We saw them perform on the second night at the Bell Centre in Montreal.  Let me just say this: Montreal loves The Police.  Their music station (Musi Plus) had an all day all Police show before the first night's concert, and even re-aired pieces the second day.

The opening band was called FictionPlane, and was a surprisingly different kind of music from what I was expecting.  It wasn't bad.  I think there was one song I liked.  The rest didn't do much for me one way or the other.  But the lead singer had a voice very much like Sting.  It was later that I overheard other members of the audience mention that the lead singer was Sting's son.  He definitely enjoyed jumping off the speakers in a classic rockin' guitarist sort of way.

I was a little worried, since the arena was half empty still even when the opening band finished their set.  But then the crowds came steadily filing in.  By the time the Police reached the stage, the stadium was packed and I could not see an empty spot anywhere.  Empty seats, there were plenty.. but that's because mostly everyone was standing for most of the performance.  Some people got right into it and where spasming around like they were having a seizure... but hey, they were enjoying the show, so who can fault 'em.

The band was in good form that night.  Sting looked like he was having a grand time up on stage, and the audiences energy was surely helping with that.  Stewart Copeland was having fun on the drums.. throwing his sticks wildly up into the air when he had to switch instruments.  Andy Summers was the only one not outwardly enjoying himself, but he took pictures of the audience between sets, so I guess he enjoyed it enough to capture the evening on film.

The songs performed were mostly the well known hits.  There were a couple I didn't recognize, and the audience tamed down visibly during those.  Then something like Roxanne would come on, and the crowd would go nuts again.  It was a good mix.

One thing I had a little trouble with was understanding the lyrics.  The volume (I'm not complaining that it was loud... why go to a concert if you can't stand loud music?) was high enough to muffle the words.  One song, "Walking in Your Footsteps", sounded to me like "Walking in the Food Store".  So I was a little confused why skeletons of dinosaurs were strutting across the video monitors.  

Oh, actually there was a second thing.  Andy would go into long guitar solos, shredding without abandon.  The problem was that he would lose track of the song.. lose the key, the pacing, the feel...  it sounded fine until the solo was over and we returned to the song.  It was such an abrupt change it left a bad taste.  But otherwise the playing was good.  It was always funny watching Sting get in there and try to distract Andy.  One time he even reached in to pluck the final note of a solo.

Overall, the show was a blast.  If anyone is wondering if they should catch the Police at their encore shows later this year, I would recommend you go.