Sting is short on surprises...

He is in the middle of an extensive world tour and charmed yet another packed venue in the capital last night with his 52-year-old youthfulness. Our reviewer gives it FOUR out of six possible points.

The wood still wants Sting and his ready-chewed mixture of pop joy and jazz elegance. He has retained the ability to forge good melodies, and with his strong social commitment and his philosophizing will, he keeps a firm grip on a loyal audience.

After the cancellation of a planned concert in May, the expectations in the packed Oslo Spektrum are both strong and clear. And the band takes the stage with a colossal sound image that leaves little doubt about high professionalism.

The only problem is that it sounds slightly synthetic and that Sting's voice does not emit enough warmth to penetrate.

With two pounding drummers, the Englishman appears so arena-friendly that Oslo Spektrum almost seems too small. That is not the intimacy this elusive man is looking to foster in the first few numbers. Even when Sting takes up the first acoustic guitar of the evening, the music seems hectic. 'Dead Man's Rope' nevertheless gives his voice so much air around it that the impression moves towards the warmly human.

The first notes of 'Fragile' reap spontaneous applause, while the bombs slowly fall on the enormous screens behind the artist's back. We understand the message as the planes take off towards us all! The joy of recognition is great, and the song receives the concert's first stomping applause.

It is true that both Sting and the band feel at home in almost any genre, but it is also true that the genres lose some of their inherent characteristics in the hands of the evening's musicians. The two female vocalists he has with him, for example, light the light in some of the songs.

All of Sting's elegance cannot make up for the fact that the content of his music sometimes seems rather flat. What was a winning formula in the 80s, struggles to convince twenty years later. Guitarist Dominique Miller reminds us of how guitar heroes pushed boundaries a few years ago, while keyboardist Jason Rebello told me more when he was launched as a jazz pianist with his own career.

Sting dances his way into 'Roxanne', and the audience has a party. Then he leaves the stage, without it being the end of it. It is part of the story of this evening that Norwegian Tom Hell and Love Connection warm up for the main attraction and that they did so in an excellent way.

© Aftenposten by Arild R. Andersen