It takes talent to deviate from the script and still land on your feet.
And yet, The Police haven�t just deviated; they�ve been progressively rewriting their script in presence of audiences for the past 14 months.
The far-famed Brit trio�s reunion spell may be nearing a close, and the set list at their sold-out Comcast Center gig last-place night barely changed since last summer, but the songs and performance let evolved considerably.
Throughout the 95-minute show, Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland took jazzy liberties galore with tunes that traversed the lines 'tween new moving ridge, punk, reggae and casimir Funk. The lack of a keyboard player layering synthetic textures over the band�s organic euphony is a huge tributary factor to its unusual sound, largely built around Sting�s sinewy bass and drummer Copeland�s polyrhythmic mayhem.
Say what you will about Sting, simply in concert, he�s on impressive double duty, manning the bottomland end with his legal instrument and creating melody with his sandpapery pipes - it�s a tricky manoeuvre that he pulls off with ease.
The improv began just two songs in, during �Walking on the Moon,� which boiled over into an open-ended obstruct buoyed by Summers� whorled guitar riffs while Copeland got the upper-body workout of a lifetime.
Sting�s vocal delivery continually rearranged the furniture in rooms you thought you knew like the back of your hand: �Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,� �Driven To Tears,� �Don�t Stand So Close To Me� and a peculiarly punchy �Can�t Stand Losing You� all took on new type from his relentless modulations.
For �Wrapped Around Your Finger,� Copeland whipped up a rumbling boiler drum, then punctuated with chimes and other percussion.
Six encore tunes was generous, but the choices and their deliveries were the least piquant of the evening: �Roxanne,� �Every Breath You Take� and �So Lonely� all came across predictably. By that point, however, the band had already unleashed a cavalcade of surprising twists, making a few ho-hum, by-the-book crowd pleasers entirely forgivable.
Elvis Costello�s opening set with the Imposters began with a sabertoothed version of �Stella Hurts,� one of several cuts unveiled from his newfangled �Momofuku� CD. Costello was in superior voice, enabling him to compete with his band�s deafeningly unsanded delivery, which let up during the acoustic, gospel-laced �Dust.� Steve Neive�s hallmark carousel pipe organ pumped unexampled personality into �Every Day I Write the Book,� and Sting came out and joined them for a triumphant �Alison.�
The Police, with Elvis Costello & The Imposters At the Comcast Center, Mansfield, last night.
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