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Samuel and I went to see Sting at Climate Pledge Arena this past Wednesday evening.
Who is Sting? Well, Sting’s given name is Gordon Sumner and he was the lead singer for The Police from their inception in 1979 until they broke up in 1986. Since then he’s primarily been a solo artist although he routinely collaborates with other artists. The Police also performed a reunion tour in 2007.
To say Sting has had a long and successful career is an understatement. He has 17 Grammy awards, is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Police and has countless other awards as well. He’s also acted in multiple movies so he’s a busy guy.
His huge body of work gives him lots of material to pull from for a concert and in Seattle he played mainly hits. About 1/3 of the songs were from his time with The Police, which was nice since that’s some of my favorite music.
When Sting started on his solo career his music had a distinct jazz feel to it and he enlisted such artists as the great jazz saxophone player, Branford Marsalis, to play on albums. For this tour Sting has a fairly small group of musicians playing with him with not a horn or sax in sight. In Seattle he had a keyboard, guitar, drums and harmonica (and a couple of backing vocalists). Sting primarily plays the bass and he did so on every song of the evening, with the exception of the very last song, which he played solo with a guitar.
So, how was the show? Excellent. Sting has a reputation as a bit of a perfectionist so you figure the backing band is going to be good, and they were. Sting introduced the members a couple of times and especially the backing vocalists and harmonica had opportunities in various songs to showcase their talent. Especially impressive was the harmonica player. Quite a few of the songs from Sting’s early solo career would have originally had a saxophone on them but the harmonica filled in nicely and the other instruments weren’t missed. On the song “Brand New Day”, Stevie Wonder had originally played the harmonica and Sting challenged his young player, saying “you think you’re up to the challenge?”. Obviously he was and performed the part in a way that would make Stevie proud.
I’ve always heard that Sting can come off as a bit arrogant but he didn’t come across that way in this show at all. As mentioned, he introduced the members of the band at least a couple of times, which isn’t all that usual for solo artists with backing bands. He paused between songs multiple times to tell stories that would set up the songs, and although you could tell that for the most part he probably tells the same stories every night, he was still engaging and sincere. He did mention that he owns a castle right down the road from Stonehenge but at least he was kind enough to say that we’re all welcome to stop by for a cup of tea if we ever happen to be in the neighborhood, so that’s something to look forward to.
Sting’s son, Joe Sumner, opened for him. He did a great job and although he had some sort of technical issue and had to perform a couple of songs without any backing track (just himself playing a guitar), he didn’t miss a beat. Joe came out towards the end of Sting’s set and did a verse of “Every Breath You Take” with his dad. As an aside, apparently that song was awarded a BMI award in 2019 as the most played song in US radio history although I have no idea how they determined that. Anyway, the family resemblance between Sting and Joe was unmistakable and other than being 20 or 30 pounds heavier and 30 or 40 years younger than his dad, they clearly share a family heritage.
Speaking of weight and age…when I was writing about Bruce Springsteen I think I mentioned how great of condition he was in, not just for being in great shape at 73, he was in great shape for someone at most any age. Well, Sting takes that and kicks it up a notch. Sting is 71 and the guy is shredded. He’s talked a lot in interviews about his dedication to diet and exercise and how he’s an avid practitioner of yoga and it shows. Once again, just another reminder you can be fit at any age.
Anyway, again, it was a great show. Climate Pledge also continues to impress me as a venue with excellent acoustics almost no matter where you’re seated.
