The Police: World Tour 2007

"Rocking" in Their Own Footsteps

In case you suck at life and don't already know this, The Police are back on tour. Andy, Stuart and Mr. Sting have reunited for a world tour spanning many many different cities in many many different countries and they are playing many many different versions of the same 15 songs every night for many many dollars a ticket.

Now, I'm not going to go with the reviews currently out there and explain to you why The Police are too old to get back in the game. I'm not going to bitch and moan about how Sting can't hit the high notes or how the boys don't have the same energy or about how the shows aren't long enough or about how the opening act is terrible.

None of those things are true, and the people who said them are idiots.

Sure, the early shows were a bit rocky; the boys were just getting back on their feet and the opening act, the band Fiction Plane as led by Joe Sumner, Sting's clone - er, I mean son, was probably in a bit of a shock at playing such large arenas. But you know what, The Police are in full swing now and they, along with their mini-me opening act, are kick ass.

I saw The Police and Fiction Plane at Wrigley Field in Chicago on Friday, July 6th. The weather was perfect and our seats were pretty good, right there in the pot smoking 40-50 year old used to be hip but now you look like you teach gym and your wife isn't attractive enough to wear that - section. I'll spare you the rant. The sound was enormous and there must have been 50 speakers on stage along with the giant screens and lighting.

Fiction Plane was already in action when we sat down and I really do wish we had gotten in earlier because they rocked. Basically they are a more modern version of The Police, right down to their arrangement. Sting Jr. plays bass and sings vocals and then there's the drummer and the guitarist, both of whose names you will always have trouble remembering unless you are a die hard fan. They played fast and furiously and Little Sting sang his heart out, knocking out screeching high notes and guttural low notes all in the same song. The ending tune was memorable, if only for it's chorus which went something like: "Fuck you and fuck your cigarettes!", and near the end of the set the drummer, who is a Cubs fan, led everyone in a great, Harry Caray-style rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game". It was pretty sweet.

In fact, had I been there only to see Fiction Plane, I would have been pretty pleased with the show. But, of course, once The Police took the stage, I forgot all about their diet counterparts.

Honestly, I'm not too keen on giving out set lists and second by second descriptions. Those sorts of things are for the crazed fans who belong to clubs and record and download every show and have band names tattooed on themselves. So I'll just say this: Every critic of this tour has been and is completely wrong.

Sting hit every note and the only song that was transposed was "Don't Stand So Close To Me". I'm not really sure why they did that, since Sting's vocals were spot on the whole night, but maybe it was for transition purposes or something.

The energy was astounding. Sting paraded across the stage and Andy wailed on some amazing guitar solos. Hell, even Stuart, who must be one of the geekiest drummers of all time, rocked that silly little Britney-mic he had on. Also, there was some pretty impressive drumming on a great number of percussive instruments.

The Police set ended up being around 2 hours, and that includes a quick break in between the main set and the encore set. The break seemed unnecessary, but hey, maybe Stuart had to pee or something. Either way, the encore was well done and they managed to fit in all the classic songs, or at least all the ones that I know of.

If I have to complain about one thing, and trust me I don't want to, it would be that they did stick to the basics. No rare B-sides. No foreign language versions. I'm not even sure if they did a cover song or not. I could have dug some classic reggae (the style from which The Police get their sound, NOT punk, as some think) song or maybe something newer, from a band the guys think is pretty hot or something. Obviously they want to keep their old fans happy and want to stick to the stuff that made them popular in the first place, but I would have liked to have heard someone in the crowd near me get all excited because "They haven't played that since '82!!" But, hey, I'm reaching here.

All in all, it's a great tour and if you are lucky enough to score tickets, well, you're just damn lucky. These guys might not do another tour, but if they do, I suggest ponying up the dough and getting in on one of the hottest bands still around.