Police concert at Wrigley Field

We dropped the kids off at my mom's and drove to Barrington to take the Metra. I hadn't taken the train in years, but it was exactly as I remembered. Some kids (could've been anywhere from 18 to 22 years old) were sitting near us, and the 4 of them polished off a case of beer in the 45 minutes we were on the train. Drinking alcohol on the train is against Metra rules, but it's fairly common, and the conductors didn't seem to care. It was the Taste of Chicago that week, and the train was full of people heading into the city.

We got off at the Clybourn stop rather than go all the way downtown. Clybourn is near Ashland and Armitage, maybe 2.5 miles from Wrigley. We looked for a cab, but there were none to be found. So we started walking and would grab the first available cab that we saw...but we never saw one. We walked through some nice neighborhoods, which I forget that Chicago has. After about 2 miles, we could see Wrigley but had enough walking, so we stopped for dinner. I had wanted to go to Goose Island, which is near Wrigley, but we didn't feel like walking a few extra blocks to get there.

We ate dinner at Pompei, which is on Sheffield. We both had a yummy ravioli with tomato-vodka-cream sauce that was excellent, and tiramisu for dessert. The focaccia wasn't that great, kind of chewy. But that didn't stop me from mopping up all the extra sauce with it. Yum!

After dinner, we headed to Wrigley, and the closer we got, the more crowded it was. I hadn't been to Wrigley since the Reality reunion which I think was in 1995. I may have been there with Tellabs summer interns once after that. Needless to say, it had been a long time. It's a beautiful park. We arrived around 6:00 with the concert scheduled to begin at 7:00.

We got right into the park and didn't have trouble finding our seats, which were on the field. I'd say we were about 45 degrees and 150 feet from the center of the stage. A friend of mine who was in the stands said that the sound wasn't good, but from where we were, it was great. We had a great view.

The outfield was covered with something like a Sport Court, a hard, plastic, interlocking flooring, and there were (cheap) chairs. So it wasn't lawn seating. The chairs were not wide and they were all tied together with plastic ties, so there wasn't much room for a big person. The infield was uncovered and had a rail around it, so you could actually see the infield.

Fewer than 10% of the seats were filled with an hour to go before the opening band. We walked around, checked out the vendors, and bought two cool t-shirts. They were $35 apiece, which seemed like a good deal since I paid that much for Eagles shirts 12 years ago. The beer selection was pitiful...they only had Budweiser products (blech) and Old Style (BLECH!) on the field, so we walked around inside the stands in search of decent drinks. It was cool that there were beer vendors on the field, so you could get a beer and still watch the concert. You could also stand in some areas that were much closer to the stage.

Inside, there were plenty of food vendors with the usual baseball game food, and a lot of beer vendors. We were able to find wine, frozen drinks (daquiris and margaritas), and a couple semi-drinkable beers (Heineken and Amstel light, I think). Oh well. You'd think that they could have a good Chicago beer, like Goose Island, at Wrigley Field.

Fiction Plane, the opening band, started playing. They were led by Sting's son, Joe Sumner, who also plays bass. He sounds just like Sting, and looks quite a bit like him too. The band had good technique and a decent sound, which reminded me of Coldplay and U2. They played for about 45 minutes, until 8:00.

The crowd filled out while Fiction Plane was playing. I didn't see a single person that I knew, until the seat immediately next to me was taken by Brendan, a guy I had just met at work. That was a pretty amazing coincidence. The rooftop seats of the buildings across the street from Wrigley were filled too; I wondered what the sound was like up there, since all speakers were pointed toward the infield.

The Police opened with Message in a Bottle and it was fantastic. It is really a fun song and the crowd enjoyed it. Quite a few of the songs had new arrangements, mostly slower in my opinion. Sting also slightly changed the arrangement of some of the lyrics, so occasionally it was hard to sing along. I wasn't crazy about all of the arrangements, but it didn't detract from the concert for me.

Andy Summers, the guitarist, looked terrible. Honestly, I thought he would keel over at any minute. Stewart Copeland, the drummer, looked old but kept pace with his frenetic drumming. They both played great and looked more comfortable as the show went on. Sting looked older but is still in terrific shape. And his voice, possibly the band's most vital instrument, was fantastic. (The next day, I heard Sting sing on Live Earth on TV, and he was hoarse from our concert.) There were no backup singers or musicians.

I would guess that 90% of the crowd was over 30. I really like older concert crowds, because it's not too crazy or noisy. It was a very well-mannered crowd. Unfortunately, a 6'5" guy sat in front of us. Fortunately, he didn't stand for the entire show. I meant to thank him afterwards.

The entire set list was:

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 To Me
Driven To Tears
Truth Hits Everybody
Bed's Too Big Without You
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

My favorites were Walking on the Moon, Message in a Bottle, Synchronicity II, Can't Stand Losing You, King Of Pain, So Lonely, Every Breath You Take, Wrapped Around Your Finger, and De Do Do Do De Da Da Da. The band played for two hours straight without a break and played two encores.

The weather was great, too. It was about 76 degrees the entire time without a cloud in sight. Which is fortunate, because we were sitting on the field and umbrellas were not allowed.

Afterward, we were able to get out of Wrigley quickly since we were on the field. We immediately headed east, since I assumed that any cab near Wrigley would be full. After a few blocks of working our way through the crowd, we hailed a cab. We had 25 minutes to get to the Clybourn station and catch our train; the station was 2.5 miles away. Well, the traffic was so bad that we ended up begin 25 minutes late. We could've walked there faster! (Of course, after already walking 2.5 miles TO the concert, we were NOT going to walk back too.) Then we had to wait 30 minutes for the next train.

A lot of people from the Police concert and the Taste of Chicago were on the train and it was hard to find a seat. We chatted with a guy from Cary for the whole ride. We disembarked at Barrington, got our car, then drove home, arriving around 1:30 AM. Then we slept in late and picked up the kids around 11:00 AM.

- schneid