The Police Reunion at Dodger Stadium

It's always great to see musicians as artists, and that was what the Police were Satruday night. But let me begin at the beginning.

First, dinner at Philippe's a few blocks away. Great french dip sandwiches, but apparently my wife wasn't the only one with that idea. At one point, I went to the bathroom and some guy, breaking Man Law, asked if everyone was going to the Police concert. Everyone said yes. Some guy even asked me as I was washing my hands how to get from Philippe's to Dodger Stadium. Hundreds of people must have had the world-famous frensh dip sandwiches before going to the concert.

Second, parking and crowd control at Dodger Stadium. Crowd control was efficient, if a bit fascist. Parking though? $20 for general, $35 for preferred? A blight upon your souls, the lot of you. And how few bathrooms do you think are necessary? Finally then, getting out? Dear lord, it took nearly an hour to get from our car to a freeway, and that still wasn't the end of it. I'm glad I grew up watching the Angels; that way I don't have any urge to go the the accursed parking of Chavez Ravine.

The opener was Fictionplane (though it sounded like Futureplane at the time), a pretty cool band. But given that the singer is Sting's son, it's obvious how they got that coveted slot. Not bad, and the vocal similiarities between the two singers is obvious.

The second opener was the Foo Fighters. Wow. Does anyone enjoy rock'n'roll more than Dave Grohl? I've never really thought much of the Foo Fighters, except to think that Grohl makes suprisingly radio friendly music for a guy that was the drummer for Nirvana. But they put on a great show. At one point, Grohl ran out into the audience. I think he wanted to get to the fenced-off pitcher's mound, but he couldn't get there. And I'm pretty sure security hadn't been briefed on his unexpected jaunt onto the field. He eventually climbed some risers behind one of the control booths and played rock god for a bit.

Then were The Police. Great show. Good stage effects and lighting and all, but it was amazing to watch artists at work. Most, if not all, of the songs were reworked versions of what were originally on the album. Some of that was to trim the song down so that the three of them could perform on stage live without any DAT tracks or anything. Some of that was simply their creative urge to update, change, tinker, fiddle and just improve their own creations. So they didn't come screaming out the gates, but Sting was charismatic and in-control. Everything seemed in-synch and again, it was just cool to watch three very accomplished artists working their craft together in front of about 55,000 people. Notice, if you haven't caught it, I'm calling them artists, not musicians. It's one thing to play an instrument; it's another to create art.

All in all, a good show. Our view wasn't that hot, as the bad cellphone picture will attest to (taken during their performance of Synchronicity II), but the sound was great and we didn't miss a thing that any of the bands did.