Stunned, Stung & Sting - Part Deux

It's been a long time since I said "SOON" for this post. Things have been quite topsy-turvy for me and I do hope to get things more stabilized soon.

Anyways, continuing the Sting Experience...

Along with the techno-cum-middle eastern beat he started of the first song, Send Your Love. He effortlessly glided into the next song Message in A Bottle. Man! What a rush! This was then followed by If You Love Somebody Set Them Free. Chris and I resisted the urge to stand. Still very inhibited as Asians... I think

After completing the songs, he interacted with the crowd with the regular Malaysian greetings of Selamat Petang, Apa Khabar? and ended with the common cheer of Malaysia Boleh!. He then went on to thank the organisers for inviting him back after 10 years, (Concert @ Stadium Merdeka). After that he introduced the band starting Dominic Miller on Guitars. A Sunburst Fender Stratocaster. *drool* I was too far away to see what kind of pickups. But I suspect they were single coil pickups. Dimarzio's maybe. Followed by Rhani Kirja on Percussions, Jason Robello on Piano & Keyboards, followed by Keith Carlock on Drums, lastly his 2 wonderfully dressed ebony sirens, Joy Rose and Donna Gardier. Sting himself stradled an old worn Orange and Black sunburst Fender Telecaster bass.

He started the next song in a slow pace since the interlude had already slowed the pace from the first 3 songs. The crowds continue to cheer as he stood upright plucking a Baby acoustic guitar tucked under his arm. He "shushed" the crowd as if to say that this is a serious song that needs silence to fully soak in the song. He sang a relatively new song Dead Man's Rope. It was a wonderful song about someone who's about to executed and talked about the person's contemplation and advice to others. Or at least I think so...

The next song played was Brand New Day , followed by Shape Of My Heart . This guitars for this song was played by played by Dominic Miller on a Midi Classical guitar. I was literally in heaven just listening to the plucking and sounds emitted by this guitar. After that wonderful song, the band continued with the song Englishman in New York. I looked forward to a bass solo by Sting, but I was slightly disappointed as they went into an extended drum solo piece. Sting then switched his axe for a recogniseable Yamaha Silent guitar on which he played a favourite song of many, Fragile.

Next song up was Fields of Gold with Douglas Miller on a regular classical guitar. Sacred Love was played in it's regular way, but what was amazing that they switched midway to a blues tune for this song, which was AWESOME. Then Sting and Joy Rose sang a duet of the song Whenever I Say Your Name, which he originally recorded with Mary J. Blige. Some say that this live version sounded better. :) For this song, Ms Donna Gardier stood on a platform behind the percussions set. There she danced to expose a silhoutte of a lady dancing. This was all so amazing!!

Next song played was another favourite of mine... Every Little Thing (She Does is Magic). THe next song played, was a song I was not familiar with, but I think it was from the album Sacred Love, the song had a lot of ... Live my life in the lyrics. After doing some research I think the song was entitled Never Coming Home. For this song, it had a lot of Sting doing some funny antics like walking, waist high kicks and shmy-ing on stage from left to right as he played a lead on the bass.Jaon Rebello (on Korg SG keyboards) also played a lead section in Jazz style for this song. Bravo to all for the showmanship.

At this point Chris and I had not gotten up from our seats. But when Dominic started the next song with a tune that sounded like it came from U2, we just got up off our behind's and started to dance to the rhythm of Roxanne! Man, that was a wonderful rendition of Roxanne. After that the whole band walked off stage, and of course in tradition, the crowd just shouted for MORE! MORE! MORE! as we clapped louder and louder. How could they leave us without playing Every Breath You Take ?

They came back on stage soon after and kicking off with the song Desert Rose. Sting sang a good version of the Egyptian voicings for this song. He went on to sing If I Ever Lose My Faith then followed by everyone's favourite Every Breath You Take.

They took a short break after that and came back on stage and continued by playing the hauntingly wonderful tune of A Thousand Years with sting on guitars. A Black Fender Stratocaster.

After that song we all just clapped and clapped and cheered him on. That was the end of the concert. And we then left the bowels of the stadium to enthralled by the songs and the performance. Truly worth the RM128 that we paid for the tickets.

We congregated outside the stadium to meet up with Chris and Adeline. We talked for a while and joked as we waited for the traffic jam to subside. Surfgod, Kingston and I walked back to my car as I offered them a ride back to Setapak.

As I reached my car, I pulled out my car keys and pushed the Car Alarm Arming/Disarming button, I realised that I had not locked my car!!!
As I reached my car, a guard came up to us and said "Encik cuba periksa kereta awak kalau ada apa-apa yang hilang! Sat tadi saya ada nampak orang dalam kereta awak sebelum konsert bermula. Saya ingatkan yang dia tu tuan punya kereta itu. Tapi selepas tu bila saya balik saya nampak dia di dalam kereta BMW di tepi kereta awak. Lepas tu saya panggil polis lah! Dan lepas tu mereka buat pengumuman dalam dewan."

Translates to " Sir, please check your car if there's anything missing from your car. I saw someone in your car earlier before the concert started. I thought he was the owner the car. But later when I came back I saw the same guy in the BMW next to your car. So that's when I alerted the police. That's when the the announcement was made in the hall"

Then it became appartent that the announcement that we heard was actually for the car that was beside mine. A thief was actually in my car!! So I just briefly looked around in my car and found nothing amiss. The coin box still had the coins in it. I had a golf set in the boot of my car and that was still there. Indeed I thank God for blinding the theif from taking anything in my car.

We then drove home to Setapak, stopped by at mamak (all night's roadside eatery) talked about the concert. Dropped the blokes off at their respective places. Then I drove home alone back to my house in Bandar Utama, with a grin of satisfaction on my face. Thanks be to God for giving me this opportunity to watch this concert with good friends, and showing me that He did keep my car safe and sound.

Phew... that's all.. till then.. .PaulOS Blogging Off!