The one and only time I ever saw the Police in concert was in 1980 at Liberty Bell Racetrack in Philadelphia. It was, if I remember correctly, only one of two U.S. dates they were performing before the release of “Ghost in the Machine”. The opening acts were the Go Gos, Oingo Boingo, The Specials and maybe someone else. It was my first concert. I was 12. Tickets were $19.50 apiece which I paid for out of my summer job (making $100 a week in the mailroom at a Park Ave P.R. firm in NYC).

And it was in a word a-fucking-mazing…

I had one other opportunity to see the Police a couple of years later and missed it because I didn’t have enough money for tickets. I was a broke-ass student with no job. I was soooo incredibly bummed.

And then they broke up. And I was even more bummed I missed them that last time.

So some quarter century later when the Police performed at the Grammys and announced they were reuniting for a world tour, my jaw dropped. I had a chance to finally right one of the regrets I’d been carrying around since the 1980s (the other regret involves owning a Members Only jacket and I fear only an honest to God time machine may fix that one), I swung a pair of $250 tickets to see them thanks to podcasting money.

And in a word it was a-fucking-mazing.

Sting’s son, Joe Sumner’s band, Fiction Plane opened things up around 6:30 or so. We were just entering the stadium and stopped so I could get a T-shirt ($35) and a big bottle of water ($5.50) and by the time we got to our seats, Fiction Plane only had a couple more songs left in their set. They sounded pretty good and there is no doubt that Joe Sumner sounds exactly like his old man when his old man was a young man. I will definitely pick up their album at some point.

They wrapped at 7. I went to get a Dodger Dog ($5.50) and at 7:30 Foo Fighters hit the stage. I don’t remember what they opened with but they played a very tight “greatest hits” package including “Learning to Fly”, “Everlong”, “Monkey Wrench” and all the MTV smash singles. Dave Grohl even ran into the crowd at one point with his guitar (and right past us) to play a solo on the monitor tower behind the house sound board. Of course the crowd ate it up and everybody ran up to snap photos with their cell phones.

After their set, I went to get a Margarita ($8.00). And by the time I got back to my seat it was close to 9pm. I was tingly all over. 27 years of waiting were finally over.

They opened with “Walking on the Moon” and from the very first notes from Andy Summers’ guitar I was on cloud nine. The sound from the booming P.A. was incredible. Crisp clear and loud (it’s nice when the sound guys open up the whole rig for the headliner) and the staging was really cool. On either side of the stage, 80 feet high, and along the top, were columns of LED-type displays, programmed to display colors (Red white a blue for Syncronicity II, red for Roxanne, etc). It was simple, yet impressive as hell. Giant video monitors showed band closeups from several angles so there was great coverage of Sting, Stewart and Andy at all times (And yes, it’s a bit distracting now that Stewart Copeland looks so much like my boss, Adam Curry).

And that was the other really cool thing. There was no horn section, no keyboard player, no second guitarist or percussionist to fill things out. It was just Sting, Stewart and Andy on everything and each song sounded incredible and full. Even production-heavy hits like “King of Pain” were handled amazingly well due to Andy Summers’ chordal work and Stewart Copeland’s amazing percussion playing.

That was the other thing that hit me–Sting’s bass playing live was amazing. I’d seen him solo before but within the confines of his big touring band he never played with the incredible modality he did last night, especially while singing some pretty involved melodic stuff there. Sure he’s looking older (not Crypt Keeper old) and the hairline’s nearly over his ears and the voice doesn’t hit the skyscraper like peaks it did thirty years ago but he was really fantastic.

I didn’t jot down the exact set list but I can tell you their 2 hour show included:

- Message in a Bottle
- Don’t Stand So Close to Me
- When the World Is Running Down
- Spirits in the Material World
- Driven to Tears
- Walking on the Moon
- Truth Hits Everybody
- Wrapped Around Your Finger
- The Bed’s Too Big Without You
- De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da
- Invisible Sun
- Walking in Your Footsteps
- Can’t Stand Losing You
- Roxanne
- King of Pain
- So Lonely
- Every Breath You Take
- Next to You

And not one sucky moment.

During “Every Breath You Take” I actually held up a lighter. Totally old-school on that one. I think I was the only one.

And I can’t tell you how many people I saw leaving their field seats before the first encore or during the other encores–leaving early to get a head start out of the parking lot. Are you kidding me? You spend at least $250 on a ticket and you leave early? What are you thinking? That you’ll catch the encore next week? After waiting more than 2/3 of my life to see these guys again, I wasn’t going to miss one moment to shave a few minutes off my trip home.

In the end, I didn’t miss one note and enjoyed every single one of them and walked away not only thinking I was ecstatic that I’d spent $500 on a pair of tickets but wanting to know how I could do it again. It was one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

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