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Sting treats fans to
simple excellence

By John Berger
Special to the Star-Bulletin

How marvelous it is to watch an entertainer carry a show on the strength of good material and basic old-fashioned talent! That's what Sting did in the Blaisdell Arena last night.

Sting needed no elaborate high tech special effects to deliver an excellent show. No costume changes, explosions or fireworks. No large video screens or dance numbers. Talent, charisma, and good musicians more than sufficed as he gave Honolulu an impressive 1 hour and 54 minute performance that neatly covered 21 years of rock, pop and jazz flavored contemporary music.

The distinctive voice was strong and expressive throughout the performance and Sting looked as fit and muscular as ever.

Credit him and concert promoters Golden Voice and House Of Blues with starting the show on time, an almost unheard of feat in Honolulu these days. Makana opened the show almost exactly at 7 p.m. and lived up to expectations with a smooth and eclectic acoustic mini set.

When the lights dimmed again Sting ambled out unannounced with his musicians and backing vocalists. He opened the show with "A Thousand Years," never mentioned the two Grammys he received in February, but communicated effectively, often nonverbally, throughout the show.

His choice of material was memorable not only for the individual songs but for the way they formed a musical experience.

The best analogy would be drifting almost imperceptibly on an extremely broad river. For a while we seemed to be meandering at random through his discography. There were intriguing changes in the musical landscape but no clear direction or course. Songs from "Brand New World," a double-Grammy winner in February, were interspersed with familiar Top 40 favorites from the 1980s and '90s. The crowd responded enthusiastically to "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free," the song that launched him as a solo act in 1985, and welcomed "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" shortly afterward.

For the most part though, they sat, absorbed the music, and gave Sting and his band a standing ovation after each song.

His current material provided some of the most striking contrasts. The lightly satirical, slightly country tone found in "Fill Her Up," the smooth modern multi-cultural urban blues ambience of "Perfect Love ... Gone Wrong" and the grim lyric images that drive "Tomorrow We'll See," received quiet appreciation.

Somewhere during the evening the musical undercurrents began roiling the surface. Had the crowd literally been adrift there would have been a definite sensation that the currents were picking up speed. By the time "Englishman In New York" was followed by "Brand New Day," the crowd was standing and thoroughly involved. Sting explored "Roxanne" for almost 10 minutes. "Desert Rose" proved a dramatic sequel.

Sting closed the first encore with a rendition of "Every Breath You Take" that preserved the lyric ambiguity but suggested obsession. When he opened the second encore with "Message In A Bottle" the crowd united in providing the responses.

Every song he did was magic.

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