A Knockout Performance by Sting at the Auditorium...

Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre has more than 3,800 seats, and almost every last one of them was filled this past Monday night as Sting — the ever remarkable singer, bass guitarist, songwriter and audience charmer (now 73, and looking fit as a fiddle) — took to the stage for two hours of his terrific music, along with ideal accompaniment from guitarist Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas.

Sting’s performance of more than 20 songs (a number of them from his days as the lead artist of The Police, that wonderful English rock band) had the audience on its feet. People moved to the classic melodies and memorable lyrics (although at moments the amplified sound muffled some of his wonderful lyrics).

The songs performed on the “Sting 3.0” tour are timeless; almost all are about the many manifestations of love and loss, desire and despair. Sting’s ideally matched music and emotionally revealing lyrics, along with his distinctive voice and subtle sense of rhythm, remain captivating. (For one brief moment in the show he also made a very timely but subtle political comment that earned him ideally deserved applause.)

The concert, with such classics as “Mad About You,” “Never Coming Home, “Shape of My Heart,” “Every Breath You Take” and “Roxanne,” was a reminder of the way wonderful songs never lose their magic. And the abstract projections on the back wall of the stage artfully captured the songs’ moods.

Serving as the warmup act for the first part of the evening was ELEW (aka Eric River Lewis), a most unusual pianist of jazz, rock and pop music. He never sat on a bench, but rather played the piano standing up, with one leg bent at the knee and the other stretched behind him, and one arm reaching into the instrument so he could pluck the strings. Quite a feat.

(c) WTTW News by Hedy Weiss