Concert Reviews Home Page

February 15, 2000

Sportovni Hala - Prague, Czech Republic

by Jose E. Alicea on February 29, 2000

I was looking on the web for hotels in Warsaw and I came across your page, lo and behold Kismit!! My name is Jose E. Alicea, from New Jersey, exit 160 off the parkway. I was recently in the country of Czech Republic seeing my wife, Alina (she is a Ukraine citizen and we are waiting for her Visa approval to the USA) for a two weeks holiday. Alina and I met in Praha (Prauge) last year, fell in love and I asked her to marry me two days later! She was crazy enough to say yes. We see each other every three months or so in Ukarine or Czech. Prauge is a wonderful, magical and romantic city, the city of Kafka and Mozart. When I was coming in from the airport I noticed right away the pasted posters advertising the Sting concert plastered everywhere and thought to myself, "myself, that would be a great Valentines day present to your lovely wife." After getting "busy" getting reaccuainted with my lovely wife, we toured the country, saw our friends and had a good time. We were at dinner and STING's name came up in the converstion and how everyone wanted to go to the concert but was told by them but that it was quite sold out since Autumn and that it was quite expensive. Now mind you what an American makes and what Czech makes is a diffrence from the earth to the Moon! I said why not call the ticket agents. They said they tried but to no avail. Well, credit "American Tenacity" because I went to the center of the city the next day and I scoured every ticket agency and cd store and found a place. I was ready to drop $100.00 easy per ticket but lo and behold they were so Cheap!! So cheap in fact, that I invited 8 of our friends to join my wife and me!!

They were floored and ask me how much they would have to pay for each ticket, seeing the worried look on there faces because of how expensive in their minds they would be. I replied nothing at all, they are my gift and treat and they were floored even more!!, I thought one girl would pass out right then and there.

The concert was held at the SPORTOVNI HALA (a hockey stadium) on Feb 15. The venue is about the size of the Continental sports arena in New Jersey, maybe a little smaller, the one thing I realized right away was this overhang beam thing over the main floor (I guess for the Hockey Games). I knew this apparatus would block our view but I said the hell with that, the sound and the music is what counts and judging by the size of the speaker stacks on each side of the stage we would get a good sound!

After all this I come to the part of the story which is the review of the concert and to be honest I know nothing about music, amplifiers, sets, instruments, arrangements, motherboards, etc, etc. I do however know what sounds good and Sting was Goddamm F***KING Good! He started off the set with a song from the new Cd which I believe tthe crowd did not know (don't ask me either!) but the crowd love it and went into a couple of the old standards ala "If You Love Somebody." Sting has a great grasp of Jazz and Reggae concepts. It is pretty obvious. He did a good mixture of the Police days "Message In A Bottle", "Roxxane", "Bed Too Big Without You", etc. He played them like it was 1982 and I was watching STING at Shea Stadium and the other boys from the Police were going to pop out any moment. You, however can admit to the maturity in his voice, the commpassion he puts out, he is a man not afraid to explore the range of human emotions. His band was superb and flawless in the execution of there parts, backup singers, drums, piano, synthesizer, trumpet, all preformed well. The drummer even got up on one of the songs and did a stanza of Rap words which really got the crowd worked up!! Sting is open to any good stuff! I wish that I could tell you more about the individual songs but I did not write anything down at the time and I regret that now. He did a beautiful rendition of "If I Ever Lose My Faith In You." Sting was marvelous with the crowd which was mostly Czech but a good range of ages that I could see, I really like to study peoples faces in these kind of situation, of course my wife thought I was checking out the young hotties (I was). There were quite a few English people as well. I think I was they only American but maybe not. Sting really connected with the crowd, and isn't that what music is all about. It is the one true Universal language. He said a few phrases in Czech, which the crowd loved but I did not ask my friends what they said because they were so mesmirized and just shot me some great smiles and approval. I felt like a million Bucks! It was Alina's first concert ever and she was blown away and wanted more!

Our tickets were in the nosebleed section with the big amps blocking the view which I did not mind. But I got up for a smoke (when was the last time you could smoke in a indoor arena in America?) and found out if we moved 30 feet over we would would have a dead on side view of the whole stage. That made the night just that much perfect!! We had binoculars but because you could see the whole stage they were not needed. They only thing I regret is not bringing my Camera. Two out every ten people apparently had one. Prior to the start they had the regular Stand for T-shirts and souviners but I could see no one was buying because a $17.00 T-shirt is a bargin at Madison Sqaure Garden (I believe ther running $30.00 now) but to a Czech kid it is like one weeks pay!! I decided to buy one for me, one for Alina and raffle one to my Guests, which they thoght was a great idea. I also bought the program and the key chain which I normally do not do but what the hell! I tell you I left the kids with there mouths gaping after paying for everything. I had planned to buy more T-shirts outside of the arena but alas I believe the illegal t-shirts is only an American phenomonom. After the concert we went to a bar in the center of the city for Beer (best beer in the world!) . It was a medium size place with about 50 people not including our group and I decided to do one more crazy thing, I bought the whole bar a round of drinks, and I gave a toast to STING, the wonderful Czech people and a great city. The place went nuts. we did not get home until, 6 a.m.!

Well, I know this is not the best review of a concert any one writer has done - but I love Sting, I had a great time and better yet, a great memory which I'll always chersh. I can always say "yeah, man I saw STING, in Prauge".

[EDITOR'S NOTE: a big "thanks" to Jose for all the scanned images!!]

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