Musician Sting arrives in Chicago next week for the North American leg of his “Sting 3.0” tour. He and his bandmates will play four nights at the Auditorium Theater over the course of a week as part of a tour that will mostly play small to mid-sized venues like the Auditorium, with a few stops for multiple nights . Chicago is one of the few cities to host four concerts.
There are no big backing bands or bold guest musicians on this tour – no symphonies. The appeal of “Sting 3.0,” which also played in Europe this summer, is a more refined version of Sting’s music, closer to his debut. The former Police frontman is traveling with drummer Chris Maas, who played with British folk groups Mumford & Sons, and his longtime collaborator and guitarist Dominic Miller.
The “3.0” in the tour title is, at first glance, a reference to the three musicians in the trio, although one can perhaps hear the allusion of a “3.0 version” of a musical career.
“Is this a third act? I don’t know. I mean, it’s ‘3.0,’ it’s kind of enigmatic and funny,” Sting said in an interview with the Tribune before the tour began in Detroit. “The three of us are making a lot of noise and we’re very happy, it’s been a lot of fun.”
As far as musical career goes, Sting’s career of course spans almost 50 years, from the creation of Police in 1977 to a solo career that dabbled in jazz and worldbeat, to the creation of a Broadway musical that debuted in Chicago, until today. release new music. His “I Wrote Your Name (Upon My Heart),” released in early September, is his first new song since 2021 album “The Bridge,” his 15th studio album.
That doesn’t even take away the film work, the 17 Grammies, the collaborations – he’s also playing arenas with Billy Joel this fall. The Police’s last reunion tour was in 2007 – another, slightly more famous trio deserves mention. We can say that Sting has already acquired a little more than three versions.
Hence the “3.0” approach.
“Just having the main thing on stage is an exciting prospect for me,” he said. “Reducing the songs to their essentials really affirms that the songs are strong enough to withstand that kind of reduction.”
The set lists for the European dates were mostly limited to the biggest hits: “Roxanne,” “Fields of Gold,” “Shape of My Heart.” This fall, they hope to change the situation a little.
“I think in North America, because we play theater multiple nights, it gives us the opportunity to be a little more experimental. We usually start the set with hits, you have to play what people came to hear, but that gives us the right to say: “Okay, now we’re going to do something that you might not expect not”. I’m not sure what it is yet. It could be a small acoustic set in the middle.
Sting, who turned 73 in early October, said the goal is not to do another arena tour, although he has nothing against arena visits.
“It was all about trying to recreate the excitement of a new beginning,” he said. “I think when you play a big venue it tends to dictate the music you play, it’s all about making big musical gestures. It goes the other way. I’m always looking for surprises, I want to surprise myself. »
Above all, he said, “I don’t want to become my own heritage law.”
About ten years ago, Sting wrote music for a musical called “The Last Ship” with a story set in the shipbuilding industry in Wallsend, northern England, where Sting (aka Gordon Sumner) grew up. The musical it was a tribute to his father, who had worked in and around the shipyards, and to his own childhood. “The Last Ship” had its pre-Broadway world premiere in 2014 in Chicago at what is now the CIBC Theater and moved to Broadway later the same year. It earned two Tony nominations, but only lasted a few months. Sting joined the cast for a few weeks to try to boost ticket sales.
The story centers on a prodigal son who returns home to find that his town’s shipyard is closing and that Meg, the woman he loved, has a new life. Tensions rise as workers take over the shipyard.
Sting says he’s still working on the show. Since then, there have been short-lived productions elsewhere.
“I don’t think we’ll ever finish something like this.” I would consider that (showing) my proudest heritage, actually. We were contacted by various opera companies around the world to put it on. I always felt like it had an operatic scale. The shipyard is the scale of an opera and at least two characters die there, so that’s my definition of an opera,” he said.
Sting has since contributed to another stage production; choreographer Kate Prince created a dance performance based on her music called “Message in a Bottle” which debuted in London in 2020 and arrived in Chicago earlier this year.
Stings says he doesn’t borrow from “Last Ship” music for his concerts. It’s not like he’s dropping the title track or a number like “What Say You, Meg?” in the middle of a concert. These songs feel like they need an orchestra behind them to work the way it wants, he said. “Even though you never know, I might decide to do it one night. Just for fun.
Asked for a favorite song from his catalog, he replied: “Well, the hits have been very kind to me. »
He has no problem playing the songs his fans want him to play. In 2019, BMI reported that “Every Breath You Take” had become the most played song in radio history. “I think you have to please the audience and say, ‘Look, you came for the hits.’ I’m going to play you the hits. I always know that when the audience takes out their phones, that’s the song they’re waiting to hear. … It’s a kind of visual applause. It’s very pretty.
He also continues to tinker with these songs, no matter how familiar they may be. “I’m not here just to reproduce a record made 40 years ago. These things are not finished, they are organic mechanisms. These are not dead artifacts. They live. They live and breathe.
Going the other way, has Sting ever written a song that he thought should have been a hit but for some reason never was?
He laughed. “Well, I have no such regrets. I would have to say no. Whether a song is a success or not, it doesn’t matter to me, I’ve had a lot of success and affirmation. I don’t need more.
“Sting 3.0” will be shown Oct. 28-29 and Nov. 1-2, with guest ELEW, at the Auditorium Theater, 50 E. Ida B. Wells Drive; tickets from $65 to auditoriumtheatre.org
dgeorge@chicagotribune.com
