Luckily, while skewed to promote Sting's latest CD, the set nonetheless had a diverse sampling from his prolific solo career and five classics from his days on the beat with the Police. To say that those songs were the highlight of the night is not to wax nostalgic for times past, but for tempos that pack a punch. If it had ended after the first song of the second encore, a solo acoustic performance of M essage in a Bottle , audience singing along with a moving intimacy, one could have left with a sense of real connection to the artist onstage. Instead, the band returned for a drifting take on Fragile , and the crowd exited to the PA playing a dance mix of Desert Rose . Does It Better.
Sting has New Wave bona fides and cool jazz credibility.
He's pale and he's funky. He's almost 50 but could pass for a thirty-something. He's macho and he speaks French. A lot of guys loathe him for any or all of those attributes. Sting knows that.