Sting plays like a trance...

Oberhausen · The 72-year-old Englishman finally came to Oberhausen after three postponements and presented his crisp best-of program "My Songs" to the sold-out arena.

At many moments during this wonderful evening in the Arena Oberhausen, you would like to grab Sting by the shoulders, shake him gently, and say, "Hey, slow down. We've all brought time with us." But the concept of the concert, which was postponed several times, ultimately for years, is probably that the bassist, songwriter, and singer will race through his work, with all the important songs of his long career flowing past the 11,000 fans in the sold-out arena as if in a frenzy.

The concert was actually supposed to take place in October 2020. Back then, it was canceled due to COVID-19, and two rescheduled dates were then postponed due to illness. Although three years have now passed, in which Sting has released two new albums, he's still sticking with the concept of his tour from back then. It's called "My Songs," like the 2019 album on which the Brit released new versions of the most famous songs of his career. He's remixed some of them, re-recorded some to adapt them to current listening habits. There's really no single piece he's done any favours with this. They're often accompanied by dull beats that would probably be considered "radio-friendly" in some corner of the world.

Concert On December 4, Sting will be in the region again, playing a concert on his "My Songs" tour at the Cologne Arena. It has also been postponed several times and was originally scheduled to take place in June 2020.

Tickets The Cologne concert is also sold out, but experience has shown that last-minute tickets are still available. In Oberhausen, ticket sellers were still standing near the box office shortly before the show began.

The good news from Oberhausen is: Sting and the band are sticking roughly to the track selection from "My Songs," but they're playing the songs more in their familiar versions. The way long-time fans want to hear them. They're not slavishly imitating the old studio versions, but the spirit is more that of those golden years from 1978 to 1999, when Sting recorded songs and entire albums that became legendary, first with The Police and then solo with some of the world's best musicians.

When he storms the stage after the set of his son Joe Sumner, who is a great entertainer, he does so as a living legend. Around his neck hangs a bass guitar that is almost as old as its 72-year-old owner, bearing more than just noticeable traces of his playing over the decades: Where Sting stabilizes his right hand with his little and ring fingers, a deep furrow has appeared, the varnish probably worn away decades ago. Constant dripping wears away the stone. His skin-tight shirt, which he can wear, has many small holes, as if it, too, has accompanied him for a good part of his life. And his hair, well: Is it dyed blonde or has already turned white-gray?

No matter. This man is as energetic as ever. Just as there's no respite on this evening, there's no introduction or gentle lead-up. Sting counts in in German, and after three seconds, his fans realize: "Ah, that's 'Message in a Bottle,'" jump up, dance, and sing along. With a cleverly constructed setlist, the musicians maintain this euphoric mood practically throughout. The songs often flow unnoticed into one another: "King of Pain" becomes "Every Breath You Take." And wait a minute, was that "Fields of Gold"?

Some things pass quickly, too quickly. You would have liked to stay longer, to give space to the memories that these songs, some of which are four decades old, inevitably bring with them. But Sting doesn't want to linger. He wants to move on. He doesn't want to waste much time on chatter. Only at the beginning does he demonstrate a bit of German, paired with black English humour: "You've been holding onto your tickets for a long time. Sorry about that. We're going to have a great show. Hopefully, everyone's still alive."

So there's no unifying narrative or message in these crisp 90 minutes, except: Here's a man who has written great songs and who continually gathers great musicians around him. For example, Shane Sager, in his early twenties, who brilliantly plays Steve Wonder's harmonica part from "Brand New Day." This could well continue for a few more years.

(c) Rheinische Post by Max Florian Kühlem