The Police brought one of the most successful reunions of rock n roll to an end at Madison Square Garden, with a tribute for other famous trios as well as assistance from real cops and a shave that wasn’t particularly close.

The final show and 150th of their 14 month comeback tour was a benefit concert for two public television stations in New York. Sting, along with Andy Summers, guitarist, and Stewart Copeland, drummer, added in some silliness that comes from being on the end of a long road tour into their set list. They walked off to “that’s all, folks,” the signature line of Porky Pig.

Four songs into the concert, Sting thanked his fellow band mates for their musicianship, your friendship, your companionships and your understanding.

Sting added that the tour’s real triumph was that they hadn’t strangled each other. Not that it hasn’t cross my or Stewart’s or Andy’s mind.

Copeland and Sting both have volatile personalities. Before the band’s break up in 1984, at a time when the Police were on top of the world of rock n roll, the two almost drove each other insane. Time as well as the phenomenal business of the tour were the mellowing agents, and also saw the band continuing to add concert dates to the tour far beyond what they had originally intended.

Their comeback tour has the Police along with the Eagles standing as rock’s two most highly successful reformations. The Eagles are once again an active recording and touring unit. The Police have stated they are through.

The Police opened their concert with “Sunshine of Your Love,” from Cream. They later played “Purple Haze,” from the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Their covers gave a nod to two of the most famous trios of rock music.

Unlike other groups that use backing musicians to augment their sound, the Police returned as truly a trio. New York City’s Police band and a roadie taking a single swing on a gong were the only additional music makers that were allowed onstage. Their appearances were very brief.

Copeland sat atop his percussion mountain, with each of the band members seeming to be like separate countries of their own onstage. They used three different staircases for exiting twice during the concert. Their determined need for showing their skillfulness left some of the songs at times to meander well past their breaking point. It’s true that the Police is able to add jazz fusion with their well known reggae punky sound. However it did spoil the concert’s “Roxanne” version.

They are definitely not the party hearty group. One stretch of music included a consecutive group of songs concerning suicide, a hooker, the loneliness of “King of Pain,” and creepy obsessive relationship of “Every Breath You Take,” the band’s biggest hit.

However the Police were able to bring a drive to the songs of Sting that his mannered solo work is often missing. At almost 57 years of age, the man still rocks on his material like “Demolition Man,” an unexpectedly strong song. The years have not worn his voice down. Early material like “Next to You,” “So Lonely” and “Can’t Stand Losing You,” were pure distillation of the original sound of the Police, and the lesser known songs were able to stand their ground with the hits that came later.

Following the Cream cover, about two dozen police band members in full uniform were brought out for a very thunderous “Message in a Bottle” version that drew on of the loudest ovations of the night. As he sang Sting wore one of the caps of New York’s finest.

The tour finale in New York was intentional. Members of the band had wanted to end things in New York City, site of their first gig in the U.S. thirty years ago at the much smaller, but not just as famous CBGB nightclub, which is now closed.

The concert raised money for PBS stations Thirteen/WNET and WLIW-21 in New York. The gift was unexpected for the stations. According to a spokeswoman the offer was a complete surprise. It had been so successful that seats that were behind the stage were selling for $50 just a few days prior to the show.

While on break right before the encore, there was a camera that followed Sting while he was sitting shirtless backstage. Some very attractive female stylists shaved off his scraggly beard. And yes his yoga sessions are definitely doing him quite well. He never did put his shirt on again. The audience watched and laughed as the spectacle was shown on the video screens. Copeland went over and kissed the clean shaven singer.

There was still leftover shaving cream on the corner of Sting’s mouth when he came out singing “Roxanne.”

The show had some other lighthearted moments. During the song “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic,” three daughters of Sting crept up onstage and danced beside their father. At the end of the show a roadie dressed up as a fat, outrageous opera singer lip synched to an aria.

It was hard to miss the intentions behind the cliché. It really was over.

After only two songs into the Police’s debut Vancouver B.C. concert of their reunion tour, Sting was feeling comfortable enough around his old fellow band members to joke around. He laughed that they hadn’t played together for twenty five years, and he wanted to introduce their band. Not that any introduction would be needed for the summer’s most highly anticipated rock tour, a tour that reunites Sting with Andy Summers, guitarist, and Stewart Copeland, drummer. Sting said, smiling, Andy meet Stewart, to the 64 year old Andy Summers. Unlike the last tour for the Police in 1983 rife with inter-band tensions, Sting’s quip brought smiles to everyone’s faces.

Except for the performance at their induction into the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame, the band had not played an official, entire Police concert since their Synchroncity tour. However from their ramped-up opening of “Message in the Bottle,” it was easy to imagine that they had never broken up. Sting, perhaps befitting for the reunion, wore a holey ancient white t-shirt that looked like he had had it since the 1980s, showing off his well tone abs. Copeland sported a headband, and Summers looked the part of the professional jazz musician in his slacks and shirt.

The hallmark that always made the Police successful was their professional musicianship. It was evident once again as they were able to give new life to their well-known hits. They removed Roxanne’s reggae-lilt and replaced it with a jazzier, slower tempo. They were comfortable enough re-imagining their well-known catalog, which proved them to be confident, seasoned veterans. It wasn’t exactly like it was “the Police Unplugged,” however the frantic punky edge of some of their early hits such as “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” and “Can’t Stand Losing You” was swapped out to provide more room for the improvisations of Copeland and the guitar solos of Summers done in Wes Montgomery style. Extending the songs also provided Sting with the space for widening the choruses out. He turned the song “Roxanne” into a form of call-and-response with members of the audience, which was something reminiscent of Van Morrison’s repertoire. When Sting sang the song “The Bed’s Too Big Without You,” he sounded like he really meant it, even though his wife was sitting rather obvious in the eighth row’s center.

The most successful reinterpretation was the re-imagination of the hit “Wrapped Around Your Finger.” It was turned into a plaintive, haunted ballad that the solo catalog of Sting is best known for. Only hits from the Police repertoire were included and new and solo material was skipped, although the night had more of a celebratory feel than a nostalgic one.

The Police always were quite the populist band. That’s exactly why their fans, which included Penelope Cruz and Eddie Vedder, had coveted tickets so much for the tour’s debut concert. Some of the inter-band tension that had propelled some of the early tours of the Police, when the internal implosion of the band was happening and Copeland had swear words written on his drums, appeared to be absent during a set both predictable and generous. When the Police did their encores with “Every Breath You Take,” and “King of Pain,” along with “Next to You” as their finale , the familiar yet resurrected hit songs were delivered with the conviction that had made the Police originally such a sincere rock band we could all love without any guilt.