Andy Summers Live at Le Poisson Rouge

Andy Summers
Le Poisson Rouge
The Cracked Lens + A Missing String Tour
New York, New York
June 12, 2024

Hello, my name is Chris DeRosa and this is what I heard...

Andy Summers gained notoriety in the late '70s with the mega-pop group The Police. He, along with his bandmates Stewart Copeland and Gordon Sumner (aka Sting), spawned such hits as "Roxanne," "Don't Stand So Close To Me," and "Every Breath You Take," a song for which Summers wrote the guitar line but was never given a writing credit. This part of Summers's life only shows a limited side of his diverse talent. In tonight's performance at Le Poisson Rouge, Summers was able to show some other sides to his abilities. During this multimedia performance, Summers played the guitar, creating a live soundtrack to a continuous showing of his photographic work interspersed with stories and anecdotes of his travels and motivations for some of his compositions.

Born December 31, 1942 (81 at the time of this show) Summers has been generally known as a pop icon, but the real truth is that he is a much more diverse and interesting character than one might see on the surface. Growing up in Poulton-le-Fyide, Lancashire, England, he was often drawn to the Chorley Theatre, a local arthouse cinema, where he absorbed the avant-garde films of the day. He took up photography in his 30s and has to date produced five books of his work and numerous photo exhibitions worldwide. Summers has also written three books of essays that shed light on the intimate details of his life and career. This performance tried to showcase these other talents.

The show started with an ambient number called "True Nature" from the Triboluminescence (Flickering Shadow, 2017) album. This atmospheric composition set the mood for the series of photographs continuously projected on a large screen off to the right side of the stage. This screen would command equal space in the performance. Throughout the night, Summers predominantly accompanied this slide show, except for those moments when he told some tales, like the time he was judging a "Roxanne" look-alike contest with the other members of The Police and could not pick just one... Or the time he bumped into John Belushi in Ubud, Indonesia, and was enticed by Belushi to partake of some "magic mushrooms." After the meal, the pair, while tripping, decided to crash the local soccer game, much to everyone's dismay. Or when he was tricked by a long neck tribeswoman in Northern Thailand near the border of Myanmar to buy her guitar as a souvenir keepsake.

"The Last Dance Of Mr. X" from the album of the same name came next. With its quirky Latin-hinged energy and more complicated jazz harmony than a typical pop tune, it was also infused with some polka and surf voodoo, showing great diversity.

Summers continued to display his musical abilities by performing the jazz standard "'Round Midnight," a song he mentioned was composed in New York. While he played, he projected a series of photographs he took in the dark hours of the night each time he visited. He repeatedly spoke of how he loved New York City, a place where he was given the keys, and said he felt it was the greatest city in all the world.

Summers used a vast array of guitar effect pedals that originally began back when he joined The Police. He felt that to keep people interested for two hours of music, he needed to create a variety of sounds, and he cleverly used chorus pedals, envelope filters and delays to create a sonic accompaniment suited for this visual experience.

Summers also spoke of his love for Brazilian music and film and showed a series of photos he took from the country while accompanying them with "Manha de Carnaval," a song from the movie Black Orpheus, one of his favorites from the Chorley Theatre days.

Interspersed throughout the set, he performed some Police numbers, which revved up the audience. A gem from that selection was a beautiful version of "Tea In The Sahara," which he said was written after he gave Sting a copy of his favorite book, "The Sheltering Sky."

To close out the show, Summers performed "Bring On The Night," accompanied by a prerecorded backing track to ramp up the energy. The audience was thrilled and insisted on an encore. There seemed no better way to end the festivities than to return to the stage to perform "Message In A Bottle," which had everyone in the venue singing along. It was an interesting type of performance, and everyone, including Summers himself, seemed to have a good night.

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