Sting's Milwaukee, WI concert

Review by Marisa Meisters.

As usual, Sting and the band were in top form for his Milwaukee concert on December 7 at the Riverside Theater.

Prior to Sting’s performance, the audience was treated to opening act Willie Porter, a Milwaukee native and virtuoso guitarist. Porter entertained for half an hour and even got the audience to participate in a sing-along. He did a good job warming up the crowd for Sting.

When Sting took the stage, the audience was ready. I was extremely lucky to have a third row seat. I wasn’t more than 10 feet from Sting at any point during the concert, centered perfectly between Sting and Dominic Miller. It was the perfect vantage point. I could see all of Sting’s subtle facial expressions as he performed, a real treat for any fan.

Sting began with A Thousand Years. The audience sat in enjoyment while the band set the mood for the evening. This was followed by If You Love Somebody Set Them Free which immediately brought the audience to their feet; we didn’t sit down at all after that. The song sounded much better on this tour than it did during the Mercury Falling tour. The pre-programmed synthesizer sounds were completely gone and the song sounded much more pure and lively. It was followed by a great medly of After the Rain Has Fallen / We’ll Be Together. Towards the end, Dominic Miller had his first of many impressive solos.

Perfect Love...Gone Wrong even came off sounding good live. Manu Katche came out from behind his drum set to perform the rap. He only rapped once for a fairly extended period throughout the song during the concert, unlike the studio version which has two shorter, separate rap sections.

Sting then took a minute to indulge himself by speaking and then joking with the audience, something which he seldom does on tour. He started off by saying how much he liked being back at the Riverside Theater (I can’t remember him ever having played there, at least not since I’ve been a fan) and that he really likes playing small venues like that because it’s such an intimate feeling. He even pointed out that Dominic Miller lived in Racine, WI between 1976 - 1978. He then began joking that everyone in the first row better beware what they say about him because he could hear everything they said. He then gave some examples of rude comments: "He was better when he was with The Police," "Yuck, look at that jacket he’s wearing," "Can he really do it for five hours?" Then he enlightened the audience with the same tantric joke he told on the Conan O’Brien show a few weeks back, about how he wishes he could get his wife to tantric shop (that is, to shop for a long time without purchasing anything).

The humor was followed by a stirring version of All This Time with a similar acoustic sound that can be heard on some of the live recordings from the Soul Cages era; it brightened up the song and made it sound less solemn than the lyrics make it.

Seven Days followed, with good sound effects throughout (including a scurrying mouse immitated by the keyboard at the appropriate point in the song). The ending showcased a fine trumpet solo by Chris Botti.

Before starting Fill Her Up, Sting described the theme of the song and then said that he once worked at a gas station for a very short period of time. He joked that he couldn’t keep that job for too long because he liked the smell of gasoline too much. The song itself came off well, even without James Taylor to sing the part of the city slicker. Kipper took over a few of the minor backing vocals, but Sting mainly covered James Tayor’s parts by changing the tone of his voice and immitating Taylor’s style on the album. It was efective. At the end of the song, Jason Ribello (who replaces the late Kenny Kirkland) finally got his first opportunity to show off his keyboard prowess. The album version of the song finishes with a gospel sound. But live, Sting ended it with the same country flare with which the song began.

Fields of Gold landed approving applause as the song began. Only Sting, Dominic Miller, Manu Katche and Kipper remained on stage for a fairly acoustic version of the song. During his solo, Dominic Miller walked around the stage and was within inches of where I was standing - up close and personal, literally!

For Every Little Thing She Does is Magic, there were three big umbrellas as part of the set, appropriately. I hadn’t noticed them before. Moon Over Burbon Street followed. Never having heard it live before, it was one of the highlights of the evening for me. Sting donned a short black cap as he sang in a throaty voice. The umbrellas on stage were replaced by four large moons. The song was given a more upbeat, lighthearted Cajun feel with banjo sounds coming from somewhere on stage. At the end of the song, Sting walked around to my corner of the stage and shook hands with many of the audience members, including me!

Englishman in NY got a round of applause in the first few seconds, definitely a crowd pleaser. Jason Ribello got his second opportunity to shine during a jazzy solo interlude. The rap which had been included in the song during the Mercury Falling tour was removed for this performance. At the end, Sting got the audience to sing along with "Be yourself, no matter what they say."

Tomorrow We’ll See followed. Both Dominic Miller and Chris Botti had nice solos. On the very last note of the song, Sting harmonized with Botti’s trumpet, holding it for a long time. Both Sting and Botti were perfectly in tune together - it was a wonderful effect.

Brand New Day was very popular with the audience. Sting and the band performed it without a hitch. Roxanne, still a part of the set list, was fortunately brought back up to tempo from the previous tour. As usual, Sting had an audience sing-along with Roxann-o and he closed the song with his famous signature jump.

Desert Rose followed. Although Cheb Mami was not there to perform his part of the duet, Sting made his own plaintive humming sounds. Otherwise the song was not too much different than the album cut. Fake flames were part of the stage decoration during the song.

Surprisingly, Bring on the Night / When the World is Running Down, Kenny Kirkland’s signature medly, was still part of the set list. Ribello covered Kenny’s solo but he wasn’t particularly remarkable. He even played several of the parts almost exactly the way that Kenny had played them on the previous tour - that was a bit disappointing; he could have done something more original. However, at this point in the song, Sting came back to my part of the stage and danced around in front of all of us. He really seemed to be enjoying himself. After the Ribello solo, Dominic Miller took his solo, again coming out to my section of the stage. He even flirted with an older woman in the audience and played guitar right in her face - it was pretty funny; she loved every moment of it. After the song ended, Sting and the band took their first intermission. They reappeared to perform If I Ever Lose My Fairth in You. Sting was paying so much attention to what the band was doing that he missed the first couple of words as the song began. They then played an extended version of Every Breath You Take which hasn’t changed at all since the last tour.

Another intermission was taken, and then Sting came out with his acoustic guitar for a wonderful acoustic version of Message in a Bottle in which only he and Dominic played. He had the audience sing a lot of the chorus. Everyone seemed to love hearing this song.

Finally, the evening was wrapped up with an acoustic but full ensemble version of Fragile which still sounds good after all these tours. The band was very tight throughout the entire show. It was another unforgettable evening with Sting.

After the show ended and as the audience was leaving, the new club remix of Desert Rose was played over the loud speaker. An interesting way to end the evening.

Stingetc.com is copyright © 1995 - 2008 by Marisa Meisters.