Sting: A Trip Down Memory Lane...

Nostalgia is the perfect word to describe what happened at the Telmex Auditorium last night, for those who attended the concert that began at almost 9:39 p.m. This was evident, for example, when the audience sang along with its author, "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic." Everyone stood up, some even recording a snippet of the song to send to their loved ones, to sing it again with everyone around them. That was how the entire concert went.

Synchronicity II was the song with which Sting, dressed in a simple blue T-shirt and black pants, and his worn bass guitar, came out to greet a Guadalajara crowd that had been waiting for him for almost an hour and that shouted and clapped their hands to welcome him.

At 65, Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, better known as Sting, as energetic as a 30-year-old—perhaps due to his vegan lifestyle—moved Guadalajara in a heartfelt concert dedicated to fans and newer listeners of his music, some dating back to the legendary The Police, at the Telmex Auditorium as part of the tour for his latest album, 57th & 9th. The singer and bassist also performed a couple of dates in Mexico City.

 
Although his recent albums haven't had the media coverage they had in their heyday, and rarely top the charts, the fans, almost all over 30, followed the musician throughout the entire concert. Between ballads that suddenly shifted to the energy of classics, the well-preserved English musician transported the entire Telmex audience back to 1977.

They sang along, clapped, and shouted nonstop.

"Spirits in the Material World" was the second song. But "Englishman in New York" truly brought the audience to its feet. While they didn't fill every seat, they enjoyed and sang along to the lyrics as if they were in an intimate special show for lovers of his music, with that mix of messages like "be yourself no matter what they say," with classic rock guitar riffs and the classic ballad lyrics of the epic song, "I Can't Stop Thinking About You."

“Thank you very much, Guadalajara,” Sting said in well-practiced Spanish, before introducing the band members, “I'm very happy to be here again.”

The whole night was like that, with ballads that, like the singer, transcend time and transcend it. Songs that become emblematic just as time passes and become permanently relevant.

Sting brought that to Mexico, and Guadalajara could not be the exception.

(c) El Diario by Alejandra Carrillo