The Police and Elvis at Red Rocks

by mike

The Police at Red Rocks

Last night I had the opportunity to take a walk down memory lane. It was back to a time when I cruised around my small Ohio town in a 1974 forest green Beetle that had been outfitted with a high tech Sony Cassette system that fed tunes to the monster woofers in the back (supported on a home built plywood panel) and small Boston Acoustics cut and placed into the side boards. The stereo probably cost as much as the car which I had bought in Baltimore while living one of many summers eating Chesapeake Blue Crabs smother in Old Bay, Phillips Harborplace Oysters, and sliced fresh tomatoes with a touch of salt and pepper. But I needed great tunes in that car for it’s 8 hour drive back to Ohio. And one of the mixed tapes that surely be playing on that road trip would have included classic Elvis Costello and the Police, along with a myriad of other artists of that time.

So last night when, with the beautiful backdrop of the Red Rocks peaks, Elvis Costello started out singing many of his classic tunes I could feel the memories come back full force. I have heard that Elvis, in other recent concerts, had played sets of almost entirely his recent song list. Not for this show. Perhaps it was a homage to the feeling of the event, which was purely the classic Police tunes revived for the first time in many years. Whatever the reason, it was a most excellent time. The star moment in the Elvis opening act was when Sting joined in on for a duet of “Alison”. While I am an Elvis fan, you could tell who this crowd considered their star as they all jumped to their feet.

When the Police did come out they did it with style. They were true to their fans playing one great tune after another. The guys might be older, but they sure weren’t acting like it. While Sting was certainly incredible to watch and captivated the audience throughout, Stewart Copeland was perhaps the attention getter whenever you got a glimpse of the energy he was throwing into each song. I think he missed this… a lot. Well they gave us our money’s worth. With an average length set the band returned for not one, not two, but three encores. While I heard their top hits such as “Roxanne” and “Every Breath you take”, I was surprised that I never heard “Synchronicity”. No matter, the show was incredible. The cruise down memory lane was just what I needed and the weather even held out.

If you get a chance to see such a show I highly recommend it. But then again, I am biased because old memories certainly push up the appeal.