San Francisco Symphony presents Sting
Davies Symphony Hall
201 Van Ness, San Francisco, CA 94102 USA
7:30 PM, Wednesday, February 14, 2024

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[7:25 PM] {pre-show orchestral noodling as the crowd drifts in to their seats}
[7:35 PM] {lights down; house announcements}
[7:36 PM] {orchestral tuning}
[7:37 PM] {enter Edwin Outwater & Sting}
[7:37 PM] {greetings from Sting; Sting puts on acoustic guitar; Roxanne story}

1. [7:41 PM] Roxanne
   [7:44 PM] {applause; guitar off}
   [7:45 PM] {Quentin Crisp story}
2. [7:46 PM] Englishman in New York
3. [7:51 PM] Every Little Thing You Do Is Magic
   [7:56 PM] {Sting talks about his castle estate near Stonehenge: drop by for tea!}
4. [7:57 PM] Fields of Gold
   [8:01 PM] {banter}
5. [8:01 PM] When We Dance
   [8:06 PM] {applause; contrabass swaps to bass}
   [8:07 PM] {writing a western story}
6. [8:09 PM] I Hung My Head
   [8:14 PM] {father-son story}
7. [8:16 PM] Why Should I Cry for You
   [8:22 PM] {bass swaps back to contrabass; fox-hunt story}
8. [8:24 PM] End of the Game
   [8:30 PM] {applause at set-end; intermission!}

[8:51 PM] {lights down; tuning}
[8:51 PM] {applause for entrance of EO + Sting}
[8:52 PM] {banter about gambler-philosophers}

1. [8:52 PM] Shape of My Heart
   [8:57 PM] {recollections of the COVID-19 shut-down in SF; Sting on acoustic guitar}
2. [8:58 PM] the Last Ship
   [9:02 PM] {SFS sits out for the next three songs; Sting takes off the guitar; RM swaps from keyboard to grand piano; set-up story for the next two songs}
3. [9:03 PM] Practical Arrangement
   [9:06 PM] {Biden joke}
4. [9:07 PM] What Say You Meg?
   [9:11 PM] {contrabass swaps to bass; SFS rejoins; Wyatt Underhill moves out front; Sting: I would vote for Biden… this is Wyatt}
5. [9:12 PM] What Could Have Been
   [9:15 PM] {back to bass; story about watching Russian kids television in the 1980's}
6. [9:17 PM] Russians
7. [9:21 PM] King of Pain
   [9:26 PM] {applause; Sting: I got no story; Sting on acoustic guitar; contrabass swaps to bass}
8. [9:27 PM] Every Breath You Take
   [9:32 PM] {applause at end of set two; EO & Sting head offstage for a break}
   
   Encore
9. [9:34 PM] Desert Rose
   [9:39 PM] {refugee boat guitar story; Sting on acoustic guitar}
10. [9:44 PM] Fragile
    [9:48 PM] {final applause; show ends}

San Francisco Symphony

• Edwin Outwater: conductor;
• Esa-Pekka Salonen: music director;
• Wyatt Underhill: concertmaster, violin solo during What Could Have Been;
• symphony members vary by program; see the current list.

• Rob Mathes: piano, keyboard;
• Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner AKA Sting: acoustic guitar, vox;
• ?Dominic Miller: guitar;
• ?: drums (playing in a plexiglass cage, lol);
• ?: bass, contrabass;

Today is a dull, grey, somewhat rainy winter day. Traffic is thoroughly snarled at the 13 N-to-24 E merge – bumper to bumper beyond our Thornhill on ramp, but we have built in time for things like that, and we arrive at West Oakland BART without any other trouble. Our westbound train pulls up as we finish climbing to the platform: another reason why it's worth the extra drive vs. Rockridge! Soon afterwards we pull in at Civic Center Station, where we climb the stairs back to street level. Happily, today's storm has swindled to a soft mist, and after our brief walk past UN Civic Center Plaza, the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, and SF City Hall, we arrive at Davies Hall shortly after 7 PM: no need for worry or rush, whew!

And then I realized that I don't have any e-tickets in my stash. Weird! I check my email: nothing there either, extra weird. I visit the box office and ask them to look me up. Success! Tickets are printed and handed through the window, yay! Turns out that we're sitting up in the front row of the stage right side tier: exactly even with the line of musicians across the stage front. It's a great view, if you're a profile lover. I'm ok with it: I wasn't happy with the price being asked for my usual seats in center orchestra, and if I'd rather be close and off center than centered way up in the balcony where the ticket prices matched my interest level.

So how was the show? I thought it was quite engaging: it was a treat to hear Sting tell stories connected with his songs, even if that meant we got to hear fewer tunes (stories take time, after all), and even when the stories were about lesser known tunes than his big hits. I'm glad I went … and really surprised to hear that Sting will be back in town later this year, doing an electric show at the Masonic. That could be a fun time too!

Program Notes or program notes

Big thanks to Ting for the photo gallery!

Whoa! This section is incomplete for now, sorry!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2024 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2024 event list! ☸ On to the next event!