SOME of us have long since lost our faith in Sting, and we've refused to worship at his devil's altar of jazz; last night, however, some of that faith was restored, and the Saviour of the Rainforest was somewhat redeemed. It's been so long since Sting performed in Ireland that we didn't know what to expect - slow and stultifying or just plain dull and worthy.
Luckily, those Yoga exercises Sting has been taking seem to have limbered him up to the point where he is positively entertaining, and the set was a well paced mix of solo hits and Police classics, along with some less memorable material from his new album, Mercury Falling. Oh, and a few boring bits thrown in too.
As you would expect, Sting had brought along some high calibre musicians, including keyboardist Kenny Kirkland, guitarist Dominic Miller, and drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, plus a lively brass duo which did musical acrobatics all over the rhythms and rhymes.
The first few songs set a jazzy, laid back tone, and we suspected that the whole show might stay settled in this mellow, meandering groove; I Hung My Head swayed nicely on a 9/8 beat, but I Was Brought To My Senses was dulled by a trad flavoured prelude similar to the one he assayed with The Chieftains a couple of years ago.
Stick to th'oul jazz, will ye, Sting lad.
Things started to take off with Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot, a Gospel tinged ascent into spiritual simplicity, then really flew with If You Love Somebody Set Them Free and Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic. It was inevitable that Sting would have to trade on his Police repertoire to keep things interesting, but he wasn't under any obligation to do it quite so well.
Seven Days, Mad About You and Fields Of Gold slid back into jazz pastures but when Sting called on three members of the audience to help him sing I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying, everything collapsed into hilarity.
Sting wisely decided to take advantage of the mood upswing, and continued with more Police stuff, including hard rocking readings of Synchronicity II and Demolition Man, which caused some bemusement down in the stalls, and the requisite rendition of Roxanne, which gave the crowd the green light to get up off their seats.
