Had to give you an update on two concerts I attended.
I live in Cary, NC. The closest I could get to Sting was in Charlotte, NC and Richmond, Va. So, I went to both concerts. Yes, two nights in row. (Both Charlotte and Richmond are 3 hours away from Cary - am I devoted or what!)
First Charlotte - The concert was held in Ovens Auditorium. After I arrived I realized that Sting was performing in smaller facilities this tour, which was a wonderful idea. Ovens has great acoustics! The sound was the best I've ever heard. Although I was in the back of the auditorium, I was still not far from stage and the view was great. As always, Sting's performance was outstanding. The mix of the song selection was terrific. I wish you could have been there. The bad part was that I was the only one who stood through the whole performance. (Good thing I was in the back.) The crowd was a little quite, more like you'd expect at a Simon and Garfunkle concert (ha). Finally, they got off their butts and livened up.
Richmond - Landmark Theater - Again, another "Theater" setting. Bigger then Ovens (2 Balconies), but, again, no bad seats. I had great seats and was able to stand much of the time. The crowd was more lively but, the sound was not great. A lot of echo. I'm sure the Band could tell a big difference. The great part was that I rushed the stage after the first encore (by the way, there were three encores for both performances) and was able to shake Sting's and Dominic's hands!! I have washed my hand since last night, but, it was hard.
I thought the band, and especially Sting, was very personable and it makes me proud to be a fan.
Just thought I'd give you some feedback on the "Southern" tour.
You know how the Grateful Dead fans are called "Dead Heads"? I'm a Sting Head!
This is a review for the Sting concert in Richmond, Virginia on November 10, 1999:
This concert was the first Sting concert I ever attended, so, unlike other reviewers on this site, I cannot compare the concert to others on previous tours. However, I have heard numerous bootlegs of Police and Sting concerts, so I have some knowledge of his previous live material.
Unlike previous reviewers on this tour who seemed to be enthralled at Sting's performance, I was a bit lukewarm about the concert. Some of the songs were outstanding while others lacked any sort of "punch". The opening number was a complete yawner. No one moved, no one sang, no one clapped, no one cared, including myself. It was a dumb opening number. However, once IYLSSTF came up, the concert got going. If you love someone set them free was outstanding, good voice, good beat, all around good number. The highlight of the first part of the concert was Every Little Thing She Does is Magic. Sting performed it up tempo, Dominic was really getting into it, and the ye-oh-oh's at the end turned back the clock to 1981-82 and made me feel like the Police were back in town. Other great songs of the first part were All This Time and Fields of Gold. One criticism I have of the beginning of the concert is that it seemed to lack any "flow". Sting would play an up-tempo song, the crowd would start to get going, and then he would proceed into a slow song, and the crowd would become restless again.
My biggest criticism of the night was "Roxanne". The performance of the song this evening was a complete debauchery of the original and a slap in the face to his Police past. The main problem was that it was played much too slowly!!!! The chorus is supposed to be very driving with bass and drums (If you want to hear the ideal "Roxanne", go break out your Outlandos to Synchronicities video and look at the Police peformance in London '79). Almost every bootleg version of the song I have from the Police era is very fast and driving. The audience should be jumping up and down during the chorus! This version just plodded along, arousing few people in the crowd including myself. Now I know why Stewart kept wanting to make the beat faster! It was really a sad effort. I'm just glad Andy and Stewart weren't in the crowd, because if they were, they would have been crying, it was horrendous.
The ending of the concert was quite extraordinary. I really enjoyed If I ever Lose My Faith in You, and, of course, my personal favorite, EBYT. "Message..." was also outstanding, and Fragile was a nice ending.
Overall Grade: B
I was a bit disappointed that there were only five Police songs (If you count the one verse ditty of Bring on the Night as a "song"). Where did Synchronicity II and King of Pain go?
I've really enjoyed reading other fans' reviews prior to attending my first Sting concert this tour (I'd seen him in Virginia Beach for the Mercury Falling tour). I agree with the consensus; he was great!
Me'Shell N'degeocello was the (unannounced) opening act. I enjoyed her, but several latecomers were still finding their seats, which was distracting. She left the stage rather abruptly.
Thirty minutes later, Sting opened with "A Thousand Years", one of only two disappointments of the night. I'd read that people wished he would open with a livelier first song, but doubted I would agree with them, as it's one of my favorites from the CD. However, it had a weird techno sound to it that didn't do it justice.
Here's the set list from Richmond:
First Encore
Second Encore
(No We'll Be Together, no Ghost Story, no Lithium Sunset)
Sting sounded great. He had some interesting transitions between songs, and held some notes so long, the crowd went wild. He was wearing what appeared to be a metallic gray silk (yes, cargo) pants, and a gray/black quilted/zippered shirt. The chat between songs was the same as what's been reported, but it was still funny. Scream (the back-up singers) made a big impression in my husband (very attractive and sexy). They changed outfits after Fields of Gold from black mini skirts to gold/silver sparkled dresses. The band was excellent. Kipper was mainly on keyboards, along with Jason Rebello. Chris Botti on trumpet and Manu Katche on drums were wonderful; I only wish I could understand French, because I suspect Manu's rap on Perfect Love was not exactly as it is on the CD. Dominic Miller threw some picks into the audience. Unfortunately, our seats were in the back of this nice old 1480 capacity theater. Binoculars helped. Sets and lighting certainly added to the mood of each song; I e
specially liked the flames on Desert Rose.No Cheb, no JT, no Stevie, no Branford; but Cheb is supposed to be in New York. I'll be going to Washington DC, New York (nights 3 and 4) and Akron, so I'll try to write a brief comparison review of each (although backstage passes would certainly help in my reporting!)
My second disappointment of the night was the omission of Ghost Story (my favorite song on Brand New Day). I also think Windmills of Your Mind (from the Thomas Crown Affair) should be included, and should be nominated for an Academy Award - his interpretation of it is beautiful.
The T-shirts, mugs, etc. have been reported on; but one interesting find was that you can order the Bring On the Night Video, which I haven't been able to locate up until now.
Overall, an exciting, emotional show, which more than met my expectations.
Oh, Lord, what a show. It ROCKED.
The opening act was Richelle or Michelle or something like that; we didn't hear them introduced because the traffic was really slow around the Landmark and we didn't get in until after 8 p.m. The bass drum was too loud--shaking the whole building--for the opening band, drowning out everything, and then the lead singer got miffed about something and walked off stage.
Sting came out at 9 p.m., wearing a tight brown leather shirt and a pair of (gray?) cargo pants, and boots. He looked GREAT, sending four or five girls behind us into ecstatic shrieks. I was pretty happy myself.
Damn it I can't remember the set list precicely; I was slightly delerious. They played songs off BND first, and then All This Time, which really got the crowd going. The whole theatre (and the Landmark is a beautiful place, as Sting mentioned during a break--it looks very Middle Eastern, like a mosque), was very loud and very appreciative of everything Sting said or did.
The sound was okay--the bass drum had been turned down a little but it still drowned out most of Sting's bass playing. He played a handheld bass the whole time; he never pulled out the upright. They did play Englishman and I wish he had used the upright for that, but it was still good, despite the fact that he flubbed the middle lyrics--I think that was the only song he did it on, so that was okay. They played a lot of Police (I was SCREAMING!!!!) and some of the songs were abbreviated.
I do remember these songs, but I know I missed one or two off of BND:
First Encore:
Second Encore:
I am sure I have forgotton some songs in the main list but this should give you an idea. I was so happy when they played Roxanne, and ELTSDIM brought tears to my eyes...sniff...it was so good. He JUMPED off the ledge that raised the drum kit just like in the old Police days for Roxanne (!) and the whole band jammed hard on When the World is Running Down. Sting sounded terrific, better than I've ever heard him on recordings I have of live shows. Really strong, holding out true on the long high notes and doing plenty of the classic eee-ooos and other audience sing-a-longs. He danced, some, too, on WTWIRDYMTBOWSA (that is a hell of a long acronym). The crowd was full of yuppies, and I saw one old lady pull out the binoculars when he started dancing close to the edge of the stage, even though she was as close as us--on the floor, about seven rows back from the stage. We were over on the extreme left, though--I was actually leaning on the wall when I stood up in my chair towards the end.
He played for a solid two hours and it flew by! Never a dull moment.
All in all, FANTASTIC. I couldn't have asked for more for my first Sting show, except maybe a recording of the performance? oh well, maybe one will turn up (hint hint hint).
I hope this has been interesting for some of you. I am still on cloud TEN so I am going to find something active to do with myself.
Oh, a note on the merchandise--pickings were pretty slim. Two kinds of T-shirts, a sweatshirt, a vest, a bookbag, one kind of poster, cds, keyrings, two kinds of those J. Crew fisherman-type hats, lanyards, and fat coffee or soup cups. I paid $12 for a lanyard and $10 for a poster with all the concert dates on it. The other stuff was pretty blah--I think they are going for a sparse, simple look, but the products have turned out to be pretty undistinctive. They all had the same logo STING in green and black sans-serif letters that look like, well, they don't really look like anything. The T-shirts looked like those shirts they give away when you sign up for a credit card, with the sting.compaq.com logo on the sleeve. If they had sold an iron-on or sew-on patch with just his name you could have made most of these products for yourself, but they didn't offer one.
I hope everyone has a wonderful day! The past 24 hours have been some of the best in my life!
You are visitor
since this page was designed on November 13, 1999.
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.