I saw the Police in a basement rock club called The Rat on their first American tour back in 1978. They played high decibel punk rock and reggae influenced rock. I'm not really fond of the "adult contemporary" sound they fell into in the early 80s. It was a harbinger of Sting's move to soft jazz later in his career.
The Rat closed down about 15 years ago to build a luxury hotel. It was sad because the Rat was a landmark Boston club that debuted such great artists as the Cars, Mission of Burma and Aimee Mann. I still have a picture of my ex-girlfriend that I took in front of the Rat way back in 1980.
