One Bakersfield Woman's Blog to Mankind

Photo by: N.L. Belardes

Saturday, July 14, 2007

A Midsummer Night's Dream with the Police at Dodger Stadium

One midsummer night not to long ago, a few friends and I traveled to Dodger Stadium to fulfill a lifetime dream of seeing the Police in concert.

So did 55,000 other Police fans.

The crowd at Dodger Stadium

I’ve never been to a concert at Dodger Stadium before. It was quite a surreal feeling to be among a sea of 55,000 people singing police lyrics. It was a night I never dreamed I’d ever get to experience in my life. It was a night I will never forget!

Strangely, JFK, lead singer of the Los Angeles band World Wide Spies (one of my favorite bands) was sitting a few rows in front of us. It’s a small world after all.

Jesse Rivera was also somewhere in that sea of Police fans and had this to say about his experience at the concert. (I stole the title of this blog from a line in Jesse’s blog.)

“The Police's music in itself to me and I'm sure to lots of us there last night is like a gateway back to a time when our lives, our opinions on things like music, love, drugs, politics were just starting to take shape in our young expanding minds.

The days when everything and anything was and maybe could still be possible. Hearing this music again and hearing it fresh and still alive I think fills our beings with a sense that everything and anything is still possible all over again and again and again and that's not a bad feeling.”

I couldn’t agree more. I first discovered the Police back in the early 1980’s emanating from my brother’s bedroom. He promptly informed me they were the greatest band of all time and soon I was a huge fan too. My love for the Police and especially their lead singer Sting has been going strong for more than 25 years. Musically they’ve remained a constant in my life like no other artists have. I’ve discovered myself and my heart embraced in Sting’s lyrics more times than I can remember.

While chingpea and I had a hard time navigating the LA traffic the night before trying to get to the Roxy, navigating through the sea of people at Dodger Stadium proved to be just as difficult a task. As were the stadium stairs for me and my deformed knees. By the end of the night my knees were screaming from climbing and descending those steep stairs.

Two bands opened for the Police: Fiction Plane and the Foo Fighters.

I had never heard of Fiction Plane, turns out its Sting’s sons’ band! They were really good too. Sting’s son, Joe Sumner followed in his footsteps as lead vocalist and bassist for Fiction Plane. Imagine opening for your dad’s band that just happens to be the Police on a world tour to sold out stadiums, how cool is that!

The Foo Fighters ROCKED! They played an amazing set that the crowd went wild over. Dave Grohl ran around in the audience for a while and had tons of people chasing after him. I think he made the security guards trying to keep up with him nervous.

Finally the Police took the stage and began the night with Message in a Bottle and 25 years since they were last a touring band disappeared. Let me just say that the Police truly are an amazing band! They are the perfect blend of a jazz trio with the energy of a punk-rock band whose melodies fuse to form a definitive new wave rock band. It just doesn’t get any better than the Police. Hearing their extended live versions of some of my favorite songs and singing along with 55,000 fans was truly incredible.

Walking on the Moon felt like my theme song that night for my knees, I too hoped my legs wouldn’t break. Chingpea mentioned that she hoped they performed the “magic” song and almost immediately they played Every Little Thing She Does is Magic. I don’t know how she did that, but it was really cool. Every song they played was amazing! Wrapped Around Your Finger and a couple others featured Stewart Copeland as a percussion guru. Can’t Stand Losing You and Roxanne were the two songs of the night that were my favorites. Sadly, the only song they didn’t play that I wanted to hear was Spirits in the Material World.

Wrapped Around Your Finger

Here’s the incredible set list they performed that night:

Message In A Bottle
Synchronicity II
Walking On The Moon
Voices Inside My Head
When The World Is Running Down
Don't Stand So Close
Driven To Tears
The Bed's Too Big Without You
Truth Hits Everybody
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
Wrapped Around Your Finger
De Do Do Do De Da Da Da
Invisible Sun
Walking In Your Footsteps
Can't Stand Losing You
Roxanne
King of Pain
So Lonely
Every Breath You Take
Next To You

So Lonely

Roxanne

Sting’s voice is still an anthem-esque melodic wonder that sounds the same live as it does on a studio album. His voice live gives me goose bumps! I love that. I saw Sting in concert on the Nothing Like the Sun tour and he sounded just as great now as he did back then.

Sting is still HOT!

Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland may all be “older” now but they still ROCK!

I couldn’t leave the concert of my lifetime without a Police t-shirt! So chingpea and I navigated our way through the crowd and stood in a really long line at one of many merchandise booths. We helped a guy pick out a Police hat and when it was finally our turn, I not only bought a really cool Police t-shirt, but I also bought an autographed copy of Sting’s memoir Broken Music.

Our midsummer night’s dream with the Police ended in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium sitting in the back of a truck talking about the concert while looking at the stars and listening to Police songs on the radios of cars maneuvering their way out of the biggest traffic jam ever. It was perfect. A real dream come true. It was the Police!

Labels: Dodger Stadium, Fiction Plane, Foo Fighters, jazz music, New Wave, punk rock, Sting, The Police, World Wide Spies

posted by Matildakay at 7:10 PM 4 comments

Saturday, June 02, 2007

Oh, My Nola...

A few days before my birthday, Harry Connick Jr. was in town with his Big Band singing music from his two new albums Oh, My Nola and Chanson du Vieux Carré celebrating his home town of New Orleans, one of my favorite cities I have ever spent time in.

I had really been looking forward to seeing Harry again! He is by far one of my all time favorite musicians and performers. And the only way to see Harry is up close and personal, sitting in the orchestra pit where you are close enough to see and hear Harry tapping his foot in time to his piano playing, close enough to watch Harry’s hands playing rapid jazz piano rhythms and melodies, and close enough to feel the deep inflections of Harry’s voice like kisses on your skin when he sings.

I don’t believe you would have the same concert experience sitting back in the general audience as you do in the orchestra pit because Harry is so personable with those sitting close, engaging them in conversation, making jokes about waking up inside the Rabobank on his tour bus, laughing, dancing and shaking his bootie, and flashing those heart-melting dimples when he smiles. The people in the orchestra pit participate in the show whereas those in the general audience watch.

New Orleans music has its own sound and emotion that always takes me back to the times I’ve spent in that great city. Harry Connick Jr. and his Big Band play it like it was the only music that ever existed or mattered. They played from their hearts music from their childhoods, home town and legendary mentors along with original songs from Harry Connick Jr. Harry and all the members of his Big Band are extraordinary musicians and they showcased their talent as if they were having the time of their lives. You could just tell they all love what they do!

Although Harry began the show with one of my all time favorite songs: Come By Me, the show consisted mostly of music from his two new New Orleans albums featuring songs like: Working in a Coal Mine, Won’t You Come Home, Bill Bailey?, Oh, My Nola, Luscious, New Orleans, Bourban Street Parade, Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and Do Dat Thing, which was a tribute to legendary New Orleans musicians, among other songs.

There were three moments in the show that really stood out for me and made it a night to remember…

The first was when Harry sang Let Them Talk. A ballad, Harry sang it like no other could with his deep romantic voice that melted my heart when he sang the words, “I want the whole wide world to know…that I, I really love you so.”

The second was when Harry left the grand piano at center stage to go play an old upright piano off to the side of the stage in a set that looked like a New Orleans club on Bourban Street. He played the most amazing and intricate piano solo song I have ever heard that brought the crowd to its feet. He effortlessly reminded me of why he is my all time favorite jazz pianist. I wish I could play my upright piano half as good. Alas, I do not have Harry’s talent.

He went on to play a few more songs from the New Orleans club set on the old upright piano with his Big Band and I felt like I was back in New Orleans. Back on Bourban Street in jazz clubs and restaurants where jazz musicians poured out great music while waiters walked around with baking sheets of fresh hot biscuits straight from the oven. I could taste the buttered biscuits melting in my mouth as Harry played and sang about New Orleans memories and legends.

And the third was during Mardi Gras in New Orleans when chingpea threw a Mardi Gras bead necklace on stage and Harry danced over and put it around his neck. One of our group had touched something that now touched Harry!

When that beaded necklace hit the stage I remembered being in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, watching the parades, being one of thousands crowded onto Bourban Street as people on the hotel balconies threw Mardi Gras beads down to those in the street. I remembered the music. I remembered New Orleans with all its grandeur and history.

Oh, My Nola… I’ll remember you through your music.

*Pictures posted were found on the internet and are not from the Oh, My Nola concert in Bakersfield as photography was not allowed.

Labels: Bakersfield, Bourban Street, Harry Connick Jr., jazz music, Mardi Gras, New Orleans, Oh My Nola, piano