So much for snappy titles. Anyway, I made the trek to Giants Stadium on Sunday to catch the Police in the midst of their “Backing up the Brinks Truck 07/08” world tour. Mrs. Suit and I met up with our bestest buds Thom/Mrs. Thom and mizerychik/mizerydude and had a grand old time. Rather than spend the next six or seven paragraphs opining on the evening I will just say that it was indeed an awesome show and well worth the money. For anyone who thinks reunion tours are a waste, I challenge them to see a show on this tour and maintain that view.

So with that out of the way, here are some random thoughts that popped into my head during the day:

Pre-Show

• It’s pretty much a social contract that when you tailgate at a concert and play music from your car stereo you either play the band you’re there to see or something in the same style/genre. If you don’t want to play Police songs before a Police concert that’s fine – some acceptable substitutes would be the Cars or XTC. What is not acceptable is Fergie, Kelly Clarkson, Christina Aguilera or anything of that ilk.
• For all the money charged for tour merchandise, Sting better be saving a hell of a lot of rain forest.

Show

• I had my doubts as to how good the sound would be for a stadium show, but it was at least as good as I’ve heard some indoor arenas. Very nice stage setup and video displays as well.
• I’m terrible at remembering song order or anything like that, but I do know there were more than a few moments where the performance felt really “locked in,” for lack of a better phrase. “Drive to Tears” in particular rocked my world. “Synchronicity II” kicked major buttocks as well.
• The band changed the arrangements of some of the songs enough to make them sound fresh, but not so much that they became unrecognizable.
• Hats off to the piss-drunk frat boy jerkoffs in section 328. I don’t think I’ve seen a simian mating ritual that laughably pathetic since the last hour of my Freshman Mixer in college. Seriously, the friggin’ Elephant Man had better moves than these clowns. The fact that they got any response at all from the ditzes next to them is a testament either to the power of the human sex drive or the brain-numbing effects of alcohol.
• “Walking in Your Footsteps” has never been a favorite of mine but it translated very well in concert.
• Stewart Copeland remains one of the finest percussionists of the last 25 years and I am really glad I got a chance to see him in concert.
• “Weird Al” Yankovic has officially ruined me for “King of Pain.” I could not stop the lyrics to “King of Suede” from popping into my head the whole song.
• I would’ve loved to hear “Tea in the Sahara” and “Canary in a Coalmine” but other than that the setlist was spot on.

Post-Show

• I’ve now seen the reunited Kiss and reunited Police kick ass live. If Genesis (with Hackett and Gabriel) and Pink Floyd can get it together I can die happy.