Breathing new life into new songs

You could learn a lot about Sting by just checking out the souvenir items on sale in the lobby before the veteran pop star’s concert Tuesday at the Pantages Theatre.

The words on the front of the aqua T-shirts, “There’s no such thing as a winnable war,” remind us that he’s an activist. The volumes of his bestselling biography (“Broken Music”) tell us he’s an author. The black yoga top and pants ($40 each) suggest that he strives for inner peace.

For anyone who has heard Sting’s somewhat anonymous latest album, “Sacred Love,” it’s only natural to wonder if the man’s not spreading himself a little too thin these days -- and we haven’t even gotten yet to all those hours of blissful tantric sex. (One T-shirt did proclaim the wonders of sex and music, in that order.)

In contrast to the individuality and passion that characterize the English singer-songwriter’s most distinguished work, “Sacred Love” seems at times smothered by overly familiar images (remember, everyone, love is the answer) and limp music.

The unevenness of the CD probably caused a lot of Sting fans to go into the sold-out Pantages with their fingers crossed. They know Sting is one of those artists who, to his credit, doesn’t rest on nostalgia in concert. Sting wants to build his tours around his new material to prove he is still moving forward, and he and his vigorous five-piece band took that principle to the limit Tuesday by playing nine of the 10 songs from the new album during the two-hour performance.

The question was whether they would find a way to make the music more involving live. And the answer came quickly.

After a brief opening set by charismatic but sometimes underachieving trumpeter Chris Botti, Sting gave a quick nod to his old Police days by opening with a sharply reworked version of “Walking on the Moon.”

He and the band, including longtime sidekick Dominic Miller on guitar, then got down to business by dressing one of the new songs, “Send Your Love,” with such an infectious ribbon of high-style electronica that everyone in the theater who found the album sluggish must have let out a sigh of relief.

Oddly, on the album Sting included two versions of “Send Your Love” -- one a formal rendition that places the emphasis on the uninspired lyrics, the other a peppier rendition, similar to Tuesday’s, that shifted the focus to the spectacular rhythm.

Sting, who alternated between bass and guitar, followed with a convincing and fluid treatment of “Inside,” a soul-searching meditation from the album that is likely to become one of his signature tunes.

It was a dazzling one-two punch that set the tone for the evening. Not everything from the new album rose to this level. Some of the new songs still felt conventional, but the intensity of the band and the two female backup singers made even those moments seem creditable.

When he was at his best, the new songs stood up well against the best of the older numbers, including “Every Breath You Take” and “If I Ever Lose My Faith in You.” Most of them were redesigned to showcase Sting’s varied rock, jazz, pop and world-music influences in frequently absorbing ways.

In the music, Sting also showed he was an activist (“This War,” with its key line, “Don’t Do Nothing” flashing on video screens), an author (“Stolen Car” is as close to a short-story narrative as you can get in a song) and a man looking for that inner peace (“Dead Man’s Rope,” a standout new tune about being suspended between one’s “darkest fears and dearest hope”).

Because Sting normally plays large venues, this small-hall tour, which was scheduled to include a second sold-out show Wednesday, gives us a rare chance to see him in intimate surroundings. Rather than soften the music to make the affair all that more personal, Sting beefed it up, creating a sense of celebration that contrasted with the melancholy edges embedded in so much of his music.

If this move sacrificed some of the personal tone of such delicate hits as “Fragile,” the move more than compensated with its unchecked optimism. Sting, whose voice has lost none of its elasticity, revitalized the new music so effortlessly that it felt like sleight-of-hand.

Sting’s range of interests and strong persona leave him open to caricature at times, but we shouldn’t forget that he remains a musician with a masterful and distinctive pop vision.