Sting 3.0

Sting brings the 'Sting 3.0 Tour' to Vancouver...

Sting returned to Vancouver on October 5 to open the fall North American leg of ‘Sting 3.0’, beginning a two night stand at Queen Elizabeth Theatre only three days after his 75th birthday. Night one marked his 23rd Vancouver concert across his solo career and The Police, extending a local relationship that began at the Commodore Ballroom in 1979. Sting returns to the same stage tonight, October 6, for the second performance before the tour continues south to Seattle.

Backspin last caught Sting in Vancouver at Rogers Arena on September 29, 2023 during the My Songs Tour, but the difference between the two productions is substantial. That show presented his catalogue through a larger arena setup and expanded musical footprint. ‘Sting 3.0’ reduces everything to three musicians: Sting on vocals and bass, Dominic Miller on guitar and Chris Maas on drums. There is no attempt to make three musicians feel like a larger band. The reduction is the entire idea, putting Police songs and more than four decades of solo material into the same compact arrangement. 

The format also brings Sting back to Queen Elizabeth Theatre for the first time in almost 15 years. His previous appearances there came across three consecutive nights in December 2011 during the Back to Bass Tour, when he was already experimenting with a smaller five piece configuration. In 2026, that idea has been reduced further, with only Miller and Maas alongside him for both Vancouver dates.

The October 5 performance began shortly before 9 p.m. with ‘Message in a Bottle’, immediately connecting the trio format back to the catalogue Sting first built with The Police. After the opener, he paused to acknowledge exactly where the new leg of the tour had started, telling the audience, “I have to say this, I’m very happy to be above the 49th parallel.” Sting indicated that he did not want to turn the comment into anything overtly political, but the reference landed clearly enough. In Western Canada, the 49th parallel forms much of the Canada United States border, giving him a concise way to welcome himself back north.

‘If I Ever Lose My Faith in You’ followed before the opening stretch moved through ‘Englishman in New York’, ‘Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic’ and ‘Fields of Gold’. With Sting's familiar Fender bass remaining at the centre of the performance, there was little visual distraction around the trio. All three musicians dressed simply in black, and the stage was built to keep the attention on the arrangements rather than scenery or large scale effects.

That makes ‘Sting 3.0’ considerably different from simply taking an arena show and shrinking it for a theatre. Songs that have existed for decades have to function with fewer layers, leaving more space between Sting's bass, Miller's guitar and Maas behind the kit. The trio is not attempting to recreate The Police, despite the obvious connection of Sting once again performing inside a three musician format. Instead, the same setup is used equally for songs from The Police years and material spanning Sting's solo catalogue.

After ‘Fields of Gold’, Sting moved to a tall stool as the show entered a quieter middle section. ‘Never Coming Home’, ‘Seven Days’, ‘Why Should I Cry for You?’, ‘Ghost Story’, ‘Mad About You’ and ‘When We Dance’ gave the first Vancouver night room to move beyond the songs that would normally define a Sting greatest hits set. Because October 5 was genuinely opening night of the new fall run, Sting also acknowledged that the trio had not played together for a couple of months and that some material had not been performed in years, with minor early tour mistakes laughed off rather than hidden.

Vancouver has repeatedly played this role in Sting's career. In 2007, The Police staged a fan club warmup at GM Place before officially launching their reunion tour from the same building the following night. In 2010, Sting opened the Symphonicity World Tour in Vancouver with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra. Seven years later, the 57th & 9th World Tour began at the Commodore Ballroom. The fall 2026 North American ‘Sting 3.0’ run now joins that list, beginning with consecutive nights at Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

That recurring connection is only part of Sting's Vancouver history. He first arrived with The Police at the Commodore Ballroom on May 22, 1979, followed by appearances at the PNE Garden Auditorium and Pacific Coliseum before the group eventually reunited for three GM Place dates in 2007. Sting's first Vancouver performance under his own name came at BC Place in 1988, beginning a solo history that later included the Pacific Coliseum, GM Place, the Centre for Performing Arts, Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Rogers Arena and another Commodore appearance. The October 5 concert became his 14th Vancouver performance billed under his own name and 23rd overall when the nine Police appearances are included. Tonight's second ‘Sting 3.0’ show will make those totals 15 and 24.

The later portion of night one brought the show back toward some of Sting's most recognizable material. ‘Driven to Tears’ led into ‘Can't Stand Losing You’ and ‘Reggatta de Blanc’, followed by ‘Whenever I Say Your Name’, ‘Shape of My Heart’, ‘So Lonely’, ‘Desert Rose’ and ‘Every Breath You Take’. The sequence again made the trio's purpose clear. Songs originating in different bands, decades and production styles were being pushed through the same three musician frame rather than separated into different visual eras.

At another point during the performance, Sting's catalogue itself became the joke. The October 5 set contained 20 songs across approximately 95 minutes, enough to move from some of the biggest Police records into less obvious solo selections without turning the concert into a marathon. The shorter runtime also fits the format better than stretching the concept unnecessarily. A three piece theatre show and a broad arena retrospective do not need to solve the same problem.

The encore made the historical range particularly obvious. ‘Roxanne’ reached back to the earliest period of The Police before Sting finished with ‘Fragile’, switching from bass to acoustic guitar for the final song. After a night defined by subtraction, there was no need for a larger closing production. The final change was simply Sting moving to another instrument and finishing one more song with Miller and Maas beside him.

There is also something fitting about this particular format arriving in Vancouver now. Three days after turning 75, Sting opened another North American touring chapter in a city he has been playing since he was 27. The venues have changed dramatically across those 47 years, and so have the ways he has chosen to present the music. Vancouver has seen The Police at the Commodore, orchestral Sting during Symphonicity, the stripped down Back to Bass run, the larger My Songs production and now the most reduced version of the catalogue yet.

Night one is only half of this Vancouver stop. Sting returns to Queen Elizabeth Theatre tonight, October 6, for the second of two performances before ‘Sting 3.0’ moves to Benaroya Hall in Seattle on October 8 and 9. 

(c) Backspin Canada

Sting starts fall tour in Vancouver with 2 nights of pop hits as a no-frills trio…

Sting turned 75 last Friday but you’d never guess it given his fitness and jet-setting ways.

On Saturday he was in London, England starring in The Last Ship, capping a two-week run of his own musical, rooted in childhood memories in the British shipbuilding town of Wallsend, at Theatre Royal Drury Lane.

Just two nights later in Vancouver, on Monday (Oct. 5), the Police singer-bassist kicked off a fall tour of North America with the first of two nights at Queen Elizabeth Theatre, where another show follows Tuesday.

No rest for a globetrotting pop-rock star, apparently.

In front of 2,800 fans Sting was relaxed, engaging and shared stories about the songs that have made him famous since the late-1970s.

The 3.0 Tour features Gordon Sumner in a familiar trio setting, fronting longtime guitarist/collaborator Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas, who together hit the right notes, mostly, on a 20-song journey through Sting’s deep catalogue.

They hadn’t performed together in a couple months, Sting noted, and some songs were played for the first time in years, so some minor slip-ups marred an otherwise flawless tour-opening concert. Relatably, they laughed off any mistakes.

The headset mic-wearing Sting can still sing with some power, unlike other rock stars of his vintage, so that was nice to hear. Likewise, his bass playing was near-perfect on that iconic old Fender, which he thumbed and caressed with, um, precision.

Fans stood and danced for the first five songs, ending with Fields of Gold, then Sting announced that he would sit (on a tall stool). Sting sits, everyone sits, thus ushering in a more mellow middle set of songs.

Seven by The Police made the cut, starting with Message in a Bottle at two minutes before 9 p.m.

“I have to say this, I’m very happy to be above the 49th parallel,” Sting then said to a roar of approval. “I don’t want to get political, but you know what I mean.”

Ninety-five minutes later Sting waved goodbye to the adoring crowd (of mostly mortgage-free fans, by the looks of it) after playing Fragile on acoustic guitar, the only instrument swap of the night for any of the players, all dressed in simple black on a simple stage, few bells and whistles, just solid musicianship.

Chance Emerson, a guitar-strumming folk singer with Taiwanese-American roots, opened at the QE and does so on Sting’s tour, other than Fiction Plane supporting on an extended run of Brooklyn dates starting Nov. 11.

(c) The Surrey New Leader by Tom Zillich