A perfect spring evening in Atlanta offered that rare middle ground equally suitable to pants or shorts, especially welcome for an outdoor show. The atmosphere mirrored Sting’s 3.0 tour itself, which revisits both his solo catalog and The Police songs that made him famous, reinterpreting them through the lean framework of a three piece rock band.
The “3.0” label invites a measure of curiosity. With The Police, the band sounded bigger than a trio because each musician occupied a very distinct rhythmic and harmonic role. Sting played busy, melodic bass lines that often acted like a second guitar part. Andy Summers rarely played straightforward power chords, instead using suspended voicings, chorus effects, reggae skank rhythms, and angular textures. And drummer Stewart Copeland drove everything with a hyperactive style that borrowed from punk, reggae, and world rhythms.
Sting 3.0 includes Dominic Miller’s far warmer and more supportive guitar style. Drummer Chris Maas, formerly of Mumford & Sons, brings a more straightforward style than Copeland’s restless approach. And, obviously, there is no orchestration, synths, brass, or backup singers found in much of Sting’s jazz-pop solo years.
The set included a great mix of songs from both eras, the 3.0 revisionist approach bringing an occasional “No, this is a Sting song, not Police” thought as a song begins. At 74, Sting can still reach many of the high notes that set his career apart, but even when some passages are rearranged to lower the register, that maturity serves the revisionist interpretation of the 3.0 approach well.
Highlights included respective bass and guitar solos during “Never Coming Home,” a fantastic slowed and moody take on Wrapped Around Your Finger, and a loose and extended version of “Can’t Stand Losing You.”
Sting also interacts with the crowd regularly, baiting sing-alongs but also taking time to introduce a good number of songs. No stranger to weaving philosophical and religious interests into his music, he connected “Mad About You” to King David and Bathsheba, who can be readily read into the lyrics but are unnamed. For “A Thousand Years,” which includes thoughts about reincarnation, he added he doesn’t believe in that, adding “I can’t imagine leading a better life than this one.”
Highlights really depend on which songs you favor. Forty years later, the songs from Synchronicity remain somehow too familiar, and I appreciated the earlier Police songs and the updated takes on many of his solo songs more. “Roxanne” stands there in the encore, as everyone would expect, offering plenty of refrains, but to my ears, this audience’s highest fervor exploded with “So Lonely.” Each to their own! “Driven to Tears” was a personal favorite.
Sting 3.0 continues on tour through November, including dates in Europe before returning to the U.S. Sting doesn’t disappoint, so there’s no reason to regret catching him this tour.
Setlist:
Encore:
