Thanks to Jock & Ann Lowndes for the Ticket Stub
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Thanks to Jock & Ann Lowndes for the Ticket Stub |
Hi I thought the show was great - I caught his show in Zurich and this was far and away a much better performance - He was into it a lot more. BTW, because of his appearance here the Stingmeister is featured on the cover of a local free tabloid paper in Toronto called Now.
If anyone is interested you can read it at: Now .
The reason Sting started singing "cos I'm a soul man" at the beginning of YSTM during the Toronto show is because he borrowed the first few notes of the song from the Sam and Dave hit Soul Man. He was just fooling around with it..He did this at the Great Woods show, too, and the crowd laughed along with him and seemed to enjoy the joke. (Sting talks about this in the program which is being sold at the concerts for $15- contains an interview and some realy good photos).
Just came back from the Toronto concert and I wanted to share some thoughts. Sarah McLachlan opened and as always sounded like an angel. I'm always amazed with her vocals. She came out at exactly 8pm with only 2 other musicians. She played the piano at the beginning and end and the guitar on a few songs in between. Roses were thrown up on stage at one point and she accepted them and gently set them down as every good icon should :) She kept talking about how depressing her songs were and put on a very modest set. Here's her list, please forgive any errors:
Sting came out around 9:30pm and gave that 90 min concert we all know and love (some of us anyway). He finished exactly at 11pm. The set list was completely different! No, I'm kidding it was exactly the same as the Montreal show and I guess every North American show so far so I won't post the set list.
The weather was a bit on the cool side for July in Toronto and I think that affected the way the crowd felt about being there. They weren't into it much. Especially the people on the lawn who didn't get to their feet until Synchronicity 2. The Roxannoooo's and Ei Yeh Yo's from the crowd were pretty pitiful as well IMHO. Sting didn't seem too phased but this show was far from perfect. Sting forgot the words to a few songs including Englishman and Fragile I think. His voice was kind of rough for the first four Mercury songs but came alive during Every Little Thing. I think he was saving it. Overall I felt there was something lacking to the show but I can't put my finger on it. Maybe it was spontanaity- when you know the set list before hand it kinda ruins some of the excitement. Sting did do his 2 classic jumps just like the other concerts. I did feel the horns added a lot to the songs- especially the Mercury Falling ones. They were somewhat distracting at times but added a lot to the music. I personally didn't want to see the TST tour again with some Mercury songs added on. With the horns, it wasn't like that.
Someone yelled out "I love you" Sting replied "You love me? You hardly know me!" Big laugh there. At the beginning of You Still Touch Me Sting actually started the song singing "Cause I'm a Soul Man"- interesting.
A guy was brought up on stage to sing I'm So Happy. Sting said "I'm looking for somebody here (cheers) You're already volunteering and you don't even know what it's for yet, it could be awful (yeah right)" The person had to be male Sting stipulated. So he picked a guy in a white shirt. I don't think this dork had even listened to the new album. He didn't sing a word of the chorus. Just stood there with a dumb smile as dorks often do. Sting even asked the guy twice if he knew the song. He obviously didn't. Where were you David? I was hoping someone from the list would be up there. Sting joked that it was probably the first time the guy had ever seen him.
During the first encore someone threw a hat on stage for Sting. He picked it up said he didn't look good in hats, he put on took it off and mentioned he'd wear it in bed. Overall I liked the concert and really enjoyed the ska version of Roxanne. For the "Freaks" like us though it is kind of frustrating that the set list doesn't vary much from tour to tour. It's late and I think I'll shut up now. Thanks for reading...
Having already seen at least one review of the concert, I won't get into my thoughts on the show. . . except to say I was ticked off when the lucky stiff who was able to get third row seats right in front of Sting gets pulled up on stage to sing and didn't know the words. Not only did he not know the words to ISHICSC, I doubt if he was even a fan at all . . . just came with the girlfriend who really did not seem to be to impressed by the dork running up on stage like that !!!Argh!!!! (Thanks for the thought Chris, but I was about halfway back in the seats)
But, speaking about the set-up, gear, and the sound. As I mentioned in an earlier post a couple of weeks ago, Sting has usually stayed with production companies he knows (often as far back as the Police tours) or the biggest & best names in the business. As the tour book states, he's using "Upstaging" for trucking but it didn't mention the sound and lighting company. After poking around a little bit, I realized he was using the same company he has used for the last couple of tours - "Claire Brothers" - one of the better sound companies around. The show at this Molson Amphitheatre, a large 16,000 + seater sounded great. Very clear, well projected sound, with a pretty nice little light show - nothing overly Rock 'N' Roll or flashy, effective for creating moods, and does the job of lighting up Sting and the band so that we can see them. (which really is the purpose of lighting - regardless of the flashy shows you've seen!)
As for Sting's bass - he is down in the mix. You can hear him, but you've got to concentrate a little. The bass is right in the middle of the mix, designed to be felt more than heard. I would think he's asked to be mixed this way. IMHO He could definitely use a little more attack and presence in the sound - it almost sounded muddy in the BOTN - WTWIRD medley, but he's in the middle of the sound and directing the musical traffic as he always does. As for overall sound volume, it was nearly perfect, you didn't lose anyone - nor was anyone run over by another instrument. All in all the band was in excellent form, and I was very impressed by the horn section. Not only did they really add to the show musically, but they had a sense of humour and the choreography added to the show. They were running their butts off in the background - talk about an aroebic workout!!!
I thought it was a great show, better than the last couple in terms of his voice being pretty much perfect, no reaching for notes, but he did blow a couple of lines as was mentioned on the weekend. I do wish he would shake up that set-list however! I actually thought he was going to early on in the show. After the four new songs he opens with, he was talking to the crowd and asking the folks on the grass at the back to make some noise, when he says something about the lovely moon in the sky - I'm thinking, YES! he's gonna play Walking On The Moon - It would have blown the crowd away and sucked them in sooooo quick it would have been amazing! Oh well, maybe next time?
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