In a rock version at Forest-National, with his 'Ten Summoner's Tales' - Between the Beatles and the Police, Sting closes ranks...

It was the first time since the Police that Sting returned to Brussels. To an obviously sold-out Forest-National, he who would have easily sold it two or three times. Which leaves the door open for a return.

The 'Soul Cages' tour had already drawn heavily on the Police stock, whose compilations continue to sell very well, but this time the allusion was even more specific. First, by the absence of a saxophonist (whether Branford Marsalis or Steve Coleman). The jazzy terrain is temporarily left fallow by a smaller band than ever, consisting of the faithful Dominic Miller on the very incisive guitar, David Sancious on the colourful keyboards, and drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, who adapts to any change of rhythm with equal joy.

The choice of repertoire isn't far from The Police either. Six times, it's returned to, to the delight of a very young and exuberant audience at these times, while 'The Dream of the Blue Turtles' (with one small exception when it inserts 'Consider Me Gone' into 'Roxanne') and 'The Soul Cages' are passed over in silence. 'Nothing Like the Sun' is only mentioned three times, so it's the latter album that takes the lion's share of the spotlight, starting with the opening single 'If I Ever Lose My Faith in You'.

The structure of the show is no less disconcerting. Four songs from the latest album logically open the concert before the unexpected cover of the Beatles' 'A Day in a Life', with Sancious taking on the role of a one-man Sgt. Pepper's Band. After the beautiful 'Fields of Gold', the best track on '10 Summoner's Tales', we move on to Police with 'Synchronicity II', 'Everything She Does Is Magic', and 'Roxanne'. We dive back into the new songs to return to 'An Englishman in New York' and 'King of Pain'.

It's the segueing that strikes us the most: Sting has never been so static, he never lets go of his bass, and he's hardly ever talkative. What could pass for coldness takes time to transform into a relaxed atmosphere with a sober setting made up of varied pictorial tableaux. You have to follow Sting's fades, like the bridge between 'Saint Augustine in Hell' and 'Straight to My Heart'. But the performance is so excellent, with a truly impressive Miller-Sancious duo, that we follow Sting through the twists and turns of his sometimes daring rearrangements. The Beatles even returned to open the first encore with a sped-up "Penny Lane" before the finale, which more closely adheres to the prevailing rules of apotheosis: "Message in a Bottle," "Every Breath You Take," and "Fragile" were enough to make us forget Sting's minor vocal problems, forced to treat himself on stage with a vaporizer even though we were only at the beginning of the tour...

In the end, we were treated to a set similar to the previous one, but less jazzy. Sting continues to tighten his screws, turning his back on the big productions that followed his first two albums. All that remains is the essentials: excellent songs performed by great musicians. Which isn't bad, even if the show must suffer slightly...

(c) Le Soir by Thierry Coljon