Sting is back at the concert in Brooklyn – but it's not the police

Alongside The Beatles, The Police experienced one of the biggest band breakups in rock history.

In fact, singer and bassist Sting, guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland were at the top of the music world when they split up in 1986 after their hit album “Synchronicity” and their tour.

Of course, Sting continued to have a successful solo career, although he eventually reunited with his Police bandmates for a blockbuster reunion tour in 2007.

And now, at age 73, born artist Gordon Sumner returns to where he started in another trio: Sting 3.0. He leads the trio, rounded out by guitarist Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas, on the Sting 3.0 Tour, which took place this week at the Brooklyn Paramount.

It felt familiar for Sting to be on stage with two other musicians with whom he also released the rugged, bluesy rocker “I Wrote Your Name (Upon My Heart)” last month. They played the new single on Wednesday night – and it was probably the only time most viewers didn't know the song that was being played.

The rest of the night was a nonstop nostalgia trip, from the early days of Police in the late '70s to Sting's golden solo years in the mid/late '80s and '90s. From “Message in a Bottle” to “Fragile,” it was a fan-friendly journey through Sting’s catalog of classics that has endured for decades.

The show was fairly evenly split between Sting solo songs and Police tunes, which, although he never stopped playing, he seemed to embrace again 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,” which changed gears and tempos. There was the funky strutting groove of “Walking on the Moon.”

And there was the punk-inflected spirit of “Can't Stand Losing You” and “So Lonely” – both from The Police's 1978 debut album Outlandos d'Amour.

Sting seemed to have new energy with this new incarnation to sing songs he had previously sung to death. He found new ways to play with them and bring them back to life.

When he repeated, “I'll always be King of Pain,” at the end of Synchronicity's hit “King of Pain,” it seemed as if that nickname no longer applied to him. His joy was palpable throughout the night – even during the sad songs.

He even seemed to accept the fact that “Every Breath You Take,” despite its original spooky mood, has become a sunny sing-along song.

Sting – who will be back at the Brooklyn Paramount on Thursday night before two shows at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, New York, on Saturday and Sunday – was as sprightly and wiry as ever in his 70s. (All that tantric sex really kept him in shape.)

And he had a strong voice throughout, whether on the glittering “Fields of Gold” or the delicate “Shape of My Heart,” co-written by longtime sideman Miller.

After a “Roxanne” encore that became a jazzy mash-up with the “…Nothing Like the Sun” solo hit “Be Still My Beating Heart,” Sting sent us after “Fragile,” with “something quiet and thoughtful.” home. And the song's gentle, feathery beauty was as heartbreaking as ever.