The Sting concert on Tollwood had been postponed twice due to the pandemic. This year it could have been the central event of the festival if guitar master Jeff Beck hadn’t turned up recently with actor Johnny Depp as a musical sidekick, whose media impact can hardly be topped at the moment. In this tasteful Sting concert, however, Depp plays no part. There is no showmanship. Phenomenally good musical craftsmanship.
It can’t be said that Sting is a particularly charming communicator with his audience. There is hardly any fraternization. But that doesn’t matter, because first of all, Sting – “Thank you Munich” – unpacks the story of how the riff to the “Police” number “Walking on the Moon” once occurred to him in a Munich hotel (which for the song is completely doesn’t matter, but somehow warms your heart), secondly, the audience in the sold-out music arena doesn’t need a warm invitation to sing along to many of the songs with almost soulfulness. Sting’s son Joe Sumner first sent beautiful songwriter sounds and graceful head voice tones into the big tent with a semi-acoustic guitar. As soon as Sting himself – acting more wiry than his son – enters the stage, the atmosphere of a musical high mass prevails. And the Briton, the only one in the all-black band in a bright red T-shirt, reads the mass.
What is immediately striking is the wonderfully transparent sound of this band. All too often in the context of big rock concerts, the mix is so bass-heavy that even the most striking songs lose their conciseness. Not here. Sometimes you see Sting playing bass more than you hear him – which is a beautiful sight given the gracefully aged Fender bass guitar and because Sting is not only a delicate songwriter and singer, but also a very sensitive bass player. So the “Englishman in New York” strolls along with elegant, springy steps. This is how the arrangements breathe. This leaves room for harmonica player Shane Sager’s lovely melodies, a vocal duet with backing vocalist Gene Noble, and silky guitar solos from Dominic Miller, who has played alongside Sting for decades.
This is by no means to say that gentleness is being celebrated for almost two hours. It is definitely reached powerfully. Take “Roxanne” for example, the first encore track. But sheer volume is never decisive. Intensity of expression arises from Sting’s pleasure in creating contrasts with tonal concentration and relaxation and thus making music lively. The creative joy of playing with which he and his band mix “So Lonely” with Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry” fits in with this, seamlessly weave many other songs together and thus conjure up a wonderful concert of large narrative arcs.