Live at Clam Castle: "Sting 3.0" is pretty much Police 1.0...

Sting performed at Clam Castle (Upper Austria) for the third time on Tuesday evening, this time under the new trademark "Sting 3.0" – primarily because the Brit is back on tour with a trio formation a la "Police." And it was the expected hit revue from both Sting worlds, including the very old Police hits and the older solo successes. There's no new song material so far – but that didn't matter at all at Clam: the fans were thrilled.

"One, two, three," Sting counted in German at the start of the concert – and they got off to a brisk start with "Message in a Bottle." But the start wasn't entirely flawless; his voice faltered several times during "If I Ever Loose My Faith in You." Immediately afterward, the first real venture followed: the epic "Englishman in New York," musically completely stripped down in the trio lineup. But it worked surprisingly well. "Fields of Gold" was already very atmospheric, and with "Never Coming Home," the agile 73-year-old had finally arrived on stage, with the fans, and above all, with himself.

What followed was a cascade of hits with a strong Police element. "Driven to Tears" was truly pure Police. This was due not only to the frontman himself, but also to the "successors" of Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland: Sting's longtime collaborator Dominic Miller on guitar and drummer Chris Maas, "borrowed" from Mumford & Sons – certainly not the worst loan. Thus, the three almost played themselves into a "Police trance" on the classic "Can't Stand Loosing You," which was quite extended live.

From "Walking on the Moon," things moved swiftly toward the finale with the climax, "King of Pain" (you guessed it: Police...). Sting had previously served up a musical treat: "Desert Rose," like "Englishman in New York," hardly imaginable as a trio, yet still magnificent, now also vocally. This also shows that many Sting compositions, which are quite complex in the studio versions, also work as totally reduced versions - and that is an extraordinary songwriting quality.

The encores, "Roxanne" in XXL format and the exquisite "Fragile" to close the show, were, of course, unmissable. And on top of all that, Sting had also predicted the weather in Clam with a Police song: "Heavy Cloud No Rain" – a short but heavy storm had hit the region in the afternoon, followed by dark clouds looming over the castle the entire time; but it remained dry throughout the entire evening, thus keeping the Sting fans' ecstasy undisturbed.

(c) APA by Werner Müllner