The concert that I wanted to attend has happened.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Rock, where is thy Sting?
Every little thing they do is mellower now, but fans are as well

The denizens of Wrigleyville, accustomed to bars and baseball, are choosy when it comes to rock shows, unwilling to let a band with overly raucous followers invade their friendly confines.

So when The Police’s reunion concert arrived Thursday night at Wrigley Field, there was excitement but not mania, a comfortable buzz but a distinct lack of edginess.

More here.

Tribune rock critic Greg Kot also weighs in:

The members of the Police are now multimillionaires, men of leisure who played leisurely versions of many of their hits Thursday in the first of two sold-out concerts at Wrigley Field.

“Sold out” is a relative term, as scalpers were dumping tickets at well below face value outside the ballpark. Inside, the Police occasionally played as if they were mentally counting up the $100 million they will pile up on their current tour, the band’s first in 23 years, rather than focusing on the task at hand. The crowd took its time getting into the show as well; while waiting for the Police to heat up, the fans applauded the hits politely and otherwise made as much noise as a typical summer theater crowd.

More of Mr. Kot here.

I spoke with my coworker (I’ll call him “B” for sanity’s sake) about his efforts to sell his tickets. He confirmed that it was very difficult to part with them. He said to me he had been a little concerned about his success in selling them, as the crowd that was going to the show was probably not made up of people that are going to go on the night of the show to score some tickets.

I joked, “Honey, I’ve got a wild hair I need to scratch. What say we drive down from Barrington to Wrigley Field, park the minivan, get something to eat, then score us some Police tickets? I’m feeling a little crazy tonight.”

“B” ended up selling his four tickets to a scalper. The scalpers had a racket, where they would give you money for two, then turn around and try to severely undercut you on the remaining ones, figuring you were just trying to unload some tickets and were still going to the show. The first scalper tried this on “B”, but he wouldn’t sell his remaining two tickets for the price the scalper wanted.

So, the scalper then tries to get his money back, saying he is a cop! “B” wasn’t buying that, but the guy was several inches over six feet, so he did give the money back.

All told, after over an hour wandering around the outside of Wrigley Field, “B” sold his four tickets for a grand total of $100. But it’s all rock ‘n roll, idn’t it?

The Police were my favorite band back in 7th and 8th grade.

On a nightly basis, I would sing along with the songs on Outlandos d’Amour, Reggatta De Blanc, Zenyatta Mondatta, etc. During my 7th grade year, they played in the Assembly Hall at the University of Illinois as part of their Synchronicity tour, about 80 miles east of my hometown of Springfield.

I sooooooooooo wanted to go, but I was not allowed. My brother *did* end up going, and brought me back a shirt.

It was nice, but you can imagine how it wasn’t quite the same as being there.

Earlier this year, there were rumblings that The Police were reuniting for a tour, and were going to roll into Chicago at some point in the summer, playing the best ballpark in the world, Wrigley Field.

As you are probably already aware, sure enough, the rumors were true.

I didn’t get around to purchasing tickets for the show, and figured they were sold out.

But yesterday, a coworker came up to me and said, “Hey, do you need tickets for The Police?”

“F*ck you!” I enthusiastically replied. “Are you serious?”

He was serious. He had four tickets he was willing to sell to me for four hundred and fifty bucks. Now, that sounds like a lot, but he was selling them to me for what he had paid for them.

I called my wife all excited about it, then she got all excited about it. As I was riding home on the train, the excitement kind of wore off.

$450.00. That’s a lot of cash. Plus, who were we going to get to babysit our three younguns? The show is at 7:00pm on a Thursday night, and we would probably have to leave Brookfield at least a couple hours earlier than that to make sure we could get there, park, all that crap.

We have had babysitters before, but it’s a big deal trying to get someone to feed your three under-fives and put them to bed.

After briefly discussing it, we both decided to call my coworker and regretfully decline his tickets.

My wife calls me today, finally at wit’s end with all the dirty dishes produced over the course of a kid-filled day (our dishwasher broke about six months ago), especially since she is busy taking a summer statistics class in preparation for her starting grad school in the fall.

So, we’re getting a dishwasher, which will probably cost about the price of the four Police tickets. I’m thinking a Synchronicity sticker would bring some color to our new, drab white appliance.