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In This Theatre That I Call My Soul, I Always Play the Starring Role
Greg Kot wants me to be annoyed with the fact that the Police jazzed up their hits a bit, but I'm just not. If they'd done all the songs straight it wouldn't have been any different from putting the albums on a really big soundsystem and inviting 40,000 friends over. And really, Sting is the one who became the big wank, but all of these guys have a jazz background.
Kot also complains about Sting's nonsense choruses, like "Hee-yo, hee-yeah, hee-yeah-oh" and the omnipresent "Cha!" But dude, that's what makes a show like this for the crowd. That's why these guys were internationally humongous, because you didn't have to know a word of English to crowd into your local soccer stadium and exchange energy through sound. For every person there who knew every single word (and there were quite a lot of us, from the sound of things), there were three or four who only knew the hits and quite a few who didn't entirely have a handle on "Every Breath You Take." In a stadium show, for my money, the crowd's got to be involved, or it's not worth being there. And hearing that many people sing along--even if it's just "De do do do, de da da da"--is a powerful thing. When it's something like "So Lonely," it's even better (and surprising; I didn't expect so many people to know that one).
The one moment of perfect bliss in the show was when the boys did "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic." I mean, it's a perfect fucking song, so it's not surprising. I was singing, with my eyes closed, and every voice in the stadium was singing with me, and we were all moving, and it was just glorious.
Granted there were missteps--I agree with Kot that the digressive vocals on "Don't Stand So Close to Me" were excessive, and some of the lesser-known songs they decided to play were the more downbeat ones where the crowd's interest (at least, the casual fans) flagged a bit. But, come on. STEWART COPELAND HAD A BIG FUCKING GRIN ON HIS FACE FOR HALF THE SHOW. As Stewart goes, so goes my nation. I never got to see these guys play back in the day, and I don't expect ever to see them again. (Hell, I'll be surprised to go to another stadium show period.) It was worth it.
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In about three hours I get on a train headed back for St. Paul. But before I do I wanted to link y'all to Midori Snyder giving my Farrago's story major props. If you will excuse me, I must go squee now.
Kot also complains about Sting's nonsense choruses, like "Hee-yo, hee-yeah, hee-yeah-oh" and the omnipresent "Cha!" But dude, that's what makes a show like this for the crowd. That's why these guys were internationally humongous, because you didn't have to know a word of English to crowd into your local soccer stadium and exchange energy through sound. For every person there who knew every single word (and there were quite a lot of us, from the sound of things), there were three or four who only knew the hits and quite a few who didn't entirely have a handle on "Every Breath You Take." In a stadium show, for my money, the crowd's got to be involved, or it's not worth being there. And hearing that many people sing along--even if it's just "De do do do, de da da da"--is a powerful thing. When it's something like "So Lonely," it's even better (and surprising; I didn't expect so many people to know that one).
The one moment of perfect bliss in the show was when the boys did "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic." I mean, it's a perfect fucking song, so it's not surprising. I was singing, with my eyes closed, and every voice in the stadium was singing with me, and we were all moving, and it was just glorious.
Granted there were missteps--I agree with Kot that the digressive vocals on "Don't Stand So Close to Me" were excessive, and some of the lesser-known songs they decided to play were the more downbeat ones where the crowd's interest (at least, the casual fans) flagged a bit. But, come on. STEWART COPELAND HAD A BIG FUCKING GRIN ON HIS FACE FOR HALF THE SHOW. As Stewart goes, so goes my nation. I never got to see these guys play back in the day, and I don't expect ever to see them again. (Hell, I'll be surprised to go to another stadium show period.) It was worth it.
-------------------------------------
In about three hours I get on a train headed back for St. Paul. But before I do I wanted to link y'all to Midori Snyder giving my Farrago's story major props. If you will excuse me, I must go squee now.
no subject
Yeah, "Be My Girl" was one of their earliest songs! They used to do it live, because they didn't have enough material to leave anything out.