Sting fights the stuffiness in a trio, like The Police

A trio, a more reduced format than in previous visits to Catalonia; with The Police's repertoire well represented; overflowing with charisma, and with his voice challenging the tuning at times. That's how Sting carried out Tuesday's concert at the Jardins de Pedralbes, within the Les Nits d’Occident festival. The audience, who had paid up to 300 euros, was up to par from the start. With an ovation, they received the first notes of Message in a bottle, one of the many songs by The Police that he is playing on this tour, which he shares with guitarist Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas. The British singer and bassist, 74 years old and with a jovial appearance, quickly realized the spectators' good predisposition and let them sing the first verses of Englishman in New York. “Catalonia!”, exclaimed Sting at the end of a song that he performed with more rock clamor than jazzy flourishes.

The fans tried to quench the heat on a swelteringly hot Barcelona night while the calmer passages of Every little thing she does is magic played, and the same fans picked up the pace, in sync with the song's acceleration. “Good evening everyone,” he said in Catalan before introducing Fields of gold and explaining that he has a house near Stonehenge. The more relaxed cadence suited his voice well, less strained than in The Police songs. He even made a joke about the hydration breaks in the Football World Cup to justify sitting on a stool to perform Never coming home, more recited than sung and with room for the bass player to shine. And also for Miller to draw a guitar solo in the center of the stage. At Mad about you the darker vocal range suited him, a tone he also sought in Wrapped around your finger, by The Police, which he began by projecting mystery and melancholy, well accompanied by the resources deployed by the drummer.

Rock-jazz filled the center of the concert, as if it were precisely a necessary hydration break for the audience to show all their drive in the final third of the performance. The good understanding between the three musicians, and especially the good work of the guitarist, made songs like A thousand years more digestible, at the end of which a child handed him a sign saying it was his first concert. It must be said that most of the Pedralbes audience went to their first concert a long time ago… Some had even gone to the concert at the Narcís Sala stadium in Sant Andreu when The Police performed there on October 1, 1983. Some of the songs he played on Tuesday are from that era. For example, two from the album Outlandos d'amour (1978): Can’t stand losing you, again with his voice brushing the danger zone, and a particularly lively So lonely finished with force.

Sting's undeniable charisma forged an indestructible connection with the audience, among whom was FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta. The silence with which everyone followed Shape of my heart (and the number of phones filming) was eloquent enough of the admiration the British musician arouses. He responded by bringing this hit from his solo repertoire to the realm of emotion, well accompanied by Miller as a second voice.

The audience decided to get up from their seats at the end of Brand new day, as if sensing the climactic moment was approaching, and maintained the delivery in the debatable orientalist exoticism of Desert rose. In this final stretch there was room for Every breath you take, one of the most terrifying breakup songs in history, which the audience sang from head to toe. It was the prelude to the encore, during which they played Roxanne, the song that in 1978 set the style of The Police as a reggae-infused New Wave and which at Pedralbes included progressive and funk derivations that do not spoil the spirit of the original, and Fragile, one of the ballads from Sting's second album, Nothing but the sun (1987), which in the 90s was covered by Julio Iglesias. In Fragile, Sting switched from bass to acoustic guitar while rocking the melody with a summery calm. It was the final point to an hour and forty minutes of Sting in a trio, like The Police.