Elvis/Police , Kansas, May 13 '08

[johnfoyle]

Anyone here going?

Local 'paper preview -

http://backtorockville.typepad.com/back ... rs-we.html

[ElvisKansasFan]

John, I'll be making the drive from Wichita to Kansas City Tuesday afternoon with my 13 year old son Andrew. The ticket prices are outrageous for the concert as you well know - $51.25, $92.25 and $204.75 (all without the Ticketmaster fees, etc) and the show is not sold out. I'm interested in seeing how many seats are empty as I'm sure ticket brokers are taking a huge loss on such a costly venture. I opted for the $51.25 tickets and I know I'll be in the 3rd row of the nose bleed seats, but I am so pumped up to hear some of the tunes from Momofuku live. I just wish that Elvis would insist on playing a full hour set instead of these 45-50 minute sets since the beginning of this final leg of The Police tour. I'll provide a set list as well as anything worth mentioning from Elvis' portion of the show. Although Elvis and the Imposters are picking up some solo dates in between Police shows, do you believe he'll be doing a stateside tour late in '08? Paul in Wichita

[johnfoyle]

I hope you enjoy the show Paul and look forward to your account.

[bronxapostle]

I hope you enjoy the show Paul and look forward to your account.

same here...look forward to your setlist posting ASAP! ENJOY!!!

[bronxapostle]

FOYLE...are you the only one who can change the title of thread to show MAY 13 instead please? thanks, ba

[johnfoyle]

A Police fan posts photos 'n Dec/Gordon Alison vid. -


http://gallery.mac.com/mtobinjones#100092

including -

[ElvisKansasFan]

Good morning from Wichita, KS. The drive to Kansas City late yesterday afternoon was uneventful - no tornadoes or softball size hail to dodge on the way to the show. Elvis started his set at 7:31PM. I wasn't cheated out of hearing a good share of the Momofuku tunes, so hats off to Elvis for showcasing the new album. This was my 13 year old son's first concert. He had a great time. The sound mix had Steve's keyboards drowning out Elvis' guitars constantly, but I must say that it wasn't as much of a distraction as I initially perceived it as being since I was really able to truly listen to Steve's brilliance at work. The Sprint Center was packed. People who waited until the last several days for tickets probably got some great bargains from the endless number of ticket brokers and online auctions who offered tickets for this show.

The setlist for Kansas City, MO - Sprint Center - May 13, 2008

1. Stella Hurt
2. Pump It Up (never seen PIU in the #2 slot before)
3. Everyday I write the book (merci beaucomp from Elvis as well as one of his fun details of his new ALBUM - enormous in size - 12 inches across)
4. American Gangster Time
5. Less Than Zero (nice surprise)
6. Flutter and Wow (followed by two heartfelt "thank you so much!" after the song)
7. Hiding Place
8. Turpentine
9. Watching the Detectives
10. Alison (w/Sting)
11. Go Away
12. PLU (with Steve playing a bit of the main theme from the film A Summer Place)

Take care! Paul in Wichita, Kansas

[johnfoyle]

http://blogs.pitch.com/wayward/2008/05/ ... stello.php

http://pitch.com/slideshow/index.php?ga ... &current=4



Who nicked the shaving kit ? !?!


Not me !!!!!
Photos by Scott Spychalski.


Wed May 14, 2008 at 08:27:37 AM

SCOTT WILSON writes -

( extract)

The Police, whose bass player and principal songwriter, Sting, reconvened the band in 2007, last night defined assurance for a sold-out Sprint Center. Elvis Costello, opening the show with his three-man Imposters, already knew the word.

Costello and the band, all heavy tremolo and mean reverb, tunneled their way into nearly half his new Momofuku (if it doubled up a couple of consonants, it could almost be a vintage Police album title) and back out through noir-pop standards “Watching the Detectives” and “Less Than Zero.” Long-limbed Pete Thomas hunched over his drums as though ducking sniper fire, and keyboard player Steve Nieve squeezed 96 tears out of 61 organ keys, periodically waving his hands over his short stack of gizmos like a magician about to saw a woman in half.

Whereas the Police’s catalog remains preserved in amber, Costello continues to weave in and out of the sound that best suits him, his eyes darting behind amber-tinted lenses. With a new album in stores and plenty of reissues marking his third trip to the magical remastering fairyland, he couldn’t have made a savvier move than taking this tour’s opening slot. At the Sprint Center, goodwill and expectation for the Police spilled over, and a chunk of the sold-out crowd treated Costello as a headliner.

The highlight of his 50-minute set was “Everyday I Write the Book,” a mass-market paperback of a single in a smart hardcover rebinding. It was a canny choice for this brief set, a postcard from the summer of 1983, when Costello’s Punch the Clock and the Police’s Synchronicity bookended the season.

At the first words of “Alison,” Costello’s “Candle in the Wind,” the two middle-aged men in the row ahead of me exchanged an impassioned high-five. Their wives left them alone to fetch beer — and missed Sting, who strode onstage in a $5 hat and a grizzly salt-and-pepper beard to sing the choruses with Costello. Between Sting’s untrimmed whiskers and Costello’s truck-stop sideburns, the pair looked like they’d just returned from a long camping trip together. Costello kicked the Imposters into the new “Go Away” as soon as Sting left.

[queenofthefleapit]

I am disturbed by Elvis' sideburns...

[Who Shot Sam?]

I am disturbed by Elvis' sideburns...

Getting into mutton chop territory, aren't they? Like a character from a Dickens novel.

[Man out of Time]

Review from the Kansas City Star:

http://backtorockville.typepad.com/back ... -poli.html

"Review: The Police

If you attended the Police reunion show at Sprint Center on Tuesday, your reaction to it probably depends heavily on a few factors: where your seat was; what you paid for it; and whether you were ready for how the band treated about 20 of its greatest hits.

According to Sting, about 12,000 fans were in the arena, an official figure that looked pretty accurate. All the seats behind the stage were roped/curtained off; the rest of the place looked about 98 percent full. That's an accomplishment for a tour that charges fans $200-plus for seats that run the spectrum from great (floor) to average (like Row 13 in Section 107, where I was sitting). The upper-level seats weren't cheap, either ($100). So lots of money was spilled, which meant expectations were high.

Despite the high ticket prices, there weren't lots of frills. Video screens flanking the stage broadcast images of the band to fans in the upper-levels with seats aside the stage; a much larger screen behind drummer Stewart Copeland fed the same images to the rest of the crowd.

We saw lots of Sting, who looks closer to his age with his short, grizzled Iron John beard. Several times, the screen was split with a huge image of his singing head next to much smaller images of Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers (a visual metaphor?). A roving camera man walked behind Copeland, giving the crowd bird's-eye shots of his battered drum skins and bruised cymbals. We also got closeups of old, skilled hands playing stringed instruments.

There weren't many other effects or visual surprises: The video screens, somewhat randomly, flashed variations on those red digital figures on the cover of "Ghost in the Machine," and a row of six lights behind Copeland rose and dipped and changed intensity, altering the mood. Otherwise, this was a show primarily about a trio of powerful musicians and the songs that made them famous and wealthy.

Sting made an early appearance this evening, during the opening set by Elvis Costello and the Imposters: He joined Elvis in a swell version of "Alison." (I hoped they'd bookend that with a duet on "Roxanne," but no dice.)

I caught the last three songs of Costello's set, including "Alison." The sound for his performance was a little tinny, but if you've seen any of his shows at the Midland or Uptown theaters, you know he's not a true arena act. However, he did deliver one of the more raucous moments of the night, his call-to-arms closer, "What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding."

[Review of the Police's set omitted here]

At 100 minutes (and $200), I thought the show was a little brief. That included a five-minute break about halfway through. It doesn't include the long (nearly an hour) opening set by Elvis C., a headliner himself.

Timothy Finn, The Star "

MOOT