June 13 2007: Bring on the NIght

Oakland, CA
McAfee Coliseum

My friends and I took BART over after catching an early dinner, so we missed all of Fiction Plane and most of the Fratellis. Wish I'd missed all of the Fratellis... ugh sonic noise for which I had to use my ear plugs.

Now, going in I knew it would be a completely different experience than the fan club show since, duh, 4th row seat with 4,000 people is totally different than a 40th row seat with 60,000 people! It's been a while since I've had a "video screen only" seat for a show, but okay, I can deal. I'm just happy I'm in the building... It was kind of funny -- my seat was almost in the exact same site line as the Fan Club show, just WAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY further back. Had the best view of Stewart all night since he was on the riser, but with proper angling I could see Sting. Andy, alas, was just sound and projection ... Or possibly he was in Idaho, not too sure about that.

Anyway, while waiting for the show to start I was talking with some of the folks around me and it was really fun once again seeing all the excitement. When "Get Up Stand Up" started, everyone was instantly on their feet and cheering. Stadium lights go off, stage lights come on, and here comes Stewart and the gong. CRASH! And away we go....

The video screens were dark for "Message in a Bottle" which meant all I could really see was a brightly lit stage. It's actually a cool entrance -- just the band on stage playing for one whole song before the cameras kick on -- but when you're short and 40 rows back (or more for the poor folks in the upper decks!) it just stinks that you can't see what's going on!

The upside of being further back though was getting to see the production of the show, which was really impressive. The sheer genius of having cameras BEHIND Stewart was one of my favorite highlights. It was seriously cool being able to see what he was doing, especially when he was on his percussion set. Just wow. The camera work was really impressive all night (though I think the guy behind Stewart fell over a couple of times -- there were some weird shots popping up once and a while) and watching the guys rotate from screen to screen was quite helpful.

The set list was reasonably unchanged from the Fan Club show with the exception of "Murder by Numbers" which was dropped. The pacing of the show was much more dynamic than the FC show, which I had expected would be the case. It's apparent they're still working on some of the arrangements as some things sounded a bit different to me than they did in Vancouver.

A few personal highlights... "Invisible Sun" was amazing with that video. I was nearly moved to tears. Really excellent use of imagery to reinforce the lyrics. "Walking in Your Footsteps" just sounds incredible (though I liked the ghostly images from Vancouver better than the digital images superimposed on the band on the video screen, but hey, whatcha gonna do?) I turned 12 years old again with "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" and I really liked how they closed out "Every Breath You Take" during the 2nd encore.

My complaints are relatively minor -- once or twice the lighting at the back of the stage was in position in front of the video screens making them somewhat useless and the crowd, while definitely having a blast in the seats around me, was kind of weak on the audience participation points. Really, 60,000 people should make more noise than that!

One of my favorite part of concerts is watching band interaction, but since that wasn't possible for me last night I got to just focus on the music and they sounded wonderful last night. It's still an early tour vibe, so I can imagine how much tighter things will get as the tour progresses, and it's in pretty good condition now.

I can't believe that this show I was so eagerly anticipating is now in the past! Guess I'll just have to keep reading reviews and keep waiting for the later fall dates to fill in so I can figure out when my next show is!

No pictures this time, since, well, 40th row....

Set List:

Message in a Bottle
Synchronicity II
Don't Stand So Close to Me
Voices Inside My Head
When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around
Spirits in the Material World
Driven to Tears
Walking on the Moon
Truth Hits Everybody
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
Wrapped Around Your Finger
The Bed's Too Big Without You
De Do Do Do De Da Da Da
Invisible Sun
Walking in Your Footsteps
Can't Stand Losing You
Roxanne

Encore 1:King
of Pain
So Lonely

Encore 2:
Every Breath You Take

Encore 3:
Next to You