I agree with the critics, Annie is clearly blowing Sting off the stage, 10 million French men can't be wrong. There is absolutely no way an objective fan can listen to the quality of the sound and music from Annie's set and then Sting's and not hear the drastic difference. Anyone who is willing to listen without bias will see and hear music that is clean, crisp, warm and rich in sound. Her performance is second to none, her voice, setlist, performance and arrangements simply incredible, I can't get enough of her. I wish Sting took her softer approach to shows instead of this beach party/ stripping/ video fantasy/ rock n roll style party setlist. Enter Sting, and sad to say, the music sounded like pure noise compared to Annie's clean sound! Sting's sound was void of the clarity, soul and warmth of Annie's set. There is no need to list specifics about what's wrong with Sting's mix as the powers that be are too arrogant to listen to fans or even keep set list promises made to the fan club. There is no nice way to put it and I hate beating a dead horse but Stings FOH engineer needs to be fired IMMEDIATELY, no other way to put it. Maybe Sting's engineer (who joined Sting recently after Mexico) was good in his earlier days but his time has come to hang up his hat and give it up, or get his hearing fixed! This sound problem is the main reason Annie Lennox is stealing these shows. Lining up at the bar between sets, everyone raved how great Annie was, and one patron suggested Sting might have to juggle elephants to top Annie's set. After the show, all I heard walking to my car was how much better Annie was than Sting. Sting fans, you need to take off your Sting hat and call a spade a spade. Here I am traveling all the way from Atlanta to hear Sting play airbass? WTF??? His bass was barely audible. Without the bass in the mix, there is no foundation to the music. The low end was lacking across the board. Fans of Kipper should be happy as he overpowers the entire band in Send Your Love with his sequence/loop. I pay all this money to hear the incredible Keith Carlock sound like some ordinary drummer, not the incredible craftsman that he is? His two toms immediately above his kick (7 1/2x10 and 8x10 tom) were nowhere in the mix. Carlock has been reduced to the sound of a loud over compressed annoying snare drum, void of the full sound and power he had earlier in the tour. Plane tickets, hotel, rental car costs to hear Sting's voice sound sharp and tinny for half the show, totally different from the warm/full sound we had before Mexico under Jim Ebdon? Stings sounded better in Nashville believe it or not when he had no voice because his vocals were warm and full, even though he was hoarse! I also didn't spend these funds to almost loose my hearing when Joy sang WISYN as she was mixed waaayyyy too loud. The bottom line is 25% of the instruments/drums were not in the mix when they should have been and the tonal quality and clarity of the 75% that were in the mix were way off. I could go on and on but why, it's obvious Sting and crew don't care! This band will never be able to get 100,000 people rocking like they did in Lisbon with these sound issues. It's back to the BND tour styling, where you get up and dance to make believe you're getting your money's worth or Sting begs you to get up as he did during EINY, instead of the power of the music making you and the entire hall want to dance as it did in Lisbon and here in Atlanta, St Louis and Nashville! I am not even looking forward to the possibility of a live DVD again, as it's gonna be the same problems as the Universal Amphitheater BND show (check Amazon). Herbie Hancock was great, I prefer the slower Loose My Faith from the July leg of the tour, and the drumming is back to the original at the end of Dead Man's Rope. Peace Trini out! __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com