A couple of lawn tickets at the Post-Gazette/Star Lake Amphitheater were made available to us last week - $30 each, which was very reasonable for the Police tour. Primo seats were selling for $200, and that was face value.
We drove to Pittsburgh on Monday afternoon, just beating the heavier rush-hour crunch getting through the tunnels to head toward the airport. We decided to crash at the Robinson Microtel, so that we (read Dana) could do some shopping on Tuesday - which was, by the way, our 13th wedding anniversary.
Anyway, we had a nice dinner at the Share Edge Creekhouse before the show. It was our first time at Star Lake, so we left plenty of time to drive out towards Burgettstown ... it still took some time. We parked and walked over to get our 'seats' just as the opening gig - Elvis Costello - was getting into it.
I like Elvis Costello, though I don't own any albums, so it was nice to lay back on the blanket and let dinner digest while the sun went down.
So - the real reason for the trip: The Police. Both Dana and I have been big Police fans since the mid-80s, and we've just about worn out the "Message In A Box" 4-disc set over the years. We'd seen Sting twice in concert, once in Raleigh and once in Hershey. Good shows - Sting has a great voice and stage presence, and he really melds with the other artists when he's calling the shots.
With Stewart and Andy ... not so much. Don't get me wrong, the show was enjoyable and some of the versions of their songs were fantastic in new form (Sting can't quite hit those high notes, for example). The percussion in Wrapped Around Your Finger was terrific, and I was happy that, among their radio hit standards (Roxanne, Message in a Bottle, etc.), they also played some others that don't get played so much (Demolition Man, Voices Inside My Head). Two songs we would have loved to have heard but didn't: Oh My God, and Canary In A Coalmine (me) or Tea In The Sahara (Dana).
All in all, a nice concert. Crowd got into Roxanne, of course, which is one of my least favorites, but the acoustics out in the lawn made the crowd seem very tame. I would have been very disappointed to spend $200 per ticket, however.
Still nowhere near the fun and energy of an indoor U2 concert, however.
1 comment:
My fiancé, now wife, and I went to see the Police last year in Philly for my birthday. I have to agree with your review it just wasn't the WOW I expected. I know that we are all a little older and the hope that Sting, Andy and Stewart were going to put together a show to rival the Synchronicity Tour was slim, but I guess I expected more. It was a good time just not a great one.
Brian P
www.iambeerwise.com
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