no surprise, no mystery

Lame, camera phone picture of an incredible night.

Last night Steve, Christine, Stewart and I went to see The Police perform at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. I've always been a huge fan but last night, my love for Stewart, Andy & Sting was renewed and strengthened. They freakin' rocked the house!

Having never seen them live before I was completely blown away by their musical ability. Especially Stewart Copeland! He's an absolute monster on the drums! In addition to an amazing drum kit set up, he had a full array of percussion including countless cymbals, sound plates, timpani, crotales and a 60" gong! My absolute favourite moment in the show was "Wrapped Around Your Finger" when Copeland made full use of his gear. Sting and Summers were just as amazing. The trio played for nearly two hours solid and never let up. They played every song that I expected, plus a few pleasant surprises. The set list:

Message In a Bottle
Synchronicity II (yes!)
Walking On The Moon
Voices Inside My Head
When The World Is Running Down, You Make The Best Of What's Still Around
Don't Stand So Close To Me
Driven To Tears
Truth Hits Everybody
This Bed's Too Big Without You
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic (the first Police song I ever remember hearing)
Wrapped Around Your Finger (one of my most favourite songs ever)
De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da
Invisible Sun
Walking In Your Footsteps
Can't Stand Losing You
Roxanne

The encore consisted of:

King of Pain
So Lonely (another personal favourite)
Every Breath You Take
Next To You

I should also mention the opening act. Even though we only caught about half of their set, Fiction Plane was really good. Similar to The Police they are a trio whose singer has a rather unique vocal quality. Sound familiar? Well it should! Fiction Plane's lead singer and bass player is Joe Sumner, Sting's son. To me, the band sounds like a cross between The Police and Rush and I mean that in a very positive way! Once I got past the nepotism factor I was thoroughly impressed. In fact, I was impressed enough to download their latest recording from iTunes.

A fabulous night and one that I will remember fondly for a very long time. Now if only we could bring Freddie Mercury back for a Queen reunion tour...