Music News: Billy Joel, Sting and Kim Petras

In case you missed the news or live nowhere near one of the five cities that Sting and Billy Joel will be visiting on their short co-headlining tour and you are otherwise waiting with bated breath on how they are together, you may not have noticed that the iconic duo kicked off their tour this past weekend in Tampa. To put it mildly, by all accounts of those are the show, the pair did not disappoint. This was expected.

Both Billy Joel and the former Police front man have decades of great music to choose from. They both have long made their bones as live performers. Heck, I saw Sting on his first solo tour after he had released Dream of the Blue Turtles in 1986 and he was fantastic then, too. I saw Joel around the same time and he also was extremely entertaining.

In Tampa, both artists did wonders in the respective part of the show, but it was two collaborations that had fans most abuzz. Joel went first but stayed on stage to help Sting begin his setlist. The two performed the Police's "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" which makes complete sense due to his heavy keyboard presence.

Billy Joel and Sting are excellent but Kim Petras is not

Sting joined Joel during the piano man's setlist for "Big Man on Mulberry Street." Like Sting's tune, this was a well-chosen piece for the performers to collaborate on because of the track is heavily jazz-influenced. Sting took vocals and dazzled. The duo has four more shows scheduled together - San Diego, St. Louis, San Antonio, and Las Vegas - and if you live anywhere near these cities buying tickets is a must.

In more sobering news, Kim Petras has a new album out called Slut Pop Miami and she doesn't so much try to reinvent the wheel as put new tread on a worn-out tire. Where once she could release songs such as "Throat Goat" and make them sleazy fun enough to listen to (and dance one's behind off to as well), her new songs sound like B-sides from her 2022 EP Slut Pop. She seemingly used up all her decent ideas for the shorter record and while trying to flesh out more ideas for the new LP she continued her recent trend of losing her importance.

On her two previous full-length albums, Feed the Beast and Problematique, she failed to entertain as well. Instead of trying a new direction, however, Petras tries to force feed her fans stale music. Unless Kim Petras seeks a new path forward, she is likely done being interesting.

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