50 and beyond

You know how in bible passages, there are these envelope structures where an event is enveloped by two events?

Well, tonight, I felt that I was closing an envelope on COVID with a concert, Sting. The start of the envelope was the U2 concert, in Nov 2019.

Once again, I found myself in a rather geriatric crowd. Men with pot bellies, people who needed ushers’ help to bring them to their seats because their old eyes couldn’t see well in the dark. But you know, I like my crowd. We are older, we are chill. We don’t bother to dress up to attend a concert. We may need to sit down for 80% of the concert, but that’s fine, we know when to stand up and rock. While queueing to enter the theatre, I looked around and realised that D1, at 20 years old, was probably the youngest person there. But no, D1 met a friend there, the friend was also accompanying his mother to watch the concert. Haha.

About 70 percent of Sting’s songs were familiar old tune, so the crowd was happy. There was a section in the middle where he played some new and unfamiliar songs, but we were fine with them. They sounded good. D1 was particularly intrigued with one of the songs, which he told me later was a soundtrack from an anime series Arcane.

The concert, which started on a high note, took off on another level at some point in the two hours. We were hypnotised by his characteristic yodelling and musicality of his team. After his signature Every Breath You Take at the end, the crowd refused to say goodbye and so, the band had to come back onto stage. For encore, Sting performed a rousing Roxanne and then ended the night with a final song—an acoustic version of Fragile. My brain works in such a way that music and tunes are often attached to a memory. As Sting’s mournful voice belted out the lyrics of Fragile, I was brought back to the week after 9/11 2001, when I first heard this song. Who would have known a song he composed in 1987 would seem like it was composed for 9/11?

Sting did not disappoint. At 72 years old this year (!), he was seasoned and commanded stage presence with ease. His tunes are mainly in melodic keys, and so, induce a yearning within your soul that is indescribable. His voice is sexy and mesmerising. He had with him a great team of musicians on stage. Sting played bass during the concert, but for Fragile, he played on the acoustic. Hi is truly a musical genius indeed!

I was telling D1 that I am sure the young talents cannot perform and command a crowd like an old bird can. He says can. He said he will bring me to a Taylor Swift concert if she comes, to show me. I think I’ll have to wait long long before she comes. And if she does, I’ll make D1 pay for the tickets, because there’s no way I wanna pay to attend her concert. I don’t mind her catchy songs, but I don’t like her music enough to pay $$ to attend her performance. Oops. I haven’t offend anyone who’s reading this, have I?

Have a close read at the lyrics of Fragile, which he released around 1988. Think Hiroshima, Nagasaki, 9/11, war, as you read these powerful lines:

If blood will flow when flesh and steel are one
Drying in the colour of the evening sun
Tomorrow’s rain will wash the stains away
But something in our minds will always stay
Perhaps this final act was meant
To clinch a lifetime’s argument
That nothing comes from violence and nothing ever could
For all those born beneath an angry star
Lest we forget how fragile we are

On and on the rain will fall
Like tears from a star like tears from a star
On and on the rain will say
How fragile we are how fragile we are