Concert Review: You Have the Right to Remain Silent - The Police at Oakland 6/13/07

Sometime in 1980s (or thereabouts), I heard 'De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da' for the first time. It was on my father's Sony stereo system, which was covered with a custom-made plastic case and occupied an exalted position on his bedroom shelf. I had just been given "stereo privileges" which meant that my father considered me old enough to use it, and was confident I wouldn't set it on fire. No fires were caused in listening to the song, but the upbeat mood and catchy tune hooked me. From that point on I considered myself a Police (and Sting) fan.

When I heard they were going to be touring again after a twenty-four year hiatus, it was a no-brainer. I had to go. So I awoke one morning in late February (when they went on sale), logged into Ticketmaster and bought tickets to their show at the McAfee Coliseum in Oakland on June 13th. The show sold out in a less than two hours.

Opening Band
The Opening Band

We got to the venue naïvely at 6:30pm, like it said on the ticket. Now, we weren't aware of the existence of warm-up acts. After hanging around for about an hour, we were inundated for another hour with something that sounded like a dial-up modem logging on to a network, except a few thousand decibels louder. As it turned out, this was the opening band - Fiction Plane - led by Sting, Jr. a.k.a. Joe Sumner. Clearly, something went awry with the genetics there. When they stopped playing, one guy in the audience clapped. He narrowly escaped for his life as fellow concert-goers attacked him with their soft drinks and hot dogs. I exaggerate, of course, but it suffices to say that there were no long lines to buy their CD.

 

Police Concert 1
Wrapped Around Your Finger

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Article Author: The Great Ganesha

The Great Ganesha is a doctorate in Quantitative Finance who loves to write. Originally from Bombay, he now lives in San Francisco. Read more about him, if you like.

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  • 1 - d alper

    Jun 30, 2007 at 10:11 am

    I am eager to see the Police when they come around the East Coast and have read the mixed reviews. They deserve a good listen, unfortunately this may be a one off affair (see, Cream) and therefore they need to maximize efficiency by allowing as many fans an opportunity to hear them live as possible, ergo-crappy venues to showcase their tunes. I really like their set list, they did put some thought into it, would dig hearing 'Canary' though, and interested in seeing how these three channel the much hyped inner tension into a coherent, energy filled show, thanks for the review.

  • 2 - The Great Ganesha

    Jul 03, 2007 at 3:44 pm

    yeah - setlist is pretty cool. and it looks like it's more or less the same at most of the shows. don't want to disappoint, but i don't think they've played 'canary' at all.

    and i understand re. the venue.

    the bottomline is, if you're a fan, you're going to go anyway...

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