wee little pygmy like that can have such a voice! We then met Chris and Dominic. Dom wasn't talkative at all (I'm sure he was tired) but Chris was great. We talked for a while. He asked us how many shows we had seen, what time we were going to the Today Show... He says they're taking a long break from the tour in November. I asked him if the band was tired at this point, and he said he was exhausted. Oddly enough, I enjoyed our short conversation with Chris more than I enjoyed our lightning-fast photo session with Sting earlier. The night wrapped up with disgusting shish kebabs (the moules et frittes were sadly missed LBB!)
We almost didn't make it to Nîmes the next morning... I spent the entire morning running around town looking for my roll of film, which I couldn't find. I LOST THE PICTURES OF ME AND STING!!! Then, our car was surrounded by mountains of fruit, as the weekly market had engulfed our parking spot. We bought as much fruit as we could from the vendor so that they would leave faster, and we even helped them haul the empty boxes onto the truck to speed up the process!
The venue in Nîmes was breath-taking as well. For those of you who don't know the bull-fighting arena of Nîmes, picture the Coliseum, only smaller. We had the same crowd from Vienne plus the French fan club who were in Orléans. Cheb's set was absolutely mental! The energy was unbelievable, especially Nasser, the derbouka player, who got the whole crowd clapping faster and faster and unbelievably loud to his drum solo. A great way to warm the audience up.
The show in Nîmes didn't have the intimacy that Vienne did, but it had a lot more surprises. Sting wasn't as rehearsed, and it felt like the band was given more freedom for this last show. We got the whole crowd to do the hand signal during Perfect Love, which the band got a kick out of. The major highlight from this show was definitely Roxanne. Sting sang the line "I can't stand losing you" in the middle. The crowd instantly went nuts! He looked down with a smirk on his face as if to say "You want some mo'?" I never thought he'd turn it into a big deal, but he kept singing "I can't stand losing you-oo-ooo" It was so nice to hear something radically different. He also had the crowd whispering "Roxanne-o" which was great. Another surprise was Bring On The Night: while Cheb left after Desert Rose, Nasser stayed to play derbouka. Change is good. If it ain't broke, FIX IT!
When Sting came back for the first encore, he said "Angleterre: 1, Allemagne: 0" (England 1, Germany 0) The crowd cheered and the band laughed hysterically as they kicked into Faith! No Message again that night (I can't understand why he wouldn't do it...) but a great show with lots of energy, and different enough to really stand out.
We had a chance to get a couple of drinks with all the other freaks (thanks Benjamin for whatever that Pastis thing was!) Unfortunately we had to leave early, as did Lydia who was so sad it was all over (I'll yell "Bellissimo" at Sting for you during the US shows!) Thanks Martin, Fabien and Benjamin for walking (running?!) us back to the train station. Thanks Deborah for being good company, and a big thank you to Jeremy for driving around France, and not wearing your contacts in Nîmes! LBB, you were sadly missed. LFB and LJB hope you can make it to Central Park...
I apologize if some of this just doesn't make sense. I didn't really think it through before writing, and I'm still trying to get over my jet lag.
Thanks for coming, thanks for reading, God bless, we'll see you again. Next gig: Today Show!
Once again, I find myself having the pleasure of reporting to you the latest saga of concert reviews, silly nights out, utter lunacy and a general overview of what it is like to go on these mini Sting tour adventures. While I hope that this will be read with a smile, I am perfectly aware that there are a number of you with a strong desire to complain about everything that isn't 103% Sting or Police content, so for those in that category......... I leave you an anagram to sort. Please put these words in the correct order.
LIFE - A - GET
or if that is too difficult then try this one
OFF - PISS
Wednesday March 14th 2000
It is 6am on a cold morning in Paris, I have just awoken to the awful sounds of a alarm clock squawking in my ear, followed up with the sounds of Benjamin telling me "Jeremy, Jeremy....time to get up..... time to go to the airport". After many failed attempts to go back to sleep, I find myself on the motorway out of Paris heading for the airport to meet the merry bunch with which I have the pleasure of doing the latest leg of the Sting tour with. Fred, Andrea and Debs all arrived more or less on time and I ...well....er...didn't.
After various delays, disorganization etc, we picked up our rental car and headed for Paris. We spent the day collecting parking tickets and looking for one of those silly little tape things with a wire hanging off them that enable you to play cd's in your car when you don't have a car cd player.... after numerous visits to Darty we eventually accomplished the mission, and went off to meet Nasser for lunch.
For those of you who don't know, Nasser (aka Wee mini Cheb aka Walrus) is the Darbouka player that plays in the Cheb Mami band and often plays with Sting on After the rain and Desert Rose. The afternoon was spent with us basically trying to not eat red meat, eating aphrodisiac cakes, drinking water that was supposed to taste like it had orange something or other in it ....but really didn't, and failing to stop Nasser paying the bill everywhere we went. The night was spent going shopping in Paris for cd's and eating glow in the dark radioactive Fluorescent green Tabouli. I have no explanation for why I am mentioning this stuff at all.
Thursday March 15th 2000
Today is the third last concert of the European leg of the tour. We set off about 2 for the short ( 2 hour) drive to Orleans. The drive was really just a continuation of the Fred and Andrea vocal duet that originated in earlier in the tour in Lille (Jan 7th). Singing all the way.... we arrived around 4 and made our play for the front of the line. For those of you who don't know our young Andrea, she suffers from a rare disease called mustgetfrontrowitis. The main symptom is an overwhelming desire to think up all the things that can go wrong that will prevent her from being in the front row. Well anyways, after a generally uneventful afternoon of Deborah and Andrea peeing in the bushes and us being locked up like cattle, we were eventually let loose from the turnstiles and set free for the sprint to the front of the stage. For those of you who have not ever done this, there is a strange thing that always happens. They open the gates, and all the people calmly walk towards the entrance.....everybody knows that each other wants to get to the front, yet there seems to be a fear of looking stupid that prevents most people from instantly sprinting......it is not that unsimilar to what cyclists do in the Tour De France. Fred and I were the first two people through the gate...and while the young Fred walked with an almost royal like dignity..... I said "$&#$" it and ran my socks off...
Well as usual Andrea's fears were wasted and she found herself along side Deborah, Me, Fred, and Marie Paul in the middle of the front row.
The band is the same as always with the exception of the new backup singer. I have to be honest and say that he doesn't fit the part at all. Looks like he would be more comfortable in Oasis or something...hands in pockets.... microphone switched off sort of thing. There is an alarming amount of singing coming from backup tapes as opposed to from singers mouths in the set at the moment. This is not opinion, it is fact that I can prove beyond any shadow of a doubt. Not that it is tough to prove when you can clearly hear women singing the backups and yet there are no women singers on the stage. There is also a lot of Sting back up vocals on the tapes also, featuring heavily on many tracks including 1000 years. Andrea and Debs kept talking about the fact that Jason was not wearing any socks...but they did make me promise that I wouldn't put that in the reviews...... mums the word.
The show was very flat, the band seemed exhausted, and really felt like they were just going through the motions, I wont add too much info about the songs in tonight's review as they were all a little flat. When the main tech people finish setting up the gear now, they have a little silly handshake thing that they do now...so about 10 min before the opening rumble of 1000 years have a look if you want to....
Setlist
encore
encore
Goodnight Orleans, god bless and we'll see you again.
After being more or less hounded out of the Chinese restaurant after the show, we started our long drive to Vienne for the 2nd show. As the drive was about 5-6 hours, we decided not to get a hotel and just drive through the night. Rumours abound about me hallucinating giant Pand bears throwing biscuits and Gas Station bakeries, but I think the others just suffered from lack of sleep as I didn't know what they are all on about. We almost bought a Sting Karaoke tape at a gas station in the middle of the night, but managed to hold back the temptation. We arrived in Vienne about 6.30 am and tried to check into out hotel and go to sleep....
NEVER IN MY 30 YEARS OF OWNING THIS HOTEL HAVE I EVER HAD THIS HAPPEN TO ME........ENGLISH PIGS !!!! (even though none of us are English)
I missed all of the above as I was fast asleep in the car..... I did however wake up in a foul mood in the car and took it out on everyone though.
Spent the late afternoon hanging out with Martin V, and did the usual pre gig sprint to the front of the stage...to be greeted to the sounds of Lydia....screaming jjjjeremy....jjjjjeremy. Andrea like yesterday was ill again, Spent most of the pre show talking with Martin, Lydia, Guido, Fabian and his lovely bride. The Amphitheatre here is beautiful.
Friday June 16th 2000 Vienne
encore
encore
After the show, we locked Debs and Andrea in the hotel lobby for a while and then we (Debs, Me, Fred, Andrea, Alain and his two friends) attempted to find a meal, but found that all we could have was either a Kebab, another Kebab or a kebab. After a few drinks and er.... kebabs... we went back to the hotel for some well deserved sleep.
Saturday June 17th Vienne
We awoke to find that the town of Vienne had decided to "erect" its local market around our car, therefore we had to wait until it closed at 1.30 before we could hit the road for Nimes.
Eventually hit the road around 1.45 for the 2.5 hour drive to Nimes. The Arena in Nimes is stunning also, "Erected" by the Romans in the first century... really amazing.
Spent the afternoon sorting the hotel, and then waiting in the line to make sure we were again at the front. Andrea once again decided to panic and worry about the fact that there was 2 people in front of her in the line.... we all took turns slapping her (Just like in the airplane movie).
Sure enough, we were all in the front row again as usual (Martin, Fabian, Estelle, Debs, Fred, Andrea, Me, Lydia, Marie Paul, Guido,Christophe, Jerome) and Benjamin who was angry with us all for not picking him up.... sorry for that, once again the road crew did the silly handshake thing, and then the show began....
Rumble rumble, the stage is a mess ....rumble rumble... er...yea.
encore
encore
While the setlist hasn't really changed since the opening night of the European tour in Lille (Jan 7th), it is amazing to see the progression that the songs have made during that time. If you listen to the cd's of both the Lille show and then the Nimes show, it is amazing to hear the differemce in the performances.
Had a backstage pass tonight, so Fred, Andrea and I went back for a very short while and then I was deeply honoured to accompany Fred's entourage to one of the local restaurants for some Vodka and Orange and various other concoctions.......after a while we all went our separate ways and it was over. (How can you tell that I have lost interest in typing this ?)
Was very nice to once again spend time with Fred and Andrea, and to finally meet my good friend Martin in person. Great to see Benjamin again (also very nice of him to put Deborah and I up in his home outside Nimes..... what a wonderful host he was, loads of vodka, beautiful food and great beaches. Thanks also to the Romans for "erecting" all these great places for us to see concerts...and what is all this talk of erections anyway ?
Great to spend loads of time with Deborah again, hope you got home safely today and will probably talk to you tonight.......
Karel you would have loved this trip, and I was sad not to have you there, Ross, Bill and Paul and Andy were missed also...
Next for me is Denver on the 25th July..... then some shows around Houston....... then Fred, Alain, Deborah and I are going to Tokyo........ do any of us work for a living ?
Sorry for taking so long to get my review of Sting's June 15th performance in Orleans, France, but...
I was still in France until almost the middle of July and I couldn't transfer my Word file off of my laptop.
I have been pretty busy with job-hunting and all, and thus found it difficult to get the appropriate time needed to get everything set back up here at home, bla bla bla.
The review below is pretty much the same as I wrote it the day following the concert except for the inclusion of a note concerning Sting's hat and Robin.
Enjoy...
--------------
We arrived shortly before the gates of the Zenith theater in Orleans were opened to receive the concert-goers. It was open seating, and my three friends (Kelly, Florida, Diane) and I couldnt believe the ease of getting such a nice seat so close to the stage. We skipped on sitting in the very front row and opted for the second because it was on a platform that would have made it easy to see over the heads of the people that stood on the floor in front of the stage. There was already quite a collection of them waiting as it was. We figured that wed be dignified and stay in our seats. I mean, we were really close after all! But once the music started, I had to get up and groove with the music, so I went down to the floor and was even CLOSER to M. Sting. He must have been no more than thirty or forty feet from where I stood. I didnt want to get closer, however, as the crowd was compact and pushing one another further up, and there was still a rail that separated Sting from his audience by five feet, so I remained happy with my rather good position. I mean, it was far better than expected anyway, so why press my luck? The first song was A Thousand Years, which is a bit slow to start a concert, but I enjoyed it anyway, even though I thought Sting sounded nasal when he sang. The following songs, however, his voice sounded top form, and I was awestruck by the magnifence of how he can sing so well for so long, and at his age too. I could tell from my vantage point that he was definitely grandfather material, but he was up there grooving and jamming so well that I revered how cool the guy can be still when chumps like Mick Jagger became an industry joke and novelty item years ago.
Anyway, by his second song, I invited Kelly or Florida to join me, at which point all three girls jumped down there with me. It was great, we stayed on the floor the entire time, with the exception of Kelly who returned to stand on the platform near the end of the show because taller people had crowded in front of her and made it difficult for her to see. She didnt dance much, but she said she really enjoyed it, so thats good. And she was surprised to discover that Sting was the guy who sang Every Breath You Take, which made me laugh more than it made me feel dated.
So, Sting's voice was great over all, and his bass-playing was good too, though it wasnt as pronounced as I would have liked to have been. Nonetheless, the boy still jams. Chris Botti is a master on the trumpet. His serenade on Moon Over Bourbon Street was like sex to the ears. It melted on the tympanic membranes like chocolate and oozed into the soul. Manu Katche was good and impressed everybody with his French rap in Perfect Love Gone Wrong. I also liked the cool bass sound provided in Moon Over Bourbon Street, and Dominic added a Dixie-like guitar riff that put a really different but well-blended flavor on the song to the effect that it seemed like a completely new song. On a side note for Sting fan newsgroup member Robin... Sting was hatless for this number! (For those who dont know, she held up a sign in the States asking for his hat, and he gave it to her.) Well, Robin, you go ahead and enjoy that hat, but I got to see our boy in FRANCE, baby! The keyboardist was unimpressive, and the point when he should have gone into a keyboard jam during Bring On the Night/When the World is Running Down didnt even come close to raising my kilt. It also appeared that Sting kept giving the guy cues to do this or that, and Sting even seemed a bit frustrated with him at times, so who knows? The percussionist was also quite good. Perhaps it was he who provided the cool bass drum on Moon Over Bourbon Street (best song of the night, in my opinion). Like a true Sting fan, I forecast to my friends (all Sting concert virgins) that he would play Roxanne, Every Breat You Take, and close with Fragile. He did not disappoint my prophecy. I also said that he would go into a jam in the middle of Roxanne (which would not surprise any true Sting fan), but this time he did something different. Rather than go into a slower Reggae groove, they sped it up and really took off with a breakneck rock beat bit that carried touches of a marriage with heavy metal and Reggae. I was disappointed that Cheb Mami didnt show up for Desert Rose. I mean, doesnt he live in France? Well, hes got a career to do too, I suppose, so more power to him if he cant fulfill my expectations and follow Sting around to do one song. No matter. Sting did the Arabian lyrics himself, and as far as I could tell, he did a good job of it.
After the concert ended, they played the dance mix of Desert Rose over the PA. Id never heard it before, but I liked it so much that I went out today (the day after the concert) and bought it. The song will serve as a reminder for what I term the best concert Ive ever been to. It was a great show, but it was even better to be standing so close to the dude while being on the floor and dancing with three lovely friends who also enjoyed the concert. Who could ask for a better time?
Florida kept saying how surprised she was at how many Sting songs she actually knew. I was surprised at how many lyrics I knew. I dont think I missed one. Of course, the cigarette smoke did sort of choke me out on some of the higher notes later in the show as I sang along. (Thats my story and Im sticking to it!) And I saw Sting take a puff from a cigarette at one point. When did he start smoking? or has he always been smoking, but I just didnt know? I thought he was on some sort of health-conscious thing.
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