A Midsummer Night's Dream with the Police at Dodger Stadium
One midsummer night not to long ago, a few friends and I traveled to Dodger Stadium to fulfill a lifetime dream of seeing the Police in concert.



So did 55,000 other Police fans.


The crowd at Dodger Stadium

I’ve never been to a concert at Dodger Stadium before. It was quite a surreal feeling to be among a sea of 55,000 people singing police lyrics. It was a night I never dreamed I’d ever get to experience in my life. It was a night I will never forget!

Strangely, JFK, lead singer of the Los Angeles band World Wide Spies (one of my favorite bands) was sitting a few rows in front of us. It’s a small world after all.

Jesse Rivera was also somewhere in that sea of Police fans and had this to say about his experience at the concert. (I stole the title of this blog from a line in Jesse’s blog.)

“The Police's music in itself to me and I'm sure to lots of us there last night is like a gateway back to a time when our lives, our opinions on things like music, love, drugs, politics were just starting to take shape in our young expanding minds.

The days when everything and anything was and maybe could still be possible. Hearing this music again and hearing it fresh and still alive I think fills our beings with a sense that everything and anything is still possible all over again and again and again and that's not a bad feeling.”

I couldn’t agree more. I first discovered the Police back in the early 1980’s emanating from my brother’s bedroom. He promptly informed me they were the greatest band of all time and soon I was a huge fan too. My love for the Police and especially their lead singer Sting has been going strong for more than 25 years. Musically they’ve remained a constant in my life like no other artists have. I’ve discovered myself and my heart embraced in Sting’s lyrics more times than I can remember.

While chingpea and I had a hard time navigating the LA traffic the night before trying to get to the Roxy, navigating through the sea of people at Dodger Stadium proved to be just as difficult a task. As were the stadium stairs for me and my deformed knees. By the end of the night my knees were screaming from climbing and descending those steep stairs.

Two bands opened for the Police: Fiction Plane and the Foo Fighters.

I had never heard of Fiction Plane, turns out its Sting’s sons’ band! They were really good too. Sting’s son, Joe Sumner followed in his footsteps as lead vocalist and bassist for Fiction Plane. Imagine opening for your dad’s band that just happens to be the Police on a world tour to sold out stadiums, how cool is that!

The Foo Fighters ROCKED! They played an amazing set that the crowd went wild over. Dave Grohl ran around in the audience for a while and had tons of people chasing after him. I think he made the security guards trying to keep up with him nervous.

Finally the Police took the stage and began the night with Message in a Bottle and 25 years since they were last a touring band disappeared. Let me just say that the Police truly are an amazing band! They are the perfect blend of a jazz trio with the energy of a punk-rock band whose melodies fuse to form a definitive new wave rock band. It just doesn’t get any better than the Police. Hearing their extended live versions of some of my favorite songs and singing along with 55,000 fans was truly incredible.



Walking on the Moon felt like my theme song that night for my knees, I too hoped my legs wouldn’t break. Chingpea mentioned that she hoped they performed the “magic” song and almost immediately they played Every Little Thing She Does is Magic. I don’t know how she did that, but it was really cool. Every song they played was amazing! Wrapped Around Your Finger and a couple others featured Stewart Copeland as a percussion guru. Can’t Stand Losing You and Roxanne were the two songs of the night that were my favorites. Sadly, the only song they didn’t play that I wanted to hear was Spirits in the Material World.


Wrapped Around Your Finger

Here’s the incredible set list they performed that night:

Message In A Bottle
Synchronicity II
Walking On The Moon
Voices Inside My Head
When The World Is Running Down
Don't Stand So Close
Driven To Tears
The Bed's Too Big Without You
Truth Hits Everybody
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
Wrapped Around Your Finger
De Do Do Do De Da Da Da
Invisible Sun
Walking In Your Footsteps
Can't Stand Losing You
Roxanne
King of Pain
So Lonely
Every Breath You Take
Next To You


So Lonely


Roxanne

Sting’s voice is still an anthem-esque melodic wonder that sounds the same live as it does on a studio album. His voice live gives me goose bumps! I love that. I saw Sting in concert on the Nothing Like the Sun tour and he sounded just as great now as he did back then.


Sting is still HOT!

Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland may all be “older” now but they still ROCK!

I couldn’t leave the concert of my lifetime without a Police t-shirt! So chingpea and I navigated our way through the crowd and stood in a really long line at one of many merchandise booths. We helped a guy pick out a Police hat and when it was finally our turn, I not only bought a really cool Police t-shirt, but I also bought an autographed copy of Sting’s memoir Broken Music.





Our midsummer night’s dream with the Police ended in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium sitting in the back of a truck talking about the concert while looking at the stars and listening to Police songs on the radios of cars maneuvering their way out of the biggest traffic jam ever. It was perfect. A real dream come true. It was the Police!

Labels: Dodger Stadium, Fiction Plane, Foo Fighters, jazz music, New Wave, punk rock, Sting, The Police, World Wide Spies

  posted by Matildakay at 7:10 PM 4 comments

Chaos, Music and Surreal Moments…
Lately it seems like I’ve been running at full speed. I’ve had so much going on I haven’t had a moment to myself. And thanks to the time change, every time I’ve sat still for a moment, I’ve fallen asleep. We only sprung forward an hour, but its taken me days to quit feeling exhausted.

My days have been filled with chaos, music and surreal moments…

I had a meeting with a lawyer that was actually positive and reassuring. Lawyers are not exactly my favorite people. No offense to any reader that might be a lawyer. But my experiences with lawyers throughout my divorce were less than great. In fact, I’ve spent a lot of money on lawyers with no real results.

So when I met with a lawyer regarding my insurance claim I was expecting similar treatment. But instead, I felt like this lawyer was actually on my side. Was he a champion for hire?

I spent an afternoon wandering the streets of Little Tokyo in Los Angeles with friends and ate really good Japanese food.

I got lost spiritually and found myself standing mere inches from Van Gogh’s Irises. I found myself in the brush strokes, the texture, the thickness, the layers, the colors, and the chaos and made a museum employee nervous by my proximity.



I experienced the same revelations when I encountered Monet, Degas and Rembrandt.

I felt small when faced with historical artifacts, sculptures and illustrated manuscripts. In the big scheme of life my existence seems insignificant in regards to history, God and religion on display in the rooms I walked but wasn’t allowed to touch.

I found peace in the architecture, gardens and spectacular California coast and Los Angeles city views at the Getty Museum. The solitary stone benches, the staircases, and the fountains felt like home. I could have stayed for days instead of hours.

Soon after finding myself at the Getty, I became Rock Star Struck.

I visited Hollywood, the land of movie stars, to worship at the feet of rock stars in the Viper Room. The rock stars in question are Los Angeles new wave rock band: World Wide Spies. I’d seen them perform a couple of times in Bakersfield, and I’m obsessed with their new album: Images of Black and White. It’s absolutely fabulous. But I was blown away by their performance at the Viper Room. The sound was amazing. World Wide Spies were bigger than life. I felt like I was front and center at an intimate U2 concert. And just like that… I succumbed to their philosophy.


Matildakay (lower left corner) Rock Star Struck by World Wide Spies

Having mastered the art of buying Police tickets online… I applied the same savvy technique and bought Harry Connick Jr. tickets. I may not have any vacation plans scheduled yet this year, but 2007 is already filling up with great music.

Bakotopia and their new compilation CD release filled my weekends with lots of great local music. Everything I ever needed to know about life I learned from a punk-rock song. What a sober realization.

I found myself in a deserted parking garage at midnight with bats flying over my head flapping their wings in a sinister fashion. An eerie omen for sure.

I fell in love with Something New and realized that love can be found in the most unexpected places if you just open your heart a little…

And Spring came early…

My life feels like I'm rushing head first into the fray like a blooming flower that I've neglected to water.

Labels: Bakersfield, Bakotopia, Getty Museum, Harry Connick Jr., punk rock, Rock Star, Spring, The Police, U2, World Wide Spies

  posted by Matildakay at 11:55 PM 7 comments