Police Concert

Tonight's Police show at Tokyo Dome was just about as good as it could have been, considering the fact that the band members' combined age is about 400. Luckily, I was so far from the stage I couldn't really tell how old they looked. The great thing about the show was that it was just the Sting, Summers and Copeland playing instruments that sounded very much like their 70s and 80s counterparts, and with very little extra nonsense thrown in. No keyboards, no saxophone, no backup singers dressed as drum majorettes. They even used some of the medley patterns and "live-set shenanigans" they used during their 80s tours (e.g., the starting and stopping goofiness at the end of "Hole In My Life").

A word on Stewart Copeland: I already knew he was the greatest American drummer ever. But tonight he also wore one of the coolest shirts I've ever seen: A black jersey with the red Ghost In the Machine logo on the front. He wore a Police shirt to a Police concert...while playing drums for the Police. If anyone else did that, I'd say they were foolish.

The set list was as follows:

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 to Me
Driven to Tears
Hole In My Life
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
Wrapped Around Your Finger
De Doo Doo Doo De Da Da Da
Invisible Sun
Walking In Your Footsteps*
Can't Stand Losing You / Regatta de Blanc
Roxanne

First encore:
King of Pain
So Lonely
Every Breath You Take

Final encore:
Next to You

*Featured weird video footage of computer-generated dinosaur skeletons, not to mention Sting playing a pan flute.