The Police at Dodger Stadium

The last time I was at Dodger Stadium for a concert was when Kiss and Smashing Pumpkins played on Halloween. My mini tour of The Police closed with a grand finale at Dodger Stadium. I hope everyone left early for the show because traffic was a nightmare. It took almost an hour just to get off the freeway. Since The Police already played to a capacity Staples center, I was hoping they would pull out something special for the 55,000 people in attendance at Dodger Stadium. What would they do? Let's find out.

I missed Fiction Plane due to traffic. I wasn't too disappointed but it would have been interesting to see the crowd's reaction to the band.

I arrived in my seat moments before Foo Fighters exploded on stage. Dave Grohl (Vocals/Guitars) has been a Foo Fighter longer then his duration as a member of Nirvana and has left quite the imprint on rock music. I remember seeing an MTV Cribs show with Dave Grohl showing off his Stewart Copeland drum kit. Dave mentioned throughout the show what an honor it was to be opening for the best band in the world as he proclaimed. The Foo Fighters ran through a veritable greatest hits collection that showcased their rock tunes. I was impressed by the Gibson hollowbody lake blue guitar that Dave Grohl was rocking out with. They managed to play one of my favorite Foo tunes "Stacked Actors" which must be tuned down to B due to the crushing guttural bowel shaking main riff that Dave and Chris Shiflett (Guitars) rock. Dave even managed to run into the crowd as he is known to do and was perched in the middle of the Dodger Stadium to the crowd's delight. I have seen the Foo Fighters many times and must say this was one of their more memorable sets.

I thought things would be different for The Police when I saw that Sting was wearing a black shirt instead of his normal white shirt. This would be the only difference throughout the night. Sting was in top form though and vocally was extremely song. I even noticed a few more bass notes incorporated into some of the songs compared to the other shows. Sting was on top of his game on this particular night. Andy Summers was having problems with his Candy Red Fender Stratocaster during the later parts of the show. Andy seemed to have cooled off considerably from the Anaheim show and struggled with a few of the solos. After listening to my bootleg of the show, I will go on record and say that the Anaheim show was the best. I was still hoping that "Spirits In The Material Wold" would resurface but no such luck. It made the trip worth it out to Las Vegas just to hear that song. It was still an exciting show being surrounded by thousands of people and the energy was high but it was not nearly as electric as Anaheim was. When Andy was having problems with his guitar, Sting jokingly told him, "try the red one". Stewart was dynamic as usual. I can only imagine what he used to drum like twenty some years ago. The show was also being filmed so it will be interesting to see if they release footage from the show. Overall this show was still good, but would have been better if they threw in some surprises. I have a feeling they will come back again.


The Police Setlist for Dodger Stadium (6/23/07)
"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 Is Too Big"
"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"