If you missed it, here’s how I ended up THIS close to Sting! This is the night, such a beautiful night, and they call it Bella Notte…. or How I ended up THIS close to Sting….
And so our princess was dropped off for a spend the night…..cue George Micheal FREEDOM…
Headed to dinner at Ye Old Long Horn…. CHEERS! A rare night out with my Prince.
random…we got the Calamari – my prince LOVES Calamari you know what …it was really good. Not at all rubbery and the sauce was tasty. If you are getting your Flo’s Filet on, try out the Calamari.
Whilst enjoying our child free meal, my prince asks me if I am doing the Wine and Dine half marathon. I told him I wasn’t sure he was OK with it and he told me to go for it! SWEET, this night is starting out great. We used a gift card for dinner, so our bill was $1.67….tip your waiters people on the full value though! Another score and we weren’t even at the ball yet!
We discussed our evening’s strategy to avoid the crowds – no way were we driving downtown, WAY too many people, so we opted for Marta, its Smarta you know and decided to drive to the Marta train station stop where we would have to change trains should we take the train closest to our house. THIS was a good move! We hop in the trusted G and off we go.
We emerged downtown from the bowels of the train to a festive atmosphere. At Centennial Park the free concert was in swing to massive crowds. Muse sounded delightful, we were too late for Flo Rida and Ludacris – bummer. There was a huge ferris wheel set up and plenty of food and drink for sale. The NCAA Louisville vs Wichita State game was also on the big screens, the actual game was being played in a building next to the park. We never went deep into the crowd fray, so it was fun people watching.
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| Random Muse Fan Crouched in the bushes enjoying the show |
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| Muse on the Big Screen |
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| G’Day from Down Under, Its Like EPCOT with the themed food |
Our special passes were in a tent next to the Tabernacle, which is a very cool venue, it was my first time there. Beautiful place! We got to the tent and had to wait a few minutes to be let in. Someone asked and they said Sting would start at 11pm. While this was getting me SO excited, I was also a tad worried….the last Marta train left at 1am, so hoping things would run on time, but the wait at the door, not a good sign. |
| Amazing Concert Venue, formerly a church |
At 10, they let us out of the tent and wander around to check out the Venue. As Special Guests of Infiniti, we had bracelets getting us into the Infinity Lounge on the 3rd Level. Amazing job they did on restoring the building, its got so many little hidden gems. Since we had an hour we decided to just hang in the Infinity Lounge with the food and beverage that was provided on some comfy couches and honestly no on was around – I kept thinking, there has got to be more people coming.
After chatting with the friendly barkeep I decided to check out the level 2 balcony because it was in her mind “the best spot for viewing a show”. I wasn’t far in when someone asked for my VIP pass – which while I was a Special Guest with an armband for Infinity, I wasn’t very important so I had to leave. When I got back up to Andy we decided to go check out some seats on the 3rd floor balcony – remember this place is not big, only holds like 2900 people. Kept wondering WHERE is everyone including STING?
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| View from balcony, see the girl in the hat under the microphone, she sure was close. |
Since no one was on the floor, we decided to venture down there and I ended up in the very front against the stage barrier next to that girl in the hat, so close I could see Sting’s water.
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| Stage view from floor. Yeah, that was more like it. |
It was after 11 and we were chatting with the friendly Sting fans around us, all who worked at Turner
(TNT, CNN, you know that network) and apparently who were sponsors of the event. I was telling them of being kicked out of the VIP balcony when whom did we see walk in up there…MUSE! I am not kidding, they walked in and got a drink at the VIP bar. The concert in the park was over WHERE WAS STING? Well apparently the Michigan vs Syracuse game was STILL going and per my Turner PR new floor friends they would hold the concert until the big shots got from the game to the Tabernacle. We looked again at the VIP area and saw a man who looked like Eddie Money sitting in the front row of the balcony, Andy googled a recent photo and yeah, it was him LOL. He saw us looking at him and stood up and waved at us an blew us a kiss….. THANKS EDDIE, indeed this concert was my “Two Tickets to Paradise”.
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| Eddie is about center photo on the 1st balcony level. Pretty ceiling huh? |
So finally the game ended and people came in. Instruments were laid out and the lights went out and there he was. Sting just walked on the stage and started singing. I was freaking out I was so close…like 15 feet away from him – so close we could see how worn his Bass Guitar was!
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| Oh Sweet Sweet Front Row Life Long Dream CHECK. |
His band included longtime guitarist Dominck Miller and Peter Tickell who was AMAZING on the violin. Sting sang some Police Songs – “Can’t Stand Losing You”, “Wrapped Around Your Finger”, “Roxanne”, and some solo stuff “Fields of Gold”, a VERY sexy hip shaking version of “Dessert Rose” – the song out when I saw him in LA. I have to tell you, his second song I got that smile in my general direction and my heart melted a little…during Desert Rose, he looked down at me and WINKED! I kid you not – STING.WINKED.AT.ME as if to say, here you go old gal! I was DOWN on the floor and he looked right at me and winked – cuz I was dancing and singing my heart out as if I was 30 years and many lbs lighter. We decided since he was doing a real show to just cab it back to our car since it was clear at 10 til 1, he was gonna keep on rocking well after the last Marta train left the station.
I am still in shock how close I was. It was an awesome show and I was in heaven!
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| Holy Smokes! |
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| My heart melts! |
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| Sting, Dominick Miller and Peter Tinkell |
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| Still Smiling..Nice Pants Sting..his boots ere uber cool too! |
Needless to say, at 61, STING still has it – I am still in love. He was rocking, head bobbing, and just looked like he was having a blast. He was smiling and playing his heart out. He still has arms of steel and just looked HAWT! He encored with “King of Pain”, “Walking on the Moon” and “Every Breath You Take.” The band took a bow and that was the end to the best concert I have ever seen! I do not think there were 2000 people there, the VIP area was fun, the floor was full but not crammed. I think his set was around an hour and 15 minutes or so, WAY longer than I had expected.
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| And with a bow they were done. SIGH. |
AMAZING night. Thanks Infinity and thanks Sting for the Beautiful night…you still have ME wrapped around your finger.
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I love Sting! How awesome is this!!
Night.of.my.life! Its like he was singing to me…. I still can’t believe how close we were to him. He still has it!
So jealous! Love Sting. He was one of my high school/college age crushes.
What an awesome experience.
I have loved him so long…it was incredible. Still processing and man when I hear Dessert Rose from now one, whole new set of awesome.
Suree—- checking out his bass. Guitar. Uh huh. The drinks were killing me- looked so good! Glad you had fun Jules!
His bass was quite the impressive instrument! The top edge you could see where it was worn, that was one old guitar, but still producing magic! Oh I checked out everything….. Nice drinks too….