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Bring on the Night
Last night Michael and I went to see The Police play at Madison Square Garden. Oh my God, SOOOOO amazing! They sound so damn good you'd never know they hadn't played together in twenty some-odd years. Sting's voice is in great shape. They all played their hearts out. Andy Summers fucking ripped it on the guitar. We were dazzled.
We thought the seats were going to be crap. We were mistaken. We were seated on the top-most tier, off to the side and little behind the stage. But the stage was really barebones; no back drops, no big intrusive lights. The stage was open on every side so we had a great view straight down into the action.
The Police had a surprisingly good opening act called FictionPlane. Their lead singer sounded a lot like Sting. After they wrapped up their set around 8:45 PM, we watched the quickest transition we'd ever seen in our lives. The roadies had FictionPlane's instruments off and the entire Police set up up and running within thirteen friggin minutes! I know, I timed it.
The Police delighted the hell out of us by coming out dressed in Holloween costumes. String was a jester, Andy Summers was Charlie Chaplin, and we never quite figured out what Stewart Coupland was supposed to be. I thought he looked like a crime fighting zombie of Egyption descent. And they stayed in costume for the entire show. It was great!
And, of course, the songs. Oh, the songs, the songs, the songs! They played all the hits you'd expect them to play; Message in a Bottle, Every Little Thing She Does is Magic, Don't Stand So Close to Me, Every Breath You Take, Wrapped Around Your Finger, King of Pain, Roxanne, and my personal favorite, Synchronicity II. They also played a few obscure songs that only hardcome Police fans would know like Invisible Sun, Voices Inside my Head, and Walking in Your Footsteps. I have never seen such a psyched up crowd. Everyone was just so happy to be there and so appreciative of the music. It was the first concert I ever attened where every single audience member knew all the lyrics to every song and sang along with all of them. It was like Sting had 80,000 back up singers. Here's the complete setlist for anyone who is interested.
Message in a Bottle
Synchronicity II
Walking On The Moon
Voices Inside My Head
When The World Is Running Down
Don't Stand So Close To Me
Driven To Tears
Truth Hits Everybody
Hole In My Life
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
Wrapped Around Your Finger
De Do Do Do De Da Da Da
Invisible Sun
Walking In Your Footsteps
Can't Stand Losing You
Roxanne
Encore:
King Of Pain
So Lonely
Every Breath You Take
Next To You
Oh, and that was another cool thing too - they didn't have any additional musicians. No extra percussionists, no saxophone player, no keyboardist. It was just the three of them, and they made a hell of a lot of rockin' noise.
It being Halloween and all, there were little black masks on every seat. Very cute. After the show, as part of his birthday present, I bought Michael a souvenir program and a T-shirt. I got t-shirt for myself as well. There was this really nice young woman who stood next to me at the shirt counter and was dressed as, like, the naughty gothic version of little red riding hood. She wore a black crushed velvet dress and a lace-up corset, and was carrying a basket of goodies. Inside were Lindt truffles, condoms, cigarettes, small bottles of alcohol. When she offered me a treat I chose a truffle. And then when a spot opened up at the counter she hustled me up to the front. When somone asked her why she'd done it, I heard her say "She's little, she needs help. I'm a giant, you can't miss me."
Michael was so happy after the show. As soon as the lights came up in the theatre, he hugged me and thanked me again for the tickets. Watching him watch the show was great. He was so into it, screaming lyrics and swaying along to the music. We had such an awesome time and I'm really glad Mom and I were able to do this for Michael. And I'm really glad Mike chose me of all people to accompany him.
In my own defense, I wasn't taught about anything like velocity or atoms or molecules until tenth grade, so as far as I'm concerned this is not an eighth grade science test. If it were there would be far more questions about earth worms.
We thought the seats were going to be crap. We were mistaken. We were seated on the top-most tier, off to the side and little behind the stage. But the stage was really barebones; no back drops, no big intrusive lights. The stage was open on every side so we had a great view straight down into the action.
The Police had a surprisingly good opening act called FictionPlane. Their lead singer sounded a lot like Sting. After they wrapped up their set around 8:45 PM, we watched the quickest transition we'd ever seen in our lives. The roadies had FictionPlane's instruments off and the entire Police set up up and running within thirteen friggin minutes! I know, I timed it.
The Police delighted the hell out of us by coming out dressed in Holloween costumes. String was a jester, Andy Summers was Charlie Chaplin, and we never quite figured out what Stewart Coupland was supposed to be. I thought he looked like a crime fighting zombie of Egyption descent. And they stayed in costume for the entire show. It was great!
And, of course, the songs. Oh, the songs, the songs, the songs! They played all the hits you'd expect them to play; Message in a Bottle, Every Little Thing She Does is Magic, Don't Stand So Close to Me, Every Breath You Take, Wrapped Around Your Finger, King of Pain, Roxanne, and my personal favorite, Synchronicity II. They also played a few obscure songs that only hardcome Police fans would know like Invisible Sun, Voices Inside my Head, and Walking in Your Footsteps. I have never seen such a psyched up crowd. Everyone was just so happy to be there and so appreciative of the music. It was the first concert I ever attened where every single audience member knew all the lyrics to every song and sang along with all of them. It was like Sting had 80,000 back up singers. Here's the complete setlist for anyone who is interested.
Message in a Bottle
Synchronicity II
Walking On The Moon
Voices Inside My Head
When The World Is Running Down
Don't Stand So Close To Me
Driven To Tears
Truth Hits Everybody
Hole In My Life
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
Wrapped Around Your Finger
De Do Do Do De Da Da Da
Invisible Sun
Walking In Your Footsteps
Can't Stand Losing You
Roxanne
Encore:
King Of Pain
So Lonely
Every Breath You Take
Next To You
Oh, and that was another cool thing too - they didn't have any additional musicians. No extra percussionists, no saxophone player, no keyboardist. It was just the three of them, and they made a hell of a lot of rockin' noise.
It being Halloween and all, there were little black masks on every seat. Very cute. After the show, as part of his birthday present, I bought Michael a souvenir program and a T-shirt. I got t-shirt for myself as well. There was this really nice young woman who stood next to me at the shirt counter and was dressed as, like, the naughty gothic version of little red riding hood. She wore a black crushed velvet dress and a lace-up corset, and was carrying a basket of goodies. Inside were Lindt truffles, condoms, cigarettes, small bottles of alcohol. When she offered me a treat I chose a truffle. And then when a spot opened up at the counter she hustled me up to the front. When somone asked her why she'd done it, I heard her say "She's little, she needs help. I'm a giant, you can't miss me."
Michael was so happy after the show. As soon as the lights came up in the theatre, he hugged me and thanked me again for the tickets. Watching him watch the show was great. He was so into it, screaming lyrics and swaying along to the music. We had such an awesome time and I'm really glad Mom and I were able to do this for Michael. And I'm really glad Mike chose me of all people to accompany him.
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In my own defense, I wasn't taught about anything like velocity or atoms or molecules until tenth grade, so as far as I'm concerned this is not an eighth grade science test. If it were there would be far more questions about earth worms.