Review: Sting Finally Gets Crowd to Stand at the End of First Night at Hard Rock

It’s no small feat to pack a room as large as Sting did on the first of two back-to-back nights at Hard Rock Live. But when you see his 3.0 Tour is named so because he will be playing as a trio backed by guitarist Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas, you can’t help but think Sting left some money on the table. If he had played with the threesome with which he first made his name, the Police, he could have sold out the football stadium and charged double or triple the already hefty ticket price.

Sting has often turned down the more lucrative paths the Police provide him. They broke up in the mid-1980s when they were arguably the most popular rock band in the world. They reunited in 2007-2008 for touring the world, earning the crown of the highest-earning musicians of 2008. But apparently enough money was made for Sting to do things on his own ever since.

For this November Friday night, while half of the twenty-song set was by the Police, it was his solo songs that Sting seemed to relish performing the most. None of the Police numbers received introductions and explanations, the way he told a story about “Fields of Gold,” inspired by being surrounded by barley in the English countryside that looked like treasure.  

One could hypothesize that this is because the Police songs are better known and don’t require as much tender loving care to get the crowd into them. As a long time performer he knows the lesser heard songs like “Mad About You” need greater attention focused on them by talking up how it is based on a story in the Bible and that “Shape of My Heart” is about a professional gambler who is almost a philosopher, while he could just rip into the opening bassline of  “Walking on the Moon” and everyone in attendance would be singing along.

In the first half of the show, it made for an interesting dichotomy. I always loved the Police with their reggae influences that smushed into New Wave. Sting’s solo recordings, I always felt, were a little too adult contemporary, lite jazz adjacent for my taste. But in the first hour of the show, I found myself digging his solo songs more. He put some real enthusiasm into “If I Ever Lose My Faith In You,” and the rendition of “Fields of Gold” was too pretty for words. The Police songs like opener “Message in a Bottle”  and “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” meanwhile, felt a little less energetic than I would have expected.

But maybe Sting was pacing himself? In the second hour of the show, he seemed into every track, leading the audience in call and responses, having everyone holler nonsensical syllables back at him. 

Or maybe a crowd that seemed allergic to standing had Sting thinking in the beginning that they wanted a lower energy night? It wasn’t until the last song of the main set for a sing-along of “Every Breath You Take” that everyone got to their feet to enjoy the most romantic song about stalking ever written.

Then the trio took a bow. After the loudest cheers of the night, they returned with the closest to an introduction that a Police song got. “You have no idea what song you’re going to hear now, do you?” Sting joked before showing again he can still hit the high notes by howling “Roxanne”. The band stretched out the three-minute song to over double its recorded length. It could have even gone on forever, and everyone would have been happy.

I suppose it will go on again the next night. If you can afford the tickets, I highly recommend going. However much it costs, just remember if it were a Police show, it would be double that. 

Setlist

“Message in a Bottle”
“I Wrote Your Name (Upon My Heart)”
“If I Ever Lose My Faith in You”
“Englishman in New York”
“Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic”
“Fields of Gold”
“Never Coming Home”
“Mad About You”
“Wrapped Around Your Finger”
“Driven to Tears”
“A Thousand Years”
“Can’t Stand Losing You / Reggatta de Blanc”
“Shape of My Heart”
“Walking on the Moon”
“So Lonely”