CONCERT VENUES
• AmericanAirlines Arena, 601 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; 786-777-1000• BankAtlantic Center, 2555 Panther Pkwy., Sunrise; 954-835-7825• BankUnited Center at the University of Miami, 1245 Dauer Dr., Coral Gables; 305-284-8686 or www.BankUnitedCenter.com• Bicentennial Park, 1075 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; 305-358-7550• Cruzan Amphitheatre, 601-7 Sansbury's Way, West Palm Beach; 561-795-8883• Culture Room, 3045 N. Federal Hwy., Fort Lauderdale; 954-564-1074 or cultureroom.net• The Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater, 1700 Washington Ave., Miami Beach; 305-673-7300• Hard Rock Live Arena at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, 1 Seminole Way (off U.S. 441 north of Stirling Road), near Hollywood; 954-327-ROCK (7625), 800-937-0010 or www.seminolehardrockhollywood.com• Mizner Park Amphitheater, 590 Plaza Real, Boca Raton; 561-966-3309• Pompano Beach Amphitheatre, 1806 NE Sixth St., Pompano Beach; 954-946-2402• Revolution, 200 W. Broward Blvd., Fort Lauderdale; 954-727-0950 or jointherevolution.net• Studio A, 60 NE 11th St., Miami; 305-358-ROCK (7625)The summer concert season is hurtling toward us, and what better way to kick it off than with another reunion show by The Police?
The British trio that revolutionized rock in the '70s and '80s by adding sophisticated reggae and jazz touches to new wave and punk beats thrilled fans last July at Dolphin Stadium with a tour through its greatest hits, including Roxanne, Message in a Bottle, Don't Stand So Close to Me and Every Breath You Take.
Expect more of the same as singer/bassist Sting, guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland rock West Palm Beach's Cruzan Amphitheatre Saturday night, along with no slouch of an opening act, Elvis Costello and the Imposters.
Summers talked to The Miami Herald about the upcoming show, the early days of The Police, and the possibility of the trio ever writing songs together again.
Q: Does playing The Police's music feel fresh again?
A: We certainly try to make it fresh. I don't think you can remain as popular as we've managed to if we went on with a somewhat jaded attitude. We have to go onstage and try to goad each other into a performance that is not routine. But with a big show like this you've got lighting and it's all choreographed, including even things like my guitar pedal board all programmed. So you can't suddenly change everything -- you're sort of in a ship that's already sailing.
Q: Was it difficult to agree on the set list?
A: Not that difficult, because it's a given that we've got to do Every Breath You Take, Message in a Bottle, Roxanne -- people are paying a lot of money for these tickets. And we're not coming out and playing brand new material, so we're not going to argue whether we're gonna play Roxanne or not.
Q: Are there any songs you don't get to play that you'd really love to?
A: We each have our favorites, but Secret Journey was always one I enjoyed playing, and we didn't play it very much. Another one that's always asked for -- and I don't think we've ever, ever played it -- is Canary in a Coalmine. It's just one of those that fell through the cracks.
Q: Has there been any serious talk about The Police writing new material?
A: Not seriously. I guess it's one of those ideas that's sitting out there in the ether waiting to get pregnant. But as far as I know, we're just doing this tour and that's gonna be it. Although that's a big thing to walk away from, obviously.
Q: Do you feel like you three have exhausted your creativity together?
A: No, and I think that's the thing that makes it sort of poignant. We haven't. Clearly. It's very political. If all the politics weren't in place, we could probably go and make a great album. It can make you sort of crazy, so I don't really think about it. It's like investing too much emotion in something that maybe, maybe not, will happen.
Q: What was The Police's typical songwriting process?
A: Sting had been writing songs for years, and we didn't know that. . . . So generally we'd start with something he had and we'd make it sound like The Police. Eventually, other people were pointing out to us that we had a signature sound and we started to care about it. And that became The Police.
Q: In the beginning, how did you come up with the idea of blending jazz with punk?
A: Well, it wasn't an idea -- it was more a set of natural reactions. In my teens I was a real jazz fanatic and Sting was, too. When I first met Sting he was coming out of a jazz-fusion group called Last Exit. So he was used to all that. It was sort of amazing with him and me, the parallel formative experiences of listening to Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis and Jaco Pastorius and all that, as well as the Beatles and the Stones. It turned out to be a distinctive voice because we meshed all these other sensibilities in with punk and rock 'n' roll. We played with a lot of rock aggression, but maybe harmonically we were a bit more sophisticated, and Sting's vocals were influenced by a lot of other things as well, not just listening to Elvis.
Q: Do you feel like any of your albums was your crowning achievement?
A: Logic would say that you would go on and every album would be better, and the fifth one would be five times better than the first. But it doesn't really work that way. For me, it's between the first two -- I tend to think the second one, Reggatta de Blanc, was the best. Because by then we had become a hot band, and we went in the studio and made that in about 10 days because we were so into it. That one was filled with that fire of, ''Christ, we're gonna make it,'' and I feel that feeling really got into the tracks of the second album.
Q: What do you think of Miami?
A: I'm looking forward to getting down there. We really enjoyed it last year -- it was one of the best weeks of the tour, actually. We're in Canada right now and it's freezing -- it went down to zero last night. I fell in love with South Beach last time. It was so unique, all those crazy hotels and weird places and just being on the beach there, and the water was so fantastic.
