Photo: Eric Ryan Anderson
The great aspect of this show was the Sting just performed his music with heart and a little bit of history. Throughout his stellar set, Sting, located at the front and center of the stage in blue jeans and a patterned t-shirt, would introduce each of his songs with a little bit of background about how it came to be. I had no idea that “Pretty Young Soldier” was about a woman who dressed as a man to enter the army alongside her lover. “Englishman in New York” is pretty evident although many people in the 1970s thought that The Police band members were black because they played reggae.
At one moment in the show, he explained how he was going to take his song “I’m So Happy I Can’t Stop Crying” about divorce and transform it into a serious reggae number, although it certainly still had a country feel to it since it was covered by Toby Keith a few years back. You can’t imagine how excited the diehards were when “Message in a Bottle” was performed, but I was quite taken with the mixture of “Roxanne” and “Ain’t No Sunshine.”
I would say this wasn’t the most rollicking show ever, but considering the city is in a state of constant partying right now due to the Mardi Gras season, it was a welcomed and entertaining repose.
