The Police. In 2008.

This is the last Police tour, there won’t be another one,” according to Sting. “It’s the end of an era.”

Sting said earlier this week that it was the end of an era, adding that during the 125-date tour the band had learned how “all of us had advanced from the young men that we were, but also stayed more or less the same.

Just got home from what I admit to be perhaps the best concert I have ever seen.I couldn’t believe it.

Originally I wasn’t entirely excited to see Elvis Costello & the Impostors as an opening act for the big trio, but I was VERY pleasantly surprised with how truly fantastic he was. There were several songs that I had heard before- and was like “wow, that was Elvis Costello that did that one?” The band played some material from a new album they have just released, and I will surely be checking it out. He sounded very good live, and I couldn’t help but feel drawn in by the sound of his new material.

As for the big show- the reason I left home at 3 p.m. to get in line. A line that T Tony, Katie, and I were in until the gates opened at 6. Did I mention that it was around 95 degrees or so? (It absolutely felt like we were trying to sunbathe on the surface of the sun) All three of us were somewhat huddled under a small umbrella I had in my car, on a blanket we laid down on the asphalt. For those of you tho think that sounds fun- think again.

At 6, they opened the gates, we took off at a pretty solid gallup down around the south end of the place, and ran at light-speed across the grass to get the best piece of lawn we could take possession of. Did well, just right of center, at the absolute front of the area. Just against the fencing/railing. Made getting in and out later on VERY nice. Allie, Jessica, Corey, and Ben caught up with us a little later, and stretched out on the 6 or so blankets we had laid out as some symbolic claim to the land. Funny how in the last hundred years we have come from driving a stake into the ground to claim your land, to strategic positioning of blankets and personal items so as to block others from trying to heist your position out from under you.

(Moving on) We are watching the show as Elvis C is performing and I am viewing through the binoculars. I see Sting come out of a door at the back of the stage and start to walk out behind the speakers. I turn to tell Allie so that she can get a look, and he just keeps walking right to the mic. So it was here that she got to hear Sting sing ‘Allison’ live with E.C. How cool was that? She was a little smiley for a while after that, it must have been cool being serenaded by  Sting.

When the Police took the stage, I couldn’t believe how much older and distinguished Sting looked. Sporting a short grey beard, but ridiculously lean and fit as always.

I will most likely post photos from the show, perhaps a couple of video clips also.

Stewart Copeland blew me away for sure. He had the craziest drum kit I have ever seen. Big huge bong hanging back behind, 2 large Timpani, some cool hanging cymbals, an Xylophone, and other oddities. He really only used them for two songs- of which I hope that I have clips to show. The first was perhaps the coolest thing I have ever heard live. Wow. Hopefully, you’ll see what I mean.
I have been to see MANY artists in my life, and many I wasn’t too into before seeing them. Aqualung, Brendan Benson, John Butler Trio, Guster, Elvis Costello (to name just a few). I have been to even more shows for artists that I am really into. I have often been very pleasantly surprised with a band I didn’t know very well, and I have been very pleased with many of the shows I have seen. But I have never seen a band that I REALLY like, and legitimately like pretty much everything they have ever recorded- and thought “this live performance is actually better than ANYTHING I have ever heard from them before.”

It may be the fact that all 3 men are MUCH older (They have been broken up for 22 years now- that means all their songs are AT LEAST that old) and more mature. It seems that they are all much more capable of entertaining a crowd, and much more confident and play to the crowd. Maybe it they just have gotten so much better over the last 120 shows in the last 2 years. Who knows? Either way, they absolutely sounded even better than anything you can find on their albums. Simply Amazing.  I’ll have to post more later on the specifics, once I post some of the photos and videos from the show. I will also post the set list and some additional commentary on it. Until then.

neil.