Synchronicity

So the picture is horrible, but the show was great.

Friday night I was fortunate enough to catch The Police in Hershey, PA, and I have to say it was one of the best reunion concerts I have seen. As this cell phone picture of the t-shirt tent attempts to show, both the crowd and the band exhibited their fair share of sentimentality and nostalgia: cover art from Outlandos d’Amour, Regatta de Blanc, and Synchronicity was much in evidence.

Despite the throwback visuals, however, The Police and their music seemed surprisingly fresh and relevant. You could almost imagine them doing something interesting in the recording studio—a claim you wouldn’t make of other recent reunion acts like The Who, The Eagles, or Fleetwood Mac. Sting in particular went a long way towards rehabilitating his rock star credentials and winning me back as a fan. After several tired years of tantric spirituality, bad lute music, and cheesy troubadour costumes, it was nice to see him rock out in spiked hair, a torn t-shirt, and a used up bass guitar. That, of course, is my own nostalgia at work, but as Rob MacDougall might observe, sometimes old is truly the new new.