The Police Tour '07 - Part 3

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Stewart is the man.

He was the most enjoyable performer to watch. And his analysis of the second show was accurate. I noticed all kinds of problems early in the show especially on Sting's part. But I forgave em. It was still fun.

Although, there were too many "only familiar with the hits" people who sitting on their butts through much of the show. Screw em, I was stood up in their way.

I had row 3 seats on the side about 15 rows away from the front for the second show.

I was amazed at how Andy only changed his guitar once for a single song and Sting kept the same bass the whole time. Stewart breaks more sticks than the entire Ottawa Senators team. The lumber is flying when he is up there.

Both shows were a good time but if you are expecting perfection and a U2-like experience, I don't think you will get it. But it was awesome seeing them perform.

Andy Summers is 64, so he can be forgiven for not being too active up there although he was doing baby scissor kicks. Sting and Stewart are babies.
 
trevster2k said:
Stewart is the man.

He was the most enjoyable performer to watch. And his analysis of the second show was accurate. I noticed all kinds of problems early in the show especially on Sting's part. But I forgave em. It was still fun.

Although, there were too many "only familiar with the hits" people who sitting on their butts through much of the show. Screw em, I was stood up in their way.

I had row 3 seats on the side about 15 rows away from the front for the second show.

I was amazed at how Andy only changed his guitar once for a single song and Sting kept the same bass the whole time. Stewart breaks more sticks than the entire Ottawa Senators team. The lumber is flying when he is up there.

Both shows were a good time but if you are expecting perfection and a U2-like experience, I don't think you will get it. But it was awesome seeing them perform.

Andy Summers is 64, so he can be forgiven for not being too active up there although he was doing baby scissor kicks. Sting and Stewart are babies.
Click to expand...

Thanks Trev!

Stew is my favorite now. It used to be Sting, but Stew is awesome.

Speaking of Stew...did he ever throw out his broken sticks to the audience?

I love Stew...he crack me up :giggle:
 
Nah, he would be banging away and then a stick would come flying up while he grabbed another from the little bag of sticks.
 
Allegra said:
Speaking of Stew...did he ever throw out his broken sticks to the audience?
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All the drumsticks fell around the drumkit and were picked up by a tech later on. Stew would also throw his tympani sticks up when he had to jump to his kit - those were likely reused.

Andy apparently only gave out 1 pick during the fan club show and nothing else during the other shows.
 
U2FanPeter said:


All the drumsticks fell around the drumkit and were picked up by a tech later on. Stew would also throw his tympani sticks up when he had to jump to his kit - those were likely reused.

Andy apparently only gave out 1 pick during the fan club show and nothing else during the other shows.
Click to expand...

Awwww that's too bad. I guess they are afraid it'll wind up on eBay.

And yes, I hope he does hang onto those tympani sticks. Those things aren't cheap!
 
Yeah, i didn't think he was throwing away his percussion sticks or breaking those. The second night during the first encore he went to his drumkit instead of the percussion instruments for King of Pain. Sting looked back at him and said "what are doing there, get back there" in a joking manner. Stew stumbled back there like he was drunk bumping into things. He picked up stuff he dropped. He was fooling around with it and having fun.

I was behind the stage during the first show and every now and then during a song, he would toss a stick and quickly replace it. I don't know if he did this in the early days or not. Plus he wears golf or batting gloves, probably for the calluses after such a long time of not playing for 2 hours 3 times a week.
 
Here's a pretty good review from over in Zootopia.....


The setlist for the opening night was exactly the same as posted for the Fan Club show the night before. Well, I assume it was. I'm not blessed with a photographic memory that enables me to remember the order that 20 songs were played in. I always remember what they start with, and with, and what is in the encore(s) of a show.

The opening act was another rock trio called, "Fiction Plane." They weren't bad. They had a nice groove to their stuff, but none of it really grabbed me by the throat and rocked my ass off. I remember that I liked their first two songs, the second of which is called "Death Machine" and contains the line "Fuck you and your death machine!" in it. Now how can you go wrong with a line like that?

DSC00677.jpg


I went into the show knowing a little secret about Fiction Plane. The lead singer and bass player was following in his father's footsteps, although this night he got to precede his father. The lead singer's name is Joe Sumner. Son of Gordon Sumner; better known as Sting. That ladies and gentlemen is how you get to be the opening act. You hear that Bono's kids? (I forget their names...I'm not that obsessive of a fan).

In an attempt to bond with the audience, Joe commented at one point that he could smell someone smoking a Marijuana cigarette...tsk, tsk...and at a rock-show nonetheless...sadly, his comments didn't work. However, the crowd was polite and gave the band a listen. They were alright. I've seen worse opening acts (British Sea Power opening for the Killers. The highlight was the bassist wearing an oversized fern on his head) but I've seen better opening acts too (TV on the Radio opening for Franz Ferdinand...wow!!!). You should check out Fiction Plane for the novelty factor, and to hear Joe...boy, does he ever sound like his dad!

The Jr. Police (or the Cadets, perhaps???) left the stage with two promises. One: to meet all of their fans outside of section 116 during the Intermission, and Two: that the next band was gonna rock. That was lame. Dude, just b/c he's your dad it doesn't mean you have to kiss his ass. Where's the hate? "My old man is a real asshole!" C'mon....

Overall, I give Fiction Plane a "B-minus"

DSC00679.jpg


Click onto these two pics for the video clips...



 
(Continued)


And now for the main act....

This drum kit got rolled up onto stage, and I was suddenly worried that it was going to be Rock Trio night at GM Place...could it be that Rush was going to play too? NOOOO!!!!!!!

DSC00683.jpg


My fears were allayed. Neal Peart won't get out of the house to play a drum kit that isn't at least 50% larger than this one. Good thing he didn't know about the 6 foot Gong!!

Speaking of which...the house lights dimmed, the crowd went wild, Stuart Copeland smashed the gong, and the opening chords of "Message in a Bottle" filled the arena!

Click onto the picture...



And just like that, 25 years went by the wayside. The Police were back.

The rest of the show had everything you expected to see. The overhead lighting rack was like what we've seen on the Elevation and Vertigo tours with monitors on all sides, and some video imaging "bars" that ran around the perimeter of it as well.

For "Footsteps" a mesh screen came up behind the band (like the one around the heart for Elevation Tour) onto which an animated set of dinosaur bones was projected. It looked pretty cool.

Click onto the picture...



Performance? Tight. Tight, tight, tight. And I'm not just talking about Sting's pants and muscles. These guys took extended musical breaks where they got to show off their skills as musicians: which they've got in spades. Playing bass and singing is hard to do. Sting makes it look easy.

In "Roxanne" they took a little funtime break with the music, and at one point Sting did a vocal line of "I won't share, I won't share, I won't share, I won't share..." sung overtop of some funky bass line and Andy's jazzy guitar lines.

They threw in at least 2 key-changes in the show, and as my brother said, "I've never seen a drummer hit that hard!"

Now, for Lois...wardrobe. Sting looked awesome. I'm nearly as straight as Flash is, but I've gotta say that Sting was looking hot. I can't believe how great a shape that man is in!

Andy wasn't looking quite so hot, but he had the greatest guitar strap ever, so it's all cool. It had pictures of Kenny, from SouthPark on it, and it said, "Oh my God! They KILLED KENNY!!!"

Stuart Copeland....ummm, someone forgot to tell him that he was playing a rock show, not going to the gym to work out. He was wearing a black and red UnderArmour workout shirt and a black sweatband around his head. However, he's always looked kinda goofy to me. Besides, he's a drummer...he's supposed to be weird. And he did actually do more jumping around than the rest of the band. He had to run back and forth from his auxiliary percussion kit several times through the show.

Sting's voice? It's goooood. If you saw their Grammy Performance, you know that he's not reaching for the high notes in Roxanne. Apart from that, he sang all of the other high notes that you were expecting from him, and he was being his usual creative self exploring the melodies and rhythms of the songs.

Here's the deal. If you have tickets, you're lucky! If you don't have tickets, GET SOME! If they were this good on the opening night (remember how "good" U2 was in San Diego? HA!) just imagine how tight they're gonna be by the time they get to whatever city you are planning on seeing them in! I'd love to see them by July/August when they really start to hit their stride.

In fact, if I didn't have a band rehearsal on Wednesday night, I'd be getting tickets for the 2nd show. My brother is...lucky jerk.

Grade: A-minus. Hey, it was damned good, but it wasn't the greatest thing ever.

Here's two photobucket slide shows of some of my pics. The second set shows all of the lamewads in the section next to me who couldn't be bothered to get off their asses for most of the show. I don't know why they didn't just wait for the DVD to come out.

Click onto the two pics below for a slideshow...





++++++++++++++++++

People sitting down :giggle: :eyebrow: :madwife:
 
one4u2 said:
Wow after all these reviews, I'm so disenchanted I spent a fortune on tickets :|
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There was only one "bad" review, and it was from the drummer :huh: :lol:.

My sister did send me an e-mail about Stewart's blog and jokingly titled it, ". . . And so it begins" (implying that they already can't get along, but not seriously).

I joked with her during dinner tonight, "please let them hold it together for two more weeks!" :lol:
 
kellyahern said:


There was only one "bad" review, and it was from the drummer :huh: :lol:.

My sister did send me an e-mail about Stewart's blog and jokingly titled it, ". . . And so it begins" (implying that they already can't get along, but not seriously).

I joked with her during dinner tonight, "please let them hold it together for two more weeks!" :lol:
Click to expand...

I have to wait until August 1st godwilling they'll last until then :pray:
 
From http://www.smh.com.au/news/music/reunion-tour-unbelievably-lame/2007/06/02/1180205554733.html


Reunion tour 'unbelievably lame': drummer

The drummer of the legendary rock band The Police has blasted the band's first reunion gigs after 20 years apart as "unbelievably lame," according to a posting on his website on Friday.

Stewart Copeland detailed each band member's missteps during a pair of concerts this week in Vancouver, Canada, recalling how he tripped on the way to the stage, and how he, singer Sting and guitarist Andy Summers were "out of sync".

"This is unbelievably lame," Copeland wrote. "We are the mighty Police and we are totally at sea."

The flub-ups ruined some of the band's biggest hits, like Every Little Thing She Does is Magic and Don't Stand So Close To Me and made Sting look like a "petulant pansy instead of the God of rock," he said.

"It usually takes about four or five shows in a tour before you get to the disaster gig. But we're The Police so we are a little ahead of schedule," he said.

The trio announced in mid-February it was heading on a reunion tour that is to take them through Canada and the United States this summer, and then onto Europe in the northern autumn.
 
U2FanPeter said:
Stewart's "bad" review is currently unavailable for viewing on his website...
Click to expand...

Huh? I've got it open right now. It's still there in his forum.

Go here...

http://www.stewartcopeland.net/

Click onto Forum, then THE KRYPTON FORUM, and the thread is titled OUR FIRST DISASTER GIG!

It's not possible to post a direct link to the page...it's weird.
 
Allegra said:


Huh? I've got it open right now. It's still there in his forum.

Go here...

http://www.stewartcopeland.net/

Click onto Forum, then THE KRYPTON FORUM, and the thread is titled OUR FIRST DISASTER GIG!

It's not possible to post a direct link to the page...it's weird.
Click to expand...

It was blocked all friday until about supper time here. I think it just may have been too many people accessing his message board at once.
 
Just got tickets for TD Banknorth off of the Reward Zone pre-sale, not worth paying the mark-up for Fenway, amazing for baseball, terrible as a musical venue.
 
Im going to see them in Paris in september , well im not a huge fan but i like some of their old songs
 
"Murder By Numbers" and "Next to You" went missing in Edmonton last night. "Truth Hits Everybody" returned after being skipped over during the Copeland named "Disaster" gig.

Other than that the setlist has been virtually identical for the first 4 shows.
 
it was lovely last night!!!!!!
ok this is what pissed me off i was getting a shirt and it took me like an 1 and a half to get it:| but sting looks amazing:drool: every thing was great!!!! the songs were amazing Roxanna was fucking amazing!!! every one was singing..every one was drunk..ahah and it was gorgeous out side!!! GREAT TIME!
 
There's a dozen plus videos up from Edmonton on Saturday night.

Gives you good idea on what the outdoor stage looks like and the fact the stadium there was half full(one clip only shows a pan of the audience)

u2fp
 
powerhour24 said:
Just got tickets for TD Banknorth off of the Reward Zone pre-sale, not worth paying the mark-up for Fenway, amazing for baseball, terrible as a musical venue.
Click to expand...
Side loges, 15 and 20 are $95 plus fees at the Garden, definitely best bang for the buck having sat there for many shows including 4 Vertigo shows.
 
There were 30,000 fans in Edmonton at the gig. In some ways it was a dress rehearsals for the outdoor show at Bonoroo/California/Europe etc...
 
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