Full disclosure; I expected Sunday night's Sting show at the Maine Savings Amphitheater to be cool, but not necessarily extraordinary. I was pleasantly surprized and entirely mistaken by the end of the show.

As we walked up to the ticket booth, the crowd was definitely a more mellow one than last weekend's Aerosmith crowd, that's for sure. Conditions could not have been more pleasant.

Sting 42, Cori Skall
Sting 42, Cori Skall
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The audience was a mix of folks in their 40s through 70s, with a handful of kids peppered in here and there. And they were pretty subdued to start.

Sting 40, Cori Skall
Sting 40, Cori Skall
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The opener for the show was none other than Sting's own son, Joe Sumner. Sumner came out with only a guitar and a drum track, but that's all he needed to entertain the crowd, as his voice was fantastic and his songs charming.

Sting 12, Cori Skall
Sting 12, Cori Skall
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Resembling his famous father at times, Sumner definitely held his own on his own, with a pretty straight forward performance, accented by a pair of glittery high-tops and a bed-time song called "Jellybean" which he said he used to sing to his kids to get them to sleep, but it never worked.

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Samantha and Shelby from Hermon, who had come to see Sting, were very impressed with Sumner's singing.

Sting 1, Cori Skall
Sting 1, Cori Skall
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After a brief intermission, and without a whole lot of fanfare, Sting took the stage with effortless cool, launching right into a recognizable "Message In A Bottle" from his time as the frontman of The Police.

Sting 36, Cori Skall
Sting 36, Cori Skall
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The crowd ate it up, as he transitioned immediately into his own hit "Englishman in New York"...

Sting 32, Cori Skall
Sting 32, Cori Skall
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...and then again as he started up "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic", another Police hit.

Sting 33, Cori Skall
Sting 33, Cori Skall
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He stopped down after that to greet the crowd. "It's been a little while, Bangor. (Yes, he pronounced it correctly!) You've changed. The last time we were here you were in a field and a train went by for what seemed like 5 minutes."

Sting 34, Cori Skall
Sting 34, Cori Skall
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He looks like time has stopped for him, and not once did the 70-year-old seem winded or skip a beat. He was toned, relaxed, and in command of the stage, playing his bass the entire time.

Sting 28, Cori Skall
Sting 28, Cori Skall
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Sting performed some of his "new" songs, including "If It's Love", "For Her Love" and "Rushing Water" before launching into "If I Ever Lose My Faith" to the crowd's delight.

Sting 27, Cori Skall
Sting 27, Cori Skall
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He introduced his band, which consisted of "his right-hand man for over 30 years" Dominic Miller, and then went on to joke that as an insurance policy, he had hired Miller's eldest son, Rufus, as another guitar player for the band.

Sting 29, Cori Skall
Sting 29, Cori Skall
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Also joining him on stage was Zach Jones on the drums...

Sting 21, Cori Skall
Sting 21, Cori Skall
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Kevon Webster on the keyboard, and vocalists Melissa Musique and Gene Noble.

Sting 30, Cori Skall
Sting 30, Cori Skall
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He went on to perform his hits "Fields of Gold" and "Spirits In The Material World"...

Sting 18, Cori Skall
Sting 18, Cori Skall
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before bringing up a musician he said is the son of his best friend, 18-year-old harmonica phenom Shane Sagar, who killed harmonica part made famous by Stevie Wonder in "Brand New Day."

Sting 23, Cori Skall
Sting 23, Cori Skall
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He brought out vocalists Gene Noble for a cool interlude on an updated version of "Shape Of My Heart" which featured a sample of "Ludic Dreams" by Juice WRLD.

Sting 25, Cori Skall
Sting 25, Cori Skall
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And then he brought Musique up for a soulful rendition of "Heavy Clouds No Rain."

Hitting all the notes and never once appearing to break a sweat, Sting continued on to play "Walking On The Moon" and a fun reggae mix of "So Lonely" and "No Woman, No Cry" and "Desert Rose, which really showcased just how good his voice still sounds.

Sting 26, Cori Skall
Sting 26, Cori Skall
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Sting brought his son, Joe, back out on stage with him to perform a duet of his hit "King Of Pain".

Sting 8, Cori Skall
Sting 8, Cori Skall
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To see the father and son standing next to each other singing, it was hard to tell who was older!

Sting 9, Cori Skall
Sting 9, Cori Skall
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Sumner stayed on stage with his dad, joining the backing vocalists for "Every Breath You Take" and then the "Roxanne."

Sting ended the evening, as he says he always likes to end his shows, "with a quiet song that will make you think."

Sting 3, Cori Skall
Sting 3, Cori Skall
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He traded his bass for a guitar and did a beautiful rendition of his song "Fragile."

Sting 2, Cori Skall
Sting 2, Cori Skall
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And that was all he wrote. No encore, but I don't think anyone walked away feeling slighted. He rocked the stage from beginning to end, with ease, charisma, and an amazing sense of calm and cool.

Sting 4, Cori Skall
Sting 4, Cori Skall
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He's set to take the stage next in Canada before returning to the U.S. to play a couple of shows in Pennsylvania and then Vegas.

Maine Savings Amphitheater 2022 Concert Line-Up

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