“He got the album and I just fell in love with it. I kept bugging him to play it again and again, sitting outside his door and he slid it out to me, and said, ‘Take it,’” he said. “It clinched my decision to be a drummer. There’s only a few decisions that are life-long and that’s one of mine.”
While he enjoyed music and played in the Columbus area, Anthony Dunn couldn’t fulfill his ambition to perform Police music until he walked into a music store and heard Dario Dinardo playing the bass line for the band’s “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic,” and it became the magic he was searching for.
While impressed by that, Anthony Dunn was curious as to if Dinardo could carry a tune like Sting. Dinardo answered by belting a verse of “Roxanne” on the spot. Dunn got Jon to play guitar with him on drums to form The Cops around the beginning of this decade.
“I used to live and breathe (The Police), so it was nice to actually do and not just dream about it. This band is focused on getting the exact sound,” he said.
A swimming enthusiast, Anthony Dunn often visits Buck Creek State Park to swim during the summer, and he sometimes would visit downtown Springfield for a meal and to check out what was happening, which led him to the State.
He met co-owner Rod Hatfield, who was interested in booking The Cops.
For a Cops show, Anthony Dunn plays a drum kit from the period. They record rehearsals and listen to bootlegs of Police shows to get as close as possible.
“The sound is important,” said Anthony Dunn. “The highest compliment we can get is if people say we sound like (The Police), but the style too. We’re trying to get their intensity live, but we put our own personalities in it too.”
The Cops will play all the band’s hits and a few deep cuts, but no solo Sting songs.
“We’d love people to come out and hear us try to present the real essence of what (The Police) were,” said Anthony Dunn.
Guest band That’s the Breaks from Columbus will also perform. Anthony Dunn said they have a unique sound with a musician who plays a unique guitar/bass in one instrument.
Doors open at 6 p.m. For tickets or for more information, go to www.springfieldstatetheater.com.
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