Andy Summers – November 1, 2023 – Musical Instrument Museum, Phoenix
After taking a few weeks off, former Police guitarist Andy Summers resumed his The Cracked Lens + A Missing String musical theater tour at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix. The intimate venue was the perfect place for the sold out show which was a departure from the typical concert. Summers has long been an avid photographer and this gig found him playing songs from both his solo work and The Police, while his photography (and sometimes videos) were projected at the back of the stage. The guitarist also told some fun stories and commented on the inspiration for most of the songs.
Summers was set up on the far side of the stage, leaving most of the stage wide open so there was nothing to distract from the photographic presentation. With a technician playing pre-recorded backing tracks as well as the photo slideshows that accompanied each song, Summers stood or sat next to his small rig, tweaking two electric guitars and working some effects pedals. The first song Summers played was “Metal Dog,” a track from his self-titled 2015 album. Andy jokingly introduced the song with the joke, “I had a metal dog once. He's buried in my garden. Facing Japan “. His commentary at the end of the song was no joke. announced that he had forgotten to turn on his headset and couldn't hear his guitar at all during the song. Showing how professional and perfect a musician he is, there was a fluffy note to the performance. Summers is not a singer and everything he played tonight was instrumental. With his playing on “Metal Dog” reminiscent of Robert Fripp, the song played with a groove that was loud and thick and ended cold.
The photo montage shown during each song corresponded to the place that inspired the tune. scenes of China appeared during “The Bones of Twang Zu” while sand dunes and other images of Morocco were shown during the ethereal cut from The Police, “Tea in the Sahara”. Before playing the chestnut Thelonious Monk “'Round Midnight” Summers stated that he was a lifelong fan of the jazz pianist and noted that Monk often played wrong notes that ended up sounding right. To that end, Summers joked that he would try to put a few wrong notes on his cover, but of course he didn't. Summers' often self-deprecating sense of humor was on display throughout the show, and a story he told early in the set was an example. Telling how he had taken an Ambien sleep aid with several glasses of wine on a flight to Sao Paulo, Brazil, Summers said he was unwittingly so worked up by the combination that he remembered very little for more than a day, without even needing to be got off the plane in a wheelchair, an amusing photo of which turned out not to be an exaggeration. He also told a funny story about taking “magic” mushrooms with John Belushi in Bali, where psychedelics were legal at the time, and a story about punching an abusive policeman during a police show in Argentina. Fearing that he was going to be arrested after the show and mercilessly teased by Sting and Stewart Copeland about it, he ended up making a backstage apology to the policeman and only suffered the warning “Don't go back to Argentina!”
His take on The Police's smash hit “Roxanne” featured a video made for the show and a story about having to judge a “Roxanne contest” where girls dressed up as they thought Roxanne might be a middle moment. was a reading of Luis Bonfa's samba delight 'Manha de Carnaval'. Paying tribute to his love of Indonesian Gamelan music, Summers performed “Triboluminescence” which led into two tracks from The Police to close out the show. “Spirits in the Material World” and “Bring on the Night”. After briefly leaving the stage, Summers returned for an encore of the Police hit “Message in a Bottle.” The concert was not only a showcase for Summers' guitar prowess but also his storytelling ability and talent behind the camera.
Andy Summers remains on tour until mid-December and you can find the upcoming dates here here..
Upcoming shows at MIM include:
The Steel Wheels – November 13, 2023
Radney Foster – November 18, 2023
Cantus – November 19, 2023
The Desert Rose Project: A Celebration of Sting – November 24, 2023
Blind Boys of Alabama Christmas Show – November 28 & 29, 2023
Max Weinberg's Jukebox – December 1, 2023 (7pm and 9pm)
The Klezmatics: 2023 Hanukkah tour – December 8, 2023
To see all the shows coming to MIM go here.
