Rock Gods and Greek Gods in the ATL

I hope that everyone had a Happy New Year! This is about my experience(s) with seeing one of my favorite bands of all time: The Police. Sherman, set the Way Back machine to the early '80's. When I was in high school, they were my favorite band, and everyone at school knew it. Well, my senior year rolled around, and they just happened to come to town (not exactly my town, but approximately 2 1/2 hours from the house). Synchronicity was my first concert, and it blew me away. Then, they went on hiatus for around 23 years. Still, though, I referenced "One World (not Three)" in my high school graduation speech.
Flash forward to about six weeks ago. I was on my way to the ATL, ready to go again! I was in somewhat of a shock that the day had finally arrived. I turned to Dave FM, wondering if they were doing 'all Police, all the time' like they had done when U2 had come to town. No dice. I then turned to hear the legendary radio voice of the Georgia Bulldogs call their game. You could feel the nicotine coming out of the speakers, kind of like feeling the alcohol in Harry Caray's voice when he did Cub games. Anyway, I get to my motel exit, and I find a rock station, and the dj starts introducing the song...it's "Message in a Bottle," and all of the sudden, I am ready to go NOW!
I take the MARTA to the arena, and I am informed that the person who killed 2 people at a MARTA stop had been caught. Boy, do I feel secure. I get to the arena safely with my camera. I saw online ON PHILIPS ARENA'S WEBSITE THAT NONPROFESSIONAL CAMERAS WERE ALLOWED FOR THE CONCERT. The security guard informed me that I would have to check my camera in for customer service to keep during the show.
What can settle the anger down, you might ask? Concert shwag, that's what! A hoodie and a t-shirt later, I was fine. I settled into my seat beside my actual seat, seat 3. The shwag was in seat 4, typical behavior until someone shows up with the ticket for that seat. A couple then walks up to my row, prompting me to stand up, inhale, turn my head to the left and do a backbend, your usual not-yet-crowded arena protocol. I will preface this by saying that I am very weak in Mythology, but, I swear, the man was half-man, half-mountain. I guess he would maybe be a Mountaur or something. He had to have been around 6'5, 280 lbs. He sat in seat 5, which prompted immediate prayer not to have anyone with tickets to seats 1,2, and 3 show up for the concert. Someone else came walked through our row, and the Mountaur grinned at me and said "These seats ain't too wide, are they?" I began more intense prayer, as I have somewhat of a pronounced girth myself.
The guy behind me, Dave, was there with his wife, and he had a small radio to try to listen to the Clemson football game. After he went off to find coca colas, he informed me that one of the kiosks had the game on their tv. Dave seemed pretty cool. After the opening band, Fiction Plane had played (and they played pretty well), Dave took me to the kiosk and we watched some of the game, and he bought me a cola as well. Dave is pretty cool.
I knew that the last song played before they come on is "Get Up, Stand Up." I heard it begin, and told Dave it was time. We hustled back to our seats, and right when he told his wife, "He said this is where they come out," the place went black and a roar came up. And a gong on a platform. And Stewart Copeland, with a huge mallet! He did an homage to T. Rex and The Power Station, and Andy Summers began playing those familiar strains of "Message in a Bottle."
The arena was going N-V-T-S NUTS! Two couples came up to me and asked if seats 1 and 2 were taken. I said 'no,' and they seemed happy to share the seats. I felt old, though, as they were in Kindergarten or first grade when the aforementioned Synchronicity tour came through. Sting and the boys tore through the set, and they still have 'IT.' They may not have been jumping on minitrampolines like the last time, but they were enjoying each other as they played. The anger wasn't there, but the musicianship still was. They got toward the end of their set, and the 'Can't Stand Losing You/Regatta De Blanc' was sounding incredible, and I wondered, whatever happened to the Asian kid who got shoved during this song on the Synchronicity concert DVD? Did he attend this show? Has he had a hard life being known as 'the kid who got shoved at the Police concert?' They also played 'So Lonely,' a great song live. Somehow, they worked in a Ska beat toward the end. The Ska spirit hit me, and I started doing something I hadn't done in years- the pogo. As the song ended, high 5's went all around to Dave, Mrs. Dave, the Mountaur and Mrs. Mountaur, the 2 younger couples sharing 2 seats. When they played their finale, 'Next to You,' everyone was jumping and singing, and the video screens were showing in superspeed all kinds of pictures of the band from the early days up to the present. A fitting ending to an incredible show! Sting was right when he said at the Grammys "We are the Police and we are back!"
When I got back to the motel, I watched espn to find out if Clemson had won or not. I could have went to the game, but 23 years is a long wait. I saw that Clemson's receiver couldn't catch a ball that was almost placed in his hands at the end of the game. That couldn't bring me down from the emotional high I was experiencing. A great time was definitely had.
Thanks for reading.