Setlist

01	Message In A Bottle
01	Walking On The Moon
02	Demolition Man
03	Voices Inside My Head
04	When The World Is Running Down
05	Don't Stand So Close To Me
06	Driven To Tears
07	Hole In My Life
08	Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
09	Wrapped Around Your Finger
10	De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da
11	Invisible Sun
12	Can't Stand Losing You
13	Roxanne
14	King Of Pain
15	So Lonely
16	Every Breath You Take
17	Next To You

Reunited Police still have 'magic'...

For more than 20 years the musical legacy of the Police has been carried on the lithe and able frame of lead singer Sting. The superstar performer has been sharing the load over the Summer of '07 during a reunion tour with drummer Stewart Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers that stopped at Rentschler Field in Connecticut on Tuesday night.

Make no mistake about it: Sting is still the star, both caretaker and beneficiary of the legacy of this band. But if anyone dismissed the value of Copeland and Summers during their long absence, it is being rediscovered during this tour.

Sting's chops are not in question and the singer looked and sounded as ageless and timeless as ever. The show opened with a gong, some guitar and the familiar strains of 'Message in a Bottle'.

The band was set up as a trio, sounding raw and virile. It was simple guitar, bass and drums, save for the looped backing vocal that mysteriously appeared on several occasions.

Sting introduced both Summers and Copeland as "legends" as the ensemble loped through 'Walking on the Moon', 'Don't Stand So Close to Me' and 'When the World is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around'.

They ran through a stadium-rock worthy workout of 'Driven to Tears', which featured not only Summers' most engaging solo of the night, but the first indication of camaraderie between the newly reunited band mates.

While Summers stretched the guitar strings, Sting perched over his shoulder and plucked away at the bass. They weren't exactly cavorting, but given the history of cool relations it was a significant sight for fans to behold.

Before 'Truth Hits Everybody', which Sting jokingly introduced as being from their first album "recorded in 1878," the singer implored fans to turn around to watch the moon rise up over Rentschler Field.

After a danceable 'Every Little Thing She Does is Magic', Summers stood up to an array of percussion instruments and gracefully led the band into 'Wrapped Around Your Finger'. The delivery was subtle and deft.

Sting pulled out a pan flute to open 'Walking in Your Footsteps' and the crowd again witnessed him and Summers playfully facing off at center stage.

With the front of the stadium awash in red lights, the band closed the set with 'Roxanne', and returned in less than a minute to open the encore with 'King of Pain'. They returned a second time to run through a reckless version of 'Next to You'.

Fiction Plane, featuring Sting's son, Joe Sumner, opened the show with a 30-minute set. The lanky lead-singer/bass player (sound familiar?), fronting a rock trio (sound familiar?), looked and sounded very much like his famous father while playing a handful of songs that could fit somewhere in the early Police catalog.

© The Republican by Donnie Moorhouse

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