So many people have called me, or emailed me and asked about The Concert. It’s only been a week and a day since the blessed event, and I still found myself yesterday when I looked at a clock or a watch thinking back to what I was doing at exactly that time last week. The entire day was just wonderful, and memorable, and if Sting, Stewart and Andy decide to do this thing again in the future*, that would be a-ok with me.
(* Guys, don’t do it anytime soon though, okay? No offense, but the tickets, T-shirts, gas, food, and Fan Club Subscription set me back a little bit. Not breaking-into-the-kids-college-funds extreme as the Hubby had feared, but it was not a cheap date. By any stretch. Give me a chance to save up again, and I will be there. Maybe the next time I will be closer, and maybe the next time you’ll play “Spirits in the Material World”. Sound good? Thanks!)
But it has been hard to explain how I feel about the concert, how to articulate its wonderfulness (see?) without sounding like an idiot. I try to, but I think I’m coming off as a cross between a valley girl and a cheerleader; which if you know me in person, it is not a good look for me. Ever.
So I’m probably going to come off as a doofus, but I figure it is for a good cause. The things we do for love and all that.
I’ll skip all the boring stuff, the 3.5 hour drive down to Miami (Plantation), My first introduction to Moe’s Southwest Grill (yum!), the allergy shot I had to have that was on the way, the delicious Mexican feast we shared with really good friends, and the traffic that made me hope that it isn’t like that on the roads down there every day, but feared that it probably is. Scary stuff.
I WILL say that I didn’t bring a handbag, so I wasn’t searched, and Hubby wore cargo shorts and surprisingly HE wasn’t searched, and I spotted NO LESS that 10 cameras being used in our seating section. I may have cried a little.
Next time it says no cameras, I’m taking it as a suggestion and bringing it anyway.
We got there around the time the show began, 6:30pm. We knew that there were going to be 2 other bands, Fiction Plane and Maroon 5, before The Police took the stage. Apparently so did most of Miami, because it was not a crowded as we thought it would be. We stood in line to get some T-shirts and headed to our seats, just in time to hear Fiction Plane scream “Thank you, and goodnight!”
Which meant we missed their entire set. Whoops.
After a little bit of reshuffling, Maroon 5 took the stage. My friend who had much better seats (read: floor level and expensive) than I did said they sounded really good; but I wasn’t very impressed. Their soundboard guy didn’t do a great job of balancing out the band and the lead singer, so it sounded kind of tinny. Adam Levine seemed to want everyone to join in, including the people who, as he so politely informed the entire stadium, spent $400 a ticket, right up in the front row. It was an odd moment. I’m also not sure if since this was their last stop opening for The Police so they felt they could kind of “phone it in”, but I wasn’t feeling them. I remember saying to the Hubby that this is exactly the type of band that would do well at a different type of venue, a House of Blues or Hard Rock Live setting. Then, no kidding, the next day I read that Maroon 5 is announcing their new tour dates, and they are booking arenas. So what the hell do I know, I guess?
The night was beautiful, not a cloud in the sky. Which was nice, because it’s summer here in Florida, and at least once an afternoon you will get a random rain shower. Thanks I guess should go to Fort Lauderdale for picking that up for us. Once the sun went down, we actually had a pretty decent breeze to cool things off. Everyone had a good seat, and they were actually pretty comfortable. Dolphin Stadium rocks. (This only further cements my fandom of those Miami Dolphins)
The Police didn’t take the stage until 8:45pm. At 8:40pm, all of Miami decided to arrive and take their seats. I think over half of them stepped on my foot on their way to their assigned seats, but who’s to say?
They exploded onto the stage with Message in a Bottle, and below is the rest of the set list.
- Message in a Bottle
- Synchronicity II
- When the World is Running Down (you get the best of what’s around)
- Don’t Stand So Close to Me
- Driven to Tears
- Walking on the Moon
- Truth Hurts Everybody
- Every Little Thing She Does is Magic
- Wrapped Around Your Finger
- The Bed’s Too Big Without You
- Murder by Numbers
- Dee doo doo doo, Dee da da da
- Invisible Sun
- Walking in Your Footsteps
- Can’t Stand Losing You
- Roxanne
- King of Pain
- So Lonely
- Every Breath you Take – first encore
- Next to You – second encore
Just so you have an idea, I sat down only during Driven to Tears. The rest of the night I was on my feet, dancing and singing along with the rest of the stadium. And we were singing, because several times during the show Sting stopped singing and you could hear the entire stadium picking up the slack.
If I do say so myself, we sounded pretty damn good.
The light show was good, and I’m sure for those of us in the seats further away from the stage, we got to truly appreciate how the light show enhanced the overall performance. It made taking any sort of photographs using a crappy camera phone a wasted effort, but I digress.
Stewart added some amazing touches to Wrapped Around Your Finger using a gong and chimes that was ethereal. I’m hoping that they release a live album from this concert because some of the changes they made to these songs for the live audience were mind-blowing.
Most of all, The Police gave this die-hard fan exactly what she needed. I seriously think that today’s rock bands need to take notes on how Sting, Stewart and Andy put on a show. This concert transported me back to 1983, when I was just as transfixed with their performance then as I am now. Arena rock concerts may be lacking in recent years, but you would not know it from the way The Police performed. They totally rocked the house.
I couldn’t hear when I left the stadium for at least 30 minutes afterward and my voice was shot for the better part of 2 days. It was worth it, and the boys appreciated the fact I couldn’t yell at them for a couple of days. Everybody wins!
If you have an opportunity to still see them in concert, GO. I can say nothing more except GO, please. You won’t be disappointed.
Thanks, La and Howard for sharing the evening’s festivities with us. We’re glad we got to share the moment with you guys.
Oh, and thanks to Sting, Stewart and Andy for getting back together to commemorate our birthdays (La, Me and the Hubby). We really appreciate you thinking of us.
See, I told you. I still don’t think I’ve expressed exactly how I feel, but this will have to do…
