Sting at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis, October 14, 2026. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)
Sting put on an amazing show Wednesday night at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis. I've seen Sting twice before, once on the Police reunion tour, and once at Myth nightclub in Maplewood. Sting is one of those people who just radiates coolness. On Wednesday night he came out on stage in a t-shirt and black pants and played us his songs for 105 minutes. There were no costume changes. There wasn't even a guitar change until the very last song of the evening. Just Sting, playing his bass with Dominic Miller on guitar and Chris Maas on drums.
I'm currently reading my friend Klecko's book Exhausting Jesus, which chronicles his journey spending 100 hours staring at a painting of Jesus at the Minneapolis Art Institute. I'm not done with the book yet, but I recommend it. In the book, Klecko references Sting's debut solo album The Dream of the Blue Turtles. It's one of Klecko's top 10 favorite albums, so that made me listen to it again. It's a fascinating album, with a strong jazz feel, songs about Russians loving their children too, and children off on a foolish crusade in 1914 Europe, and a vampire in New Orleans who hates what he has to do. And I thought, "I really like Sting, but maybe he's a bit...well, pretentious sometimes. All these lofty song ideas." I sat with that thought for a while, and then I said to myself, "Hey, if you were a famous singer/songwriter, what kind of songs do you think you might write for an album?" I replied to myself, "Well, I would probably draw some inspiration from novels I've read, artworks I love, the sweep of history, and the current world-wide political situation." "Huh, don't you think that sounds a lot like what Sting did? Maybe YOU might be a little pretentious too." And I concluded that yeah, I might be. So maybe I should cut Sting some slack. And I really like that Sting has reach: he has ambitions, he does different things. He'll randomly get into the music of a lute player born in the 16th century and record an album of his music. I like that, I'll take that over someone who just does the same thing over and over again.
Sting started the show with "Message in a Bottle," one of the Police's best-known songs, and he encouraged the audience to sing along with him. I have a random memory of "Message in a Bottle" being in a music book that we used in elementary school. I don't remember if we actually sang the song in music class, but I remember seeing "words and music by Sting" and wondering who this one-named person was.
It's pretty amazing that Sting turned 75 years old two weeks ago, and his voice still sounds the same. He can still hit all of those high, keening notes in the Police songs. I guess all that yoga is good for you. Sting played more of his big hits, "Englishman in New York," "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You," "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic," and the beautiful "Fields of Gold." Sting told us that he lives in a castle about a mile from Stonehenge, and invited us to come over for tea the next time we're in the neighborhood. Just imagine knocking on the door of Sting's castle. "Is Sting here? Yeah, I saw him at the Orpheum in Minneapolis. Balcony, row 4. I was the guy hitting all the falsetto notes. Sting promised to make me a cup of tea if I came over. Okay, cool, I'll just wait for him in the reception room."
The lighting for the concert was very cool, the lights projected onto the ceiling of the theater, so sitting in the balcony was a fun experience. It was also fun to see Sting in the trio format—of course, the Police were a trio, but you can just hear all the instruments so clearly when there's only three of them. Like Paul McCartney, Sting is inventive and melodic on the bass.
Towards the end of the show, Sting played some of those classic Police songs from their first album, "So Lonely" and "Can't Stand Losing You." And of course, "Roxanne" during the encore. Those songs are almost 50 years old now, but Sting is still performing them with energy and enthusiasm. Sting is a bit like Paul Simon, who he toured with in 2014 and 2015, where he re-imagines his songs in concert, but he doesn't change them radically. It's a nice approach to take.
Sting was funny and playful, ribbing Dominic Miller when he muffed the first note of a song. "You've played that song 3,000 times, but you've never played that note before!" Sting laughed. Sting also told Miller to pick the next song. Miller picked "We'll Be Together." I assumed this was a bit that had been worked out beforehand, but looking at Sting's setlist for this tour, Wednesday night was the first time out of 195 performances on this current tour that Sting has played "We'll Be Together," so maybe it was a spontaneous choice. Sting said of the song "It's no fun if we just play it perfectly, it's more fun if we mess it up a little."
Star Tribune music critic Jon Bream wrote that during Tuesday night's show, the middle section of the concert lagged, as Sting played less-familiar songs and sat down much of the time. I looked at the setlists for Tuesday and Wednesday, and there are some notable differences. I didn't notice any lagging energy during Wednesday night's show. I think Sting just sat down for one song during the middle section of the concert. Otherwise he was quite mobile, as he had a headset mircophone that allowed him to move around as much as he wanted.
For the final song, Sting sang "Fragile," dedicating it to the victims of ICE in Minneapolis during the Metro Surge operation. It was a beautiful and moving way to end the concert.
