The Police, Fall Out Boy, Kelly Clarkson and More: 15 Can't-Miss Summer Tours

The Police -- singer-bassist-songwriter Sting, drummer Stewart Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers -- opened their first world tour in twenty-three years on May 27th in Vancouver. The set list is virtually all hits and crowd favorites, plus a dynamic version of the 1983 B side "Murder by Numbers." There is also a surprising omission, at least for now: "Bring on the Night," from 1979's Reggatta de Blanc. "I fucking love the way we're doing it," says Copeland. "But it ain't working for Sting."

After not playing together for so long, how hard is it to avoid falling into old bad habits?
We are totally full of bad habits that we've had to work hard to weed out. My worst is that I speed up. I have a complicated sense of rhythm and decoration. If I don't hear it, I fill it. I have to prune that. For other members of the band, similar sacrifices have to be made. And it's been difficult, harder than any of us thought, to do that -- to give things up.

Have you changed any arrangements substantially from the original records?
There are songs where I have another drum set -- timpani, bells, cool stuff -- and I've programmed rhythms, created loops. We're playing live, but it's like a new version of the band. It really excites us. And I can sense that if Sting ends up writing a new song or gets to thinking about how to use this band to create new music, it will be this kind of thing that inspires him rather than rearranging "Roxanne."

With Genesis, Crowded House and Smashing Pumpkins out there, the Police picked a crowded year to hit the road again.
No, we picked a less crowded year. We're not thinking in terms of reunions. We're competing with the biggest acts in the world. Last year, it was the Rolling Stones and Madonna. We get to be the dinosaur of this year.

True Colors
June 8th-June 30th
Tickets: $21.00 - $205.50
Line-up: Cyndi Lauper, Erasure, Debbie Harry, The Gossip, The Dresden Dolls

When "True Colors" hit the top of the charts in 1986 Cyndi Lauper starting to get a stream of letters from gay fans deeply moved by the songs message of acceptance. "Basically every letter I opened talked to me about True Colors and how it gave them the strength to continue," Lauper says. "I thought at that moment if there was something I could do, I would do it." It took two decades, but this summer Cyndi Lauper is rounding up friends Debbie Harry, The Gossip, Dresden Dolls, Erasure and Margaret Cho for a fifteen city tour to raise awareness of gay rights and raise money for the Human Rights Council and the Matthew Shepherd Foundation. Check your local listings: Rufus Wainwright, The Indigo Girls and Rosie O?Donnell will stop by for select dates. Lauper says she's especially psyched to bring the tour to Red States ? and that she's not afraid of protestors. "They're welcome," she says. "They'll get an erase hate bracelet at the door just like everybody else."

The Decemberists
June 17th-July 22nd
Tickets: $20-$105
Opener: Band of Horses

The Decemberists will turn their charming chamber-pop tunes into full-blown symphonies when they hit the road in June. Conductor Sean O'Loughlin (who has worked with Belle and Sebastian) is touring with the Portland, Oregon, band, which will team up with local orchestras in five cities, including L.A. and Atlanta. "A lot of our songs have what we call fake indie orchestras, where we overlay string upon string upon string," says Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy. "This will be a new adventure for us."

The White Stripes
June 17th-July 31st
Tickets: $30-$50

Singer-guitarist Jack White and drummer Meg White are heading way off the beaten track on the White Stripes' first tour in two years. They will play shows in the far north of Canada as well as at Bonnaroo, Madison Square Garden and a blues festival -- a first for the Stripes -- in Ottawa. "A lot of people don't know that we have anything to do with the blues," says Jack. "But every time we sing or play a note, that's the root of it -- the blues."

After the Raconteurs, how does it feel going back to the power of two?
The Raconteurs are more of a conventional band. I play a guitar solo, and the other guys keep going behind it. In the White Stripes, I play rhythm and lead at the same time. I constantly keep the show going. And there is an intensity between Meg and I that I can't comprehend at times. I know it pushes me to do better, to do more than I would. I've got that vibe in my brain: "I got to keep it going."

How will you arrange songs from Icky Thump for the stage? In "I'm Slowly Turning Into You," there's organ and glam guitar. Which will you play live?
Some nights I'll play it on organ, some nights on guitar. Or some nights I'll play one with one hand and one with the other [laughs]. The good thing about the White Stripes is we get to decide when and where to break our own rules.

The tour includes unusual stops like Montana and Alaska -- and the Yukon Territory, which is way uptown.
We're playing the last sixteen states we haven't been to yet, and we're playing every province and territory in Canada. We've never done a tour of Canada, even after all these years.

And the White Stripes are headlining at the Garden for the first time.
I don't even know what the Garden looks like -- I'm not from New York [laughs]. I never imagined the White Stripes, a two-piece band, could play that place. It's unbelievable.

Bob Dylan
June 22nd-september 16th
Tickets: $25-$137
When Dylan walked onstage in Stockholm in March, he did something he hadn't done at his concerts in nearly four years: He played the guitar. After seven songs, he sauntered back to his keyboard (his instrument of choice since 2004), but the trend continued through the rest of his European tour -- and it's likely Dylan will keep it up when he kicks off his summer with a two-night stand at the Borgata casino in Atlantic City. But like all things Dylan, you never know.