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

Police play the classics...

The most highly anticipated reunion tour of the past few years, The Police, rolled through Canada last week, and yours truly was fortunate enough to get away to the Montreal stop. I actually ran into a slew of Maritimers who made the trip, and none left disappointed.

Back in junior high, when I should have been, I don't know... studying and being productive, I was playing air drums along with Stewart Copeland. At the Bell Centre, I was five rows directly behind Copeland, which offered a neat perspective. The seats also provided a two-hour glimpse at Sting's arse, which, while not really my thing, didn't seem to bother the females on either side of me.

I'm actually kind of glad Sting, Copeland and the ageless Andy Summers aren't flogging a new disc, as the entire show was wall-to-wall classics. There's nothing worse than paying more than $100 for a concert to have it bogged down with unfamiliar songs - although the bathroom breaks are usually welcome, after a couple of $9.25 beers.

Sting's voice was great, extended jams breathed new life into the classics, and Sting and Copeland didn't beat each other to death during the entire two hours, which came as a nice surprise.

The Police, whose name was bandied around for this year's mythical Halifax Common outdoor concert, make one more Canadian stop, in Toronto in November. Don't rush to the show too early, though - Fiction Plane, featuring Sting's son Joe Sumner, are openers for the tour. They're not bad, actually, sounding a lot like The Police (surprise, surprise!), but nearest I can figure is it has to be some sort of tax write-off if you hire a relative as the opening act.

© Halifax Daily News by Tom Bedell

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