Sting started off shaky, but then the likeable rock reptile settled in Horsens...

On a warm and humid summer evening in Horsens, behind the meter-high walls of the Prison, Sting had the opportunity to show why he can rightly be called one of rock's great dinosaurs. Photo: Morten Pape

It would not have been surprising to meet the BBC's legendary communicator of the world's natural history, Sir David Attenborough, on his way out of the concert with Sting at the Prison in Horsens on Friday evening.

A more obvious place for a TV recording of a new documentary about the dinosaurs of music, one would have to look far and wide, when the living pop/rock reptilian Sting transformed the historical setting into a rhythmic and nostalgic Jurassic Park.

The 70-year-old Briton was (with a two-year corona delay) let loose in the large, fenced yard of the prison with his My Songs tour, where he slogs his way through a repertoire crammed with hits and history. And although the almost meditatively relaxed musician never appeared as a foaming tyrannosaurus rex during the hour-and-a-half-long concert, there was bite in several of the numbers that the physically well-toned “rock lizard” served up for the 10,000 guests.

Instead of hunting, his audible plan was to please, while he let his long-necked bass – which with its authentically worn appearance looked like something he had been dragging around since the Cretaceous period – swing over the ground cover in the forest of songs that for half a century has placed him as one of the greatest in the popular music ecosystem.

The obvious favourites "Message In A Bottle", "Englishman In New York" and "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" kicked off the time travel - albeit wobbly. Almost sleep-inducing.

In the undersigned's normally fairly well-functioning ears, the sound was far too low in the first half of the concert.

So low that the resonances from Sting's otherwise firmly treated instrument were not allowed to rumble even a little in his chest, and so low that his vocals had to fight an uphill battle against those in the audience who were too busy talking about their parents buying an apartment for the kids in Copenhagen, what they should do with their vacation, now that the flight situation has become so terribly uncertain, and what will happen to the price of diesel and eggs, 

When, after the introductory manoeuvres, a clearly nostalgia-demanding audience was further exposed to immediately less catchy, new songs from the 2021 album "The Bridge", one doubted whether the concert, which was about to become a tiring affair, would make it beyond the steppes. But it did.

A twist on the volume knob and several picks from the Police era got Sting and his well-playing team of musicians, where not least the choir section did the storytelling honour, caught on and showed how a 70-year-old "dino" can still leave solid, positive footprints on a concert venue.

Swinging "Brand New Day", carried by Stevie Wonder's 70s-tinged, strummed harmonica lick, tore us back in time, while "Shape Of My Heart" hit right there, in the heart, especially thanks to choir singer Gene Nobel's soulful tone in the song's duet.

“Walking On The Moon” wandered straight into a fast-paced version of “So Lonely”, which was spiffed up with a bit of Bob Marley’s “Everything Is Gonna Be Alright” and thus stood as a salute to the reggae coolness that rests over many of both The Police and Sting’s tracks.

The Arabic-sounding “Desert Rose” demonstrated how vast the sympathetic musician has travelled in his career, and then we (of course) got a couple of the world’s most easily recognizable bass lines with “Every Breath You Take” and “Roxanne”, before the experience faded into Spanish guitar and thoughtfulness with “How Fragile We Are”. All sung and played confidently (perhaps too confidently and routinely) by an aging world star, whose unique voice should in no way be compared to the sounds you hear lizards of the past bleating in BBC documentaries.

There was little doubt that it was the prehistory, the nostalgia and the mere opportunity to experience the 70-year-old swinging his sauropod-long bass that drew rock palaeontologists, music lovers and fans to the Prison. And the British star fulfilled those expectations in a flash.

Had his compatriot, David Attenborough, actually been there, he might have said in his dusty voice something along the lines of "what an interesting spectacle this talented, likeable creature gave us here".
There was little doubt that it was the prehistory, the nostalgia and the mere opportunity to experience the 70-year-old swinging his sauropod-long bass that drew rock palaeontologists, music lovers and fans to the Prison. And the British star fulfilled those expectations in a flash.

Had his compatriot, David Attenborough, actually been there, he might have said in his dusty voice something along the lines of "what an interesting spectacle this talented, likeable creature gave us here".

(c) Horsens Folkeblad by Jakob Hedegaard-Høgh