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Playing in a trio is not without precedent for Sting; he was in this little band called the Police, after all.
But his Sting 3.0 tour — which began during the summer in Europe and opened its North American leg Tuesday night (Sept. 17) with the first of two shows at the Fillmore Detroit — has been a welcome return to the format after a good 16 years of touring with different and varyingly larger configurations.

“My inclination is always to try and surprise people in the songs I write or in the format I present the song,” he told Billboard via Zoom from New York, between the 3.0 tour legs. “I don’t think anyone was expecting a trio. “I’ve worked with these big seven, eight-piece bands, and it’s a bit like driving a Bentley. It kind of drives itself, and it’s comfortable. So I decided I would put myself out of my comfort zone in order to get something on the back end that wasn’t guaranteed — a risk, if you like.

“I’m enjoying the challenge, and it’s also fun looking, watching the audience go, ‘Wow, there’s only three people up there. We were expecting a bigger band’ and then enjoying the sonic clarity of it.”

Sting is joined in the endeavor by longtime guitarist Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas, a Luxembourg native who’s previously worked with Mumford & Sons, Maggie Rodgers and the Pierces. And while Sting fessed up to being “kind of anxious all the way up to the first show” in Europe, he quickly shed any doubts he may have had — or, perhaps, any lingering PTSD from the legendary combativeness within the Police.

“Halfway through that first gig I realized this is exactly what I want to do,” he said, explaining that, “There’s a space that you have been instruments — the clarity, the mutual listening between the members of the band, the risk factor, stripping the songs down to their basic essence and having them work. You take all the fat away, but the basic structure of the song is very satisfying.

“We’ve had a blast. There’s no let-up here. You can’t cruise. You have to be right on the money the whole time. But the songs are holding up. The singer’s holding up…’” And so, he added, is the player. “I began to notice how good I am at singing and playing the bass, actually,” he said with a chuckle. “I’ve forgotten how well I did that.

“Nothing is impossible with a trio, I realize that,” he added. “And it’s not as if I’m completely new to the format. But I am surprised at how adaptable the songs and the arrangements are. It’s been so enjoyable.”

The couple of thousand or so fans in Detroit on Tuesday certainly shared Sting’s exuberance, generating a give-and-take energy that sustained throughout the 20-song, hour-and-45-minute performance, and these unquestionable highlights from it.

A nice balance
Not unusually, Sting and company did a fine job of combining the Police and his solo work, with eight of the former’s best-known songs in the setlist — including a ferocious rendition of “Driven to Tears” topical messages flashing across the video screen to “protest” and “react.” Sting’s “Desert Rose,” meanwhile, was sandwiched in the middle of a non-stop, main set-closing segment that began with the Police’s “Walking on the Moon” and “So Lonely” and finished with muscular arrangements of the Synchronicity hits “King of Pain” and “Every Breath You Take.”

A boatload of hits
Sting doesn’t have to work hard to keep ’em coming, of course. Using a headset microphone and playing a few songs seated, he also delivered Police favorites such as the show-opening “Message in a Bottle” and “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” an extended “Can’t Stand Losing You” and a long, rhythmically shifting version of “Roxanne.” From the solo front, meanwhile, came “If I Ever Lose My Faith in You,” “Shape of My Heart,” “All This Time” and “Englishman in New York.” For the show-ending “Fragile,” meanwhile, he put aside the bass and played acoustic guitar to send the crowd home “quiet and thoughtful.”

Deep cuts we love
Sting mined 1991’s The Soul Cages for “Made About You” and “Why Should I Cry For You?,” both singles but not quite on A list status. From 2003’s Sacred Love, meanwhile, he plucked the solemn “Never Coming Home,” which he introduced as a musical note left by a woman as she was leaving her husband. The latter was also one of the night’s instrumental highlights, as Sting and Miller closed with an arresting, jammy outro.

It’s Miller time
“Dominic is just loving the harmonic freedom he has, and the colors he’s creating are extraordinary,” Sting said, and that was borne out all show long, as Miller, employing an array of tasteful effects, used the space between Sting’s bass and Maas’s drums to paint an array of rich chordings and instrumental passages that elevated just about every song. His dexterous but discreet plucking filled in for the piano from the recorded version of “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” and he created his own interpretation of the Arabic break from “Desert Rose.” And his solos during “Driven to Tears and “So Lonely” were nothing short of heroic.

Some fresh fare
Sting, Miller and Maas recorded a new single, “I Wrote Your Name,” that’s been played throughout the tour and was formally released on Sept. 6. “It’s a romantic song,” he told the Detroit crowd. “It’s also quite noisy.” And with its punchy energy and raspy vocal (from “being in the middle of a tour and being fatigued”) certainly recalls the Police’s early release.

“It’s a surprising record from me — very, very basic, like maybe four and a half chords,” Sting said, adding that, “I’d like to make (an album) with this trio. I’ve got the bare bones of a few things. Playing every night, it’s still very experimental, so a lot of things are happening that weren’t planned and that’s the territory I will draw from to make a new album. It’s very exciting.”

Who needs words?
Sting remained one of rock’s kings of call-and-response, leading several singalongs throughout Tuesday’s shows. He gave the fans an opening during “Every Little Thing…,” then said he’d invented the wordless “little improvisation” at the end of “Can’t Stand Losing You” when the Police played the now-defunct Detroit club Bookie’s during November of 1978. There was another extended give-and-take towards the end of “Walking on the Moon” and, of course, during the jazzy breakdown in “Roxanne.”

And lest we forget, he IS Sting
After recalling some of his history playing Detroit, Sting told the crowd, “I’m gonna sing a song about my home now,” explaining with smile that, “I’ve a little house in the English countryside — it’s more of a castle, really,” about two miles “down the hill” from Stonehenge. He said that when the Englishman is in England, “if you knock on the door, I’ll make you a cup of tea,” indicating that he’s been taken up on that offer in the past. He went on to say that “the other nice thing about my house is it’s surrounded by barley fields, and at harvest time — see where I’m going with this? — it’s surrounded by what looks like a sea of gold.” That, of course, led into a performance of “Fields of Gold.”

The trio plays Detroit again on Wednesday and will be in North America through mid-November, including performances at the Bourbon & Beyond festival on Thursday in Louisville and the Ohana Festival Sept. 28 in California. The full itinerary can be found at sting.com/tour.

The Sting 3.0 opening night performance in Detroit included:
Message in a Bottle
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
Why Should I Cry for You?
All This Time
Driven to Tears
Can’t Stand Losing You
I Wrote Your Name
Shape of My Heart
Walking on the Moon
So Lonely
Desert Rose
King of Pain
Every Breath You Take
Encore:
Roxanne
Fragile