Sting @The Metropolitan Opera, July 14th

Sure, nowadays Sting might be a little corny and adult contemporary for my tastes, but back in the day (I'm talking Police and his early solo days), he scorching hot. In fact, I had a poster of his Nothing Like The Sun album on the ceiling of my undergrad freshman year dorm room above my top bunk.

I never got around to seeing him or the reunited Police in all these years. Oftentimes, my annoyance at the excessive prices of the tickets and size of the venues outweighed my desire to go see him. So when a few months ago, it was announced that Sting would be playing The Metropolitan Opera House with the Royal Philharmonic and that "cheap" tickets could be had for ~$35, I figured, why not.

(More words and pics after the jump.)

I took Bestest Boy and his sister, The Susannah, and her boyfriend, The Artist known as Kaleda. Little did I realize that my SRO Family Circle tickets meant that we were not only in the last row of the entire venue; we were standing! Yowzers - talk about nosebleeds! Sting was a little white blob waaaaayyy down below. But it ended up okay, as I had drank a considerable amount of red wine beforehand in celebration of Bastille Day, and therefore wanted to sing and dance. Plus, after the intermission, we were able to find vacated seats further down in the section and rest, so it was all good.

As for the music itself? I knew probably 2/3s of his nearly 3 hour setlist, as he hit mostly his solo catalog with a few Police standards thrown in ("Roxanne," "Every Breath You Take"). For most of the evening, he stood at the front and sang while the orchestra accompanied him, and it was not until the encores did he pick up a guitar and play himself. But what a delicious sounding "Fragile" it was.

Even with our faraway seats, sound-wise, it was pretty impressive hearing all the songs with a full orchestra of 40+ instruments supporting, especially on "Russians." And, I had a good time walking down memory lane, revisiting songs I hadn't heard in a while, even with that over-played "Fields Of Gold."

Good night, overall, and now I can cross Sting off my list. =)

(Videos coming soon.)