Got home around one last night and couldn't fall asleep because there was this ringing in my ears. Quite irritating, to say the least. I wonder if musicians don't wear earplugs when they are performing? Oh well. The show last night was great! The crowd was really up and moving, practically no one bothered sitting down for the second hour.
Some highlights:
He wore the red polka dot shirt, first seen on SNL, quite ugly IMO, along with army pants and boots. No leather pants. oh sob. I was so looking forward to that
Some guy in the front row was holding up a sign which said "I want to sing with you. I'm so happy I can't stop crying". Well, he got an invite up to sing with Sting. Wanted to rip the guy's arms off. When the guy got on stage, Sting said "the next song is about divorce. Are you divorced?" The guy said no and said his lovely wife was sitting right down there. "She is beautiful" Sting replied, crowd laughter. So the guy got to sing the chorus of ISHICSC on stage with Sting. Talk about luck. Next time I go to a concert, I'm trying that. The guy also admitted he couldn't sing, he just wanted to meet Sting. Quite an excited person.
Natalie Merchant opened and played for approxiamately an hour or so. Last stop opening for Sting. I believe her setlist was the same down in D.C. I love her music and it was so great being able to see her and Sting in one stop. Towards the end of her set, she looked offstage and said "Sting, come on out don't be shy" She kept repeating that for about a minute and the audience was getting all excited. Turned out to be some backstage hand. Great joke to pull off on us.
The music was really high energy, but it seemed as if his voice was not up to par. At points it got kinda scratchy sounding. Did two jumps and some fancy footwork. Asked about the fourth of July celebration in Philly and said some stuff on how the English doesn't celebrate it, for obvious reasons.
At one point, it seemed as if Dominic's guitar was having a problem, but it was fixed. He did a lot more backing vocals then I remember him doing on TST tour, but maybe it was to help out Sting. Is it just me, or does Dominic look like he's suffering from some sort of a dietary problem. He was wearing a basketball jersey and these really tight jeans. That guy is nothing but bones. His legs are even thinner then mine's!
Overall, I have to say it was a very good show. Musically, more interesting than TST tour and it seems as if his showmanship skills have improved a bit more since TST tour. Of course this is all IMO. And now what I know all of you have been waiting for, the setlist.
Well, folks, that's about it. Sorry for rambling on like this, but I had to get it out of my system. In about a week, I'm seeing Sting up in Scranton. Hope to see someone from the mailing list up there! For all future concertgoers, ENJOY!
BTW - at the beginning of Fragile, a fan handed him some flowers which he placed by his feet. Needless to say, at the end of the concert, he managed to walk off the stage without the flowers.
Forgive me for posting another review of the Philadelphia concert. I know that Rowan already wrote one, but I assure you all that I have plenty to add. Perhaps the most overwhelming detail of the entire show was the fact that the crowd was dead. Getting them to sing along during Roxanne was nearly as difficult as getting Pat Buchanan (American conservative) to vote for pro-choice legislation. The crowd particularly took their toll on Natalie Merchant who seemed visibly upset by the lack of enthusiasm. Merchant's setlist follows:
During City of Angels, the flower dress-clad Merchant asked Sting to come out. The crowd rustled when a look-alike came out but was upset when it turned out not to be Sting. She played a shorter set than she did in Washington, due to the dead audience.
I'll spare you from another post of the repetitive setlist, but several significant things happened at the Philadelphia show. Coming out at 9:45, Sting wore the same red and white shirt he wore on Saturday Night Live. Amanda Bradford, who some of you may remember as the mailing list's Soul Cages booster, and her friend Courtney were with me at the show. During Every Little Thing She Does is Magic, Amanda held up a sign that read, "Don't Forget the Soul Cages." Sting pointed to the sign and Amanda, and he motioned to her several times during Mad About You, emphasizing the "you" when looking at her. Needless to say, the gesture made her evening.
As I've said, the crowd was dead. There was a preponderance of people who merely sat there, not responding, standing up, singing along, clapping, or whatever. During Mad About You, we were standing up as one does as concerts. All of a sudden, a middle-aged man - very yuppie - grabbed me by my neck and threw me down in my seat. Apparently, he was unhappy that he couldn't see. When I asked him, "What the hell are you doing?" he asked me if I wanted to fight. So, I proceeded to call security, and the man explained that he had paid a lot of money for the tickets and wanted to see the show. I told him that we were both in the VH1 section and paid the same amount of money to see the show, but that he had no right to grab me; if he wanted me to sit down, he should have asked me or called an usher. I mentioned something to him about assault and battery....wonder if that's the reason he didn't stay for the second encore!
Other random stuff - there were two patented Sting jumps, one after Roxanne and one after Lithium Sunset. Sting took a Newcastle United scarf from a fan. Another lucky middle-aged fan got to duet with Sting on I'm So Happy, I Can't Stop Crying. Of course, he had never been divorced and couldn't sing worth a damn, but, as he said, he just wanted to get up on stage. Sting used the same July 4 joke that he used in Washington. The Kenny Kirland solo during When the World is Running Down was again phenomenal. Sting was much more active during this show than he was in Washington, doing dances with the sax and trombone players (both of whom were excellent). Lithium Sunset and Synch II are incredible when performed live - if you have a chance to hear either song from this tour, do so. The trombone player briefly went into "My Favorite Things" during his solo in Roxanne. And that's pretty much all that happened.
Sting again received flowers, but he gave them to Vinnie Colauita - maybe he was afraid that he couldn't control himself and was going to throw them.
I very much enjoyed both shows (barring stupid fans) and hope that anyone who sees the upcoming shows has a great time.
Here's the setlist without comments (I forgot it earlier):
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