In performances incorporating not only his musicianship, but also his photography, writing and storytelling, Andy Summers performed at the Hart Theatre at the Egg in Albany on Wednesday, October 11. He will also be performing Saturday night, October 14, at the Patchogue Theatre in Patchogue, Long Island, with these marking the only two New York shows during his current Cracked Lens + Missing String Tour.
The tour’s title is a metaphor for vulnerability and life’s imperfections, Summers has explained.
Andy Summers with his band mates in The Police, would make history becoming the best band of their day, with “Every Breath You Take” still being the most played song on radio in history, making Andy Summers the most listened to guitarist of his time.
This tour is a long way from his first time on the East Coast playing with The Police at The Chance in Poughkeepsie with only four people in attendance, their first tour of the U.S. before becoming a phenomenon.
In a phone interview we did last week, he spoke of it fondly, recalling how grateful they all were to get the gig and to be touring America at the time. “What it signified was how we had to maintain our spirit and do a raging show despite a small audience possibly due to a snowstorm at the time.”
With his photography show looming large behind him on stage, the performance is a multi-sensory emotional experience for audience members, taking them along on his creative journey with The Police and as a solo musician having toured the world.
The audience will be treated to a set list that includes both his Police and solo work as one of music’s most prolific artists and the most listened to guitarist.
“I’m matching my ideas – my music and assembled images; you get a broader view of my guitar work, a fuller show than when I started out,” Summers said in the interview. He mentioned some of the songs he incorporates into the shows. “Bring On The Night” will take some back to decades ago upon first hearing the classically inspired guitar arpeggio.
“Roxanne” may not be putting on the red light, refined now in the instrumental way Andy Summers has chosen to portray her: still sprightly, still sultry. His recent flamenco flavored instrumental version of “Roxanne” portrays this classic which fans describe as masterful musical visual storytelling.
“Tea in the Sahara” is a song, he stated in the interview, that he enjoys putting in this show as “it sits very well on the guitar to be played beautifully and I add to it. And I went to the Sahara, took a lot of pictures there and feel very lucky to have done that.”
Andy Summers has stayed with his fans for decades since his history-making time with The Police.
His photography is still being exhibited in galleries world wide; he is still writing fiction and non fiction best selling books. His plans to write The Trouble with Guitars is already in the works, as is a plan to make a film of this tour.
You can see him next here in New York on Saturday night, October 14 at the Patchogue Theatre.
The post Andy Summers: Cracked Lens + Missing String Tour Arrives in Patchogue on October 14 appeared first on NYS Music.
