Sting's classics at the Assago Forum: concert review...

A shoulder in a sling and a late start to the concert, but an almost unbeatable repertoire and an impeccable voice.

"The show must go on," says Sting as soon as he takes the stage: it's 8:54 PM, and the concert, scheduled for 8 PM, starts almost an hour late to allow people in, given the lines that have formed for ticket control.

Sting, however, is referring to the visible sling that supports his left arm: he ruptured a tendon in his shoulder and underwent surgery in recent weeks. "I can't play guitar tonight, but I can sing." And how he sings: a perfect, powerful voice.
 

The last time Sting played at the Assago Forum was for a memorable concert with Paul Simon—an evening of classics squared. Since then, he's returned to Italy several times, including to Milan (but to the smaller Fabrique club). Tonight, as with the show with Simon, it's a seated performance—but the classics in the recording and the energy of the show would have merited a standing concert.

The tour's title is "My Songs," like the revised anthology from a few months ago, which will soon be released as a live album. The anthological promise of the title is kept: it opens immediately with "Roxanne," which he'll perform twice, once semi-acoustically and once rock-based at the end of the evening. In between are all the classics: immediately after, "Message in a Bottle," "Englishman in New York," and so on.

Sting is accompanied by a nine-piece band, and the performances are almost as flawless as his vocals. Some arrangements are less convincing ("King of Pain"), others more so ("Walking on the Moon," which is even more reggae-esque). There are a few non-classical songs ("If You Can't Find Love" from the album with Shaggy and "Whenever I Say Your Name") that could have been left out, but they're all offset by powerful performances: "Walking on the Moon" flows into "Get Up Stand Up," and "So Lonely" flows into "No Woman No Cry," with a double tribute to Bob Marley that is among the evening's most intense moments.

A little over an hour and a half of concert concludes with a triptych of "King of Pain" and the rock coda of "Roxanne," a "Russians" sung without introductions (but which can easily be read with the names of current world leaders instead of those from the '80s), and "Fragile," sung in chorus, of course. A huge repertoire that was done justice, this evening too.

(c) Rockol