Sting's Chicago, IL concert in Grant Park

October 7, 2003

Review by Marisa Meisters.

Sting’s highly-publicized free concert in Grant Park, Chicago, went off without a hitch. This was one of his very first official “pre-Sacred Love tour” stops. The evening definitely started out differently than just about any other Sting concert I’ve attended. For one thing, there were far more video cameras at the show than I have ever seen in the past, and and for another there were even two sign language interpreters present for Sting's entire concert sets, putting into sign language all of Sting's lyrics as he sang them.

I arrived at Grant Park nice and early, around 3:30PM. The gates officially opened at 4PM, so I knew I’d better arrive early if I wanted to be anywhere near stage by the time Sting was schedule to appear, around 8PM. Fortunately, I arrived in time to hear much of Sting’s warm-up rehearsal with the band as I approached the park. Outside of the park gates, there were lots of official concert workers / promoters taking surveys, and others offering to take our photos as we waited in line.

Once inside of Grant Park, I wound up getting very close to the stage, within what would be considered 8 rows back, if even that far. It would still be a long wait until Sting appeared. However, at 6PM, a surprise guest opening act, R&B musician Keb Mo, took the stage and played a 6 song acoustic set. The audience definitely appreciated the surprise, especially those of us who had already been there for more than 2 hours.

At 7PM, regularly scheduled opening act Johnny Lang and his band took the stage for an 8 song set. The audience rose to their feet for the entire performance.

Prior to Sting taking the stage for the main event, there was a special donation in the amount of $300,000 presented to the MusiCares program which aims to help public schools acquire musical instruments and keep music programs alive in public schools. The donation goes directly to several Chicago area public schools. As part of the presentation, a surprise guest appearance by actor Gary Sinise concluded this part of the event, and Gary introduced Sting, and then the concert began much like any other Sting concert. However, apparently several other celebrities were also part of the audience, including Sting’s wife (Trudy Styler), Oprah Winfrey, and Robert Downey Jr.

The first musician from Sting’s band to appear on stage was Jason Ribello, at the keyboard. Then Sting appeared wearing a pinstripe suit. For the first song, Sting played a jazzy, acoustic version of Walking on the Moon, accompanied only by the keyboard. It was a nice opening for the concert. After the song, Sting put in his $.02 regarding the MusiCares program, stating that “music saved my life,” implying that everyone should have the opportunity to learn to play music.

The second song was Send Your Love, which featured Sting on classical guitar. The song actually sounded very true to the album version. Many of the same instrumental sound effects that are on the album version were piped in electronically for the live version as well. The only real difference between the album version and live version is that live, Sting repeated the phrase “Send Your Love” many times at the end of the song. Also, there were three huge, towering but narrow video screens behind Sting that all evening long played images that corresponded to the various songs. The imagery chosen for Send Your Love was rather strange.

The next song, Inside, also sounded very true to the album version, with extremely bizarre, borderline x-rated disturbing images (on the giant TV screens) of naked people behind a screen pressing their bodies against a window so you could see the shapes of their body parts. I found myself paying more attention to the disturbing imagery than to the song itself; the images, in my estimation, really detracted from the song, especially in this case.

Message in a Bottle continued the set list. Again Sting kept it sounding more true to the original. The two backup singers also entertained the crowd by doing some rather strange dance moves to the song. As usual, Sting extended the “sending out an S.O.S” part of the song at the end, and gave his signature jump to conclude the song.

All This Time was a nice inclusion for the set list. Sting and the band gave it a jazz piano treatment. Dominic Miller’s guitar playing was featured rather prominently third verse of the song (“Blessed are the poor…”). However, the backup singers seemed to be off key at times during the song.

If You Love Somebody Set Them Free followed. The backup singers were featured rather prominently but they contributed nicely to the feel of the song. The version was again similar to how Sting has been performing it live for the past few years.

Every Little Thing She Does is Magic continued the set. The audience loved the song. Again the version was very nice but was quite similar to how it has been sounding for the past couple of tours.

Whenever I Say Your Name was the next new song to be featured. For this performance, backup singer Joy Rose came to the front of the stage and joined Sting, singing Mary J. Blige’s part. As far as I am concerned, Joy performed the song even better than Mary. The live version definitely outshined the album version. It was more upbeat than the album, and the jazzy piano ending gave the song extra spunk. The only drawback again is that some of the instrumentation sounds were piped in via keyboard rather than having additional live instruments on stage.

Sting announced how happy he was to be in Chicago, and then continued the set with another new song, This War. The live version was again very true to the original album version, which worked well for this fast-paced song. The audience seemed to enjoy it. Meanwhile, war cartoon-ish war imagery played in the background on the three TV screens.

Sacred Love followed. This was again similar to the album version but it sounded very good live as well. Near the end, Sting and the backup singers repeated the lyric “Sacred Love” a few times before moving on to the next song. The only drawback for this song again was some of the oddly chosen and distracting images on the TV screens. This time there was a stripper in risqué clothing dancing around a pole during most of the song. It just didn’t seem appropriate for a song whose title is “Sacred Love,” not “Sexual Love.”

Fields of Gold was the next featured song. It was an acoustic version featuring Sting, Dominic Miller, and drums. Sting changed some of the notes that he sang at the very end of the song, otherwise it was true to it’s typical live performance.

Synchronicity II followed, another nice addition to the set list. The song began with organ music sounds, leading into the main song. It was a lively version, and again featured the backup singers doing some rather strange dance moves to entertain the crowd.

Englishman in New York was the next song. The audience just ate it up; it’s always been one of his greatest crowd pleasers. However, when Sting got to the refrain for the first time and started singing, “I’m a legal alien, I’m an Englishman in NY”, he suddenly cut the song off and yelled, “Where the f*** are we? We’re in Chicago, not New York!” That was the end of the song! A very short and unusual version indeed.

Roxanne followed. Sting definitely seemed more excited at this point. The song was played at medium speed and again was similar to other live performances with the whole “Roxann-o” echo back and forth between Sting and the audience, with a reggae flavored beat in the background. There were a few new nuances added to the “Roxann-o” echo but they were minor. Sting ended the song with his signature Police jump.

Desert Rose continued the set. The first thing I noticed, which was a little disturbing, is that Cheb Mami’s voice was artificially pumped in at the beginning of the song where he sings the introductory notes in Arabic. It gave the song an almost sinister feel to have a disembodied voice appear. In my opinion, that part should have been left out entirely or sung by someone else – after all, the backup singers could have easily risen to this challenge. As it is, Sting hummed most of the remainder Mami’s introduction anyhow – so what was with the creepy intro? Aside from that, more artificial instrumentation was provided by the keyboard. Sting initiated an audience clap-along midway through the song, and did some shoulder gyration moves while his band played the song’s bridge. Just as the song seemed to end, Sting and the band performed a reprieve where the song actually started up again from the beginning with the disembodied voice followed by Sting chanting the rest of Mami’s part again, before finally ending the song. That was a nice and new twist to the performance.

Never Coming Home was next. Again, more canned instrument sounds were pumped into the song rather than having live instruments on stage. Joy Rose again contributed much of the backing vocals for the song both near the middle and at the end. Her voice fit nicely. Jason Ribello had a lively, jazzy piano interlude near the end of the song. Sting decided to merge Never Coming Home with When the World is Running Down. At the end, the Never Coming Home lyrics “gonna live my life” and “never coming home” were sung to the melody for When the World is Running Down! That was another interesting and unexpected twist.

Sting and the band paused briefly for their first encore. The encore started with If I Ever Lose My Faith in You. The bass was prominently featured. Although this song is frequently part of the encore now, it always sounds great live, and the audience always loves it. Sting and Dominic Miller extended the ending a little bit by repeating some of the lyrics at the end.

Every Breath You Take followed, and sounded exactly the same as it has sounded for the past several tours in a row. Sting also used the song to introduce the members of the band. The song seemed to end normally, but then Sting and the band revived it for a brief reprieve before ending it – this was again slightly different than some of the previous performances. He concluded by saying “Thank you, Chicago” and running off stage with the band.

The final encore was, of course, Fragile. Sting played classical guitar and was accompanied by the full band. Normally he plays the song with a more acoustic, stripped down version of the band so this was a small change. There was also a keyboard-created xylophone sound in the background of the song. Also, as Sting played acoustic guitar, the strings actually squeaked a fair amount. As the song concluded, Sting and the band took their final bow.

Overall, it was definitely a good show and it was apparent that Sing was enjoying himself. However, he was far less active on stage than I’m used to seeing. Usually he dances around more and seems less self-conscious. Also, as mentioned, Sting’s band used a lot of keyboard sounds to imitate different musical instruments. I would have preferred to see Sting actually include the real instruments in the band, or to see other real instruments used rather than giving everything such an overly-polished, synthesized feel. Also, I think it’s time for a new encore! Sting has been performing If I Ever Lose My Faith in You, Every Breath You Take, and Fragile for his encore ever since 1996; occasionally he has added an additional song to the encore, but all three of these have always been part of it since then. I attended my first Sting concert in 1993. While I did not take down the entire set list for that show, I remember even that concert concluded with Fragile.

Was the Grant Park show a good show? Yes. Could Sting afford to be a little more enthusiastic and a little more original in the treatment of some of the songs and the set list? Yes. Should you attend an upcoming Sting concert for this tour? If you like his music, yes, especially if you have not seen any or many of his previous concerts. He hasn’t lost his touch at all and his voice really sounded good, but I am a sucker for originality and for hearing songs reinterpreted in new ways (and as far as I am concerned, there wasn’t much of this at the Grant Park show). Sting often changes parts of his set list during a tour. It will be interesting to see which songs are dropped and added as the tour progresses.