Adventures of Uli

The evening started with a humungous traffic jam - getting from Santa Cruz to the Shoreline Amphitheatre parking lot took twice as long as usual. As a result, Annie Lennox was on stage already when we bought tickets. Passing the security check, we heard the end of "Walking on Broken Glass". A few songs later, she ended her set with "Why". The crowd (an estimated 20,000) kept cheering, so she returned for a somewhat unexpected encore. Hey, technically she was only a support act! The old Eurythmics fans got gratified for visiting with "Sweet Dreams".

Sting entered the stage with two songs from his most recent album. But already the third song sent the fans of his early days (such as me) to heaven: "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" broke the ice. The 101st show on his current world tour continued with a special event: after revealing that Saturday was his 53. birthday, the whole amphitheatre sung "Happy Birthday" for Mr. Sumner.
The next highlight was Annie Lennox' return to the stage for a duet with Sting.
All throughout the show, he kept up a great mix of old and new on his setlist, "An Englishman in New York" was followed by an incredible extended version of "Roxanne". "Desert Rose" and "Every Breath You Take" closed the encores. I was hoping to hear my all-time-fave "So Lonely", but I guess that was asking too much...

A brief word on Shoreline Amphitheatre: a very smart strategy from a business perspective - imagine building a giant concert venue and saving a ton of money by installing seats only in one third of the arena. Then maximize your profit by renting lawn chairs to the audience... brilliant! To be fair, I must say though if you manage to get a spot on the lawn that has a view to the stage, the picknick atmosphere adds to the experience.