A sold-out Benaroya Hall crowd was on its feet. That can take a little goading whenever the rock ‘n’ rollers slide into the Seattle Symphony’s grand abode, as Sting found out a song earlier, encouraging an out-of-chair experience for “Desert Rose” — a walloping tune that threw off sparks.

But there are few surer ways of rousing a crowd during a highly anticipated underplay than an artist delivering their most ubiquitous hit, as Sting did Thursday with “Every Breath You Take” before catching his own breath with a quick encore break. Yet familiarity was only half of it. 

Built around that stuttering, soul-tickler of a riff, the three-piece band transformed The Police’s air-walking serenade to the heavens into a more muscular cymbal-splashing rocker. Bright, triumphant and joyfully ferocious, it was a flexed forearm thrust toward the sky. Benaroya’s once orderly aisles became a sea of bodies swaying, clapping, dancing as the British pop-rock hero’s intimate 113-minute set barreled toward the finish line. None would have protested if Sting dropped the mic and slipped off into the foggy Seattle night, though he returned with his longtime guitarist Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas for a sprightly “Roxanne” and a centering, teacup nightcap of “Fragile.” 

It was the best of what the “Sting 3.0 Tour” had to offer as the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer settled in for a two-night stand. The Police classics were obvious fits for Sting’s current theater run, which finds the singer/bassist stripping down songs from across his catalog and playing as a power trio. It’s a no-nonsense approach and a bit of a trust fall with some of his more ornate solo material, relying on the songwriting and the configuration’s simplicity to catch them. 

Another natural Police cut for the lean-and-mean threesome, “Driven to Tears” was an absolute smoker that had one famous fan in Eddie Vedder, and dozens of not-so-famous fans, dancing out of their seats. Perhaps counterintuitively, peeling off the orchestral layers of a misty “Mad About You” only accentuated the song’s yearning for a love you can’t have. The slinky, undressed number ached so hard it made your skin crawl.

For the wavy “A Thousand Years,” Sting & Co. struck the right balance of respecting the song’s delicacies and allowing the limber unit to go to work. At times, the looser, limber setup allowed the band to tease out certain stretches and play in the margins more often.

But unfortunately, the moments designed to showcase the unfussed interplay between the three musicians were rarer than they should have been on Thursday. Too often the overblown drums elbowed out the guitars and vocals, plowing through songs like the barley fields surrounding Sting’s “little house” in the English countryside. (Actually, it’s more of a “castle” he admitted before a brisk “Fields of Gold,” which was more of a quick garden stroll than an atmospheric daydream.)

The predominant drumwork blunted what could have been a more dynamic opening run of “Message in a Bottle,” a railroaded “If I Ever Lose My Faith In You” and the splash-and-groove “Englishman in New York.” Playing with less heavy hands or dialing up everything else in the mix might have helped an issue that dogged the entire set.

To some degree, it was a double-edged sword, as the band’s punchiness cranked up the intensity on songs like dubby rocker “Can’t Stand Losing You.” Propelled by those big drums, the trio could have jammed the fleet-footed number to infinity and no one would have protested. Two songs later, “So Lonely” was another reggae-infused, runaway rocker that benefited from the extra oomph.

Compared with Sting’s 2023 concert at Climate Pledge Arena, Benaroya’s regally cozy environs gave even those bashers a more intimate feel, like we were sitting in on a private garage jam. At least if that “garage” had recently undergone a $20 million renovation, as the Seattle music hall recently did. Sting’s doubleheader, which resumes Friday, is the venue’s highest-profile gig since work finished on the sleeker, plusher upgrades to the lobby and public-facing cafe outside the auditorium. 

Fans can get a taste of the new-look Benaroya during a free Oct. 18 open house, featuring a performance with The Head and the Heart accompanied by Seattle Symphony musicians.

Message in a Bottle
If I Ever Lose My Faith In You
Englishman in New York
Every Little Thing She Does is Magic
Fields of Gold
Never Coming Home
Seven Days
Why Should I Cry for You?
Mad About You
When We Dance
Driven to Tears
A Thousand Years
The Hounds of Winter
Can’t Stand Losing You
Shape of My Heart
So Lonely
Desert Rose
Every Breath You Take
Roxanne
Fragile