Englishman in New York: Stings back in a trio at Brooklyn concert but its not the Police

Next to The Beatles, the Police had one of the biggest band breakups in rock history.Indeed, singer-bassist Sting, guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland were on top of the music world — after their smash “Synchronicity” album and tour — when they split up in 1986.Of course, Sting went on to have a successful solo career, although he did eventually get back together with his Police bandmates for a blockbuster reunion tour in 2007.And now, at 73, the artist born Gordon Sumner is going back to where he started — in another trio.He’s leading a threesome rounded out by guitarist Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas on the Sting 3.0 Tour that hit the Brooklyn Paramount this week.It all felt familiar for Sting to be up on stage alongside two other musicians, with whom he also released the jagged, bluesy rocker “I Wrote Your Name (Upon My Heart)” last month.

They played the new single Wednesday night — and it was probably the only time most of the crowd didn’t know the song being played.The rest of the night was a nonstop nostalgia trip, from the late ’70s beginnings of the Police to Sting’s golden solo years in the mid/late-‘80s and the ’90s.From “Message in a Bottle” to “Fragile,” it was a fan-friendly journey through Sting’s classic catalog, one that has endured for decades now.The show was pretty evenly split between Sting solo songs and Police tunes, which, although he never stopped playing, he seemed to embrace again more with his new power trio.There was the sophisti-pop charm of “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” still captivating after all this time.

There was the driving reggae-rock of “Driven to Tears,” shifting gears and tempos.There was the funky-strutting groove of “Walking on the Moon.”And there was the punk-spiked spirit of “Can’t Stand Losing You” and “So Lonely” — both from the Police’s 1978 debut album, “Outlandos d’Amour.”Sting seemed reenergized to perform these...