Andy Summers – Auckland Town Hall: October 3, 2024

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ANDY SUMMERS rocked back into Auckland last night to present his solo show, The Cracked Lens + A Missing String. The Police-man delivered an arresting set of music, stories and photographs. The 13th Floor’s Carin Newbould was there to review.

The bloke’s a legend – a third of one of the biggest groups of our time, a five-time Grammy Award winner and an inductee into both the Rock and Roll and Guitar Player Halls of Fame. Certainly there were a lot of fans in attendance to witness Summers’ outstanding musical flair.

But there was more to the night than simply a solo re-hashing of Police hits, minus colleagues Stewart Copeland and Sting. Summers was keen to promote his credentials as a fully-fledged, all-round Renaissance man, talking about the eight books he’s published and showing off his photography in images to accompany the instrumentals.  And gosh, the man likes to take photos, of pretty much everything – dogs, umbrellas, plants, flowers, religious icons, houses, fences, traffic signs and teapots. We were treated to landscapes from Japan and the Sahara, cityscapes from the USA and shots of Argentina, China and Vietnam, backing up his claim that “I’ve been everywhere”.

He’s looking good for 81, coming on stage in a blue suit and trainers and opening by saying it’d be a “quirky show – I’ll play guitar, tell some stories, try not to fuck everything up.” He didn’t fuck anything up as far as I could tell, and it was definitely quirky – maybe too quirky for some, who left well before the end of the two hour show. The stories bordered on rambling – self-deprecating showbiz anecdotes which were not so much rip-roaring, as the sort of yarns your Dad might recount at a family gathering, after a couple of drinks – if your Dad had done magic mushrooms in Bali with John Belushi. Summers also recounted tales of Roxanne contests and a near-arrest in Buenos Aires.

The spiel and the photos broke up the evening, but it was the music – and the guitar skills – that people were there to experience. There’s no denying the man’s incredibly gifted and accomplished on the guitar – introducing Manha de Carnaval, which he previously played with another guitarist in Sao Paolo, as “virtuoso level shit – not to be modest.” The virtuoso jumped genres effortlessly throughout the evening, from rock to Latin, atmospheric to jazz. A standout was the cover of Thelonious Monk’s ‘Round Midnight, whom Summers recalled seeing live and recognised as “a big influence”. Triboluminescence was evocative and impressive in scope.

If people were there hoping to hear The Police’s back catalogue, they may have been disappointed – maybe they were the folks departing early? It was halfway through the night before a recognisable track was introduced with Roxanne (I’m discounting Tea in the Sahara, not because it wasn’t great, but because the vast majority of people wouldn’t know it; I suspect it was included to allow for fabulous black and white images of the Sahara and enigmatic Bedouins. Summers performed solo, accompanied by a technician electronically wielding backing tracks, and it was slightly strange to experience Roxanne and Message in a Bottle without Sting’s distinctive vocals, but instead with snippets of lyrics scurrying across the screen.

There were parts of it I loved – the photographs (particularly the portraits), Spirits in the Material World, the varied set list. I don’t know whether we actually got to know Andy Summers, but it was a glimpse into a talented, multi-dimensional man’s passions and impressive body of work. The Cracked Lens + A Missing String was eclectic, idiosyncratic and definitely delivered on being quirky – an unusual night which will stick in the memories of the Town Hall massive.

Carin Newbould

Andy Summers setlist

  1. True Nature (from Triboluminescence)
  2. Metal Dog (from Metal Dog)
  3. The Bones of Twang Zu
  4. The Last Dance of Mr. X (from The Last Dance of Mr. X)
  5. Tea in the Sahara (from Synchronicity – The Police)
  6. ‘Round Midnight (from Green Chimneys: The Music of Thelonius Monk)
  7. Roxanne (from Outlandos d’Amour – The Police)
  8. Manhã de carnaval (Luiz Bonfá cover)
  9. A Felicidade (Vinicius de Moraes cover)
  10. Triboluminescence (from Triboluminescence)
  11. Spirits in the Material World (from Ghost In the Machine – The Police)
  12. Bring on the Night (from Reggatta de Blanc – The Police)

Encore:
13. Message in a Bottle (from Reggatta de Blanc – The Police)

Carin Newbould
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