The Police & Friends - Live Earth (Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey - July 7 2007) (Complete Show) (HD) * Date & Venue: On July 7, 2007, The Police performed at the Live Earth benefit concert at Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey. * New York Times Review: EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J., July 8 — A concert for a cause is more and less than a concert. It’s public relations and proselytizing for the cause, while for the musicians it’s exposure, validation and a sop to a star’s conscience. Live Earth, the biggest international rock event so far — with shows on every continent, including a small one in Antarctica — was presented as an attempt to save the human race from global warming. Pitched as a matter of self-preservation: The rapper Kanye West and Sting of the reunited Police performing at Giants Stadium in New Jersey on Saturday as part of the Live Earth concerts, which spanned all continents. A concertgoer in New Jersey with her own take on the eco-message. Previous international concerts like Live Aid and Live 8 were about helping other people, while Live Earth, speakers insisted, was in everyone’s self-interest. There’s no need for altruism when your own survival is threatened. And in an era when pop is spectacularly self-absorbed, from the bragging of hip-hop to the whining of emo, Live Earth was perfectly pitched as an appeal to self-preservation. The concerts were accessible online, on satellite radio and on television, overlapping for more than a full day of music from the Police, Kanye West and Dave Matthews (New Jersey), Madonna (London), Shakira (Hamburg, Germany), Linkin Park (Tokyo), Sarah Brightman (Shanghai) and Vusi Mahlasela (Maropeng, near Johannesburg), among many other stars. At Live Earth the 1960s and ’70s performers who often seem to be the only ones to show up for benefits were scarce. Bands like Genesis (in London) and the Police and Roger Waters from Pink Floyd (in New Jersey) were among the elders. It wasn’t an international cultural showcase, although aboriginal music opened the concert in Sydney, Australia, and American Indians performed in Washington, D.C. American- and British-style rock and pop dominated the lineups except those in Africa, with jubilant African dance music, and China, full of sticky-sweet pop. Germany and Japan favored rock and pop, but in their own languages. Around the world musicians, speakers and videos urged viewers to sign a seven-point pledge, including personal conservation efforts and support for an international treaty reducing emissions. The stage set at Giants Stadium in New Jersey featured row upon row of flashing lights, each encircled by a (recycled) tire. Some musicians had songs perfectly suited to the occasion. Madonna wrote a charity song, “Hey You,” for the event, though its lyrics — “Don’t you give up/it’s not so bad” — aren’t exactly eloquent. Dave Matthews sang “One Sweet World,” about mountains crumbling and rivers drying up, while the Police opened their set with “Driven to Tears,“ which begins, “How can you say that you’re not responsible?” Others sought out appropriate songs. There were multiple renditions of “What a Wonderful World” and, for some reason, the Rolling Stones’ “Gimmie Shelter,” now apparently rededicated to the ozone layer. Alicia Keys latched on to Marvin Gaye’s “Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology),” part of a set full of gutsy soul-music remakes with a new song of her own. A new lineup of the Smashing Pumpkins, the hardest-hitting band in the eight-hour New Jersey show, roared through a pummeling hard-rock drone whose lyrics were “Revolution blues!” John Mayer, leading a band that harks back to late-’60s soul and early-’70s blues-rock, played songs like “Belief” and “Waiting on the World to Change” that ponder how effective political convictions might be. While the concert urged people to consume less, Kanye West, racing through his songs — and, at one point, sprinting the length of the stage as he rapped — may well have been riffing on the conspicuous consumption that fills his lyrics. But many bands just pumped out their regular material, satisfied to entertain between messages. Al Gore, whose movie, “An Inconvenient Truth,” set the concerts in motion, was in Washington on Saturday morning — introducing Garth Brooks in a concert on the Mall — and here in New Jersey on Saturday afternoon. He gave brief speeches that were simulcast across the time zones, while in Tokyo a giant hologram of him appeared near the beginning of the concert. Melissa Etheridge, who wrote the theme song for “An Inconvenient Truth,” performed it as part of an extended anthem and narrative about the American dream, ending with a ringing endorsement of Mr. Gore. * Police Setlist: 1. Driven To Tears 2. Roxanne 3. Cant Stand Losing You 4. 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Posted on: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 20:33:28 +0000
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