I didn’t think he could top what I witnessed in Hamilton, but he did it!

Both the sound check and the actual show were stupendous
My membership has returned its investment several times over!

Okay so let’s begin:
Pre-sound check:
We had a total of about 160 members/guests tickets sold here in Toronto. I am very proud of that! I had no clue how many folks were members. We also had some visitors from LA, SF, Chicago, Detroit and Dallas I believe.
But Toronto was Definitely showing a ton of LOVE! Just like I knew we would!
Some people started to line up around 8:30, I myself arrived around 10 and started a line list. Luckily as far as I saw, throughout the day everything weren’t very smoothly and like good Canadians, everyone was polite J (sorry even good stereotypes are bad!) I had the chance to meet some great people, put some faces to names and see some good folks again!

So we were allowed inside the lobby around 5:15, which was unusually early. Well all it meant was we had a 45 minute wait inside. During this wait we could hear Pop Life being pumped from inside.

We knew it was gonna be a good show when we received an omen. Close to 6 pm the door lobby door opened and like a magical leprechaun Prince popped his head outside, to thunderous applause, smiled and disappeared! Alright, he wanted to be playful…cool!

2. Sound check
WE were led to our seats, as usual, in an orderly fashion. My lovely friend Samantha and I opted for the first 2 seats left of centre, first row. PERFECT! It was worth the wait in the rain and cold JUNE weather! The band was already jamming to a funky tune I didn’t quite recognize. Soon enough I realized it was a new arrangement of Elephants and Flowers! First time I heard it live.
At this point, a girl named Christine handed him a trinket of some sort. It was too far to the edge of the stage to tell what. He hesitantly accepted it and placed it in his pocket.
Next he said a few quick hellos. No Q&A session though…like I said he wanted to PLAY! he ripped right into Bambi and rocked that muther out! As solid as ever, u know he didn’t need to run through that one…that was strictly for US!

The third song was a great highlight. I think the only other live performance if this cover was at the mysterious Winnipeg aftershow…Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love! Oh yeas folks!
With the Fender Stratocaster, I have never heard such a vibrant, bluesy rock sound coming from any of prince’s prior performances…stunning!

Prince was approached by Rob Bowman. A local music historian who has written several books, including one he presented to prince. Soulsville USA. Covering the history of soul music. Trevor, prince’s main man stepped in and accepted the boom, and passed it onto Prince. Prince flipped through it, stating if there were no pictures, that’s no good “Cuz I cant read!” He then found something amusing, smiled and showed it to Maceo and Greg…perhaps photos of the 2 legends backinthaday?
He then exclaimed he had a gift for us. Heading to the piano, he laid down an instrumental Pearls b4 The Swine. Very lovely and soothing performance.
Still at the piano the band started to riff on a bass line of Rhonda’s, simulated on the Rhodes. It vaguely sounded like Girls and Boys, but it took its form first as In The Ghetto, by Donny Hathaway, although he simply repeated the title only.
Slowly this morphed into Sign of The Times! Slightly bluesy tempo, he sang the first verse twice and repeated the chorus. Another rare treat!

Next, for his grand finale, he reached back into his bag of funky tricks and pulled out our second helping of Days of Wild!
Once he hit that loop, we were floored! I had just seen this 2 days prior, but I couldn’t get enough! Larry Graham jumped up and joined Prince in a dual bass jam of Days of Wild, which took shape into another similar jam.

He then ended the sound check abruptly…it lasted just over an hour. No goodbyes? He musta been anxious to get this show on the road!

3. The show
The energy that filled Massey Hall was unlike any other I have ever experienced. Again I am so proud of the Love Toronto showed for Prince and the NPG. A packed house, 5 rows of NPGMC members and a Prince that wasted no time getting down to business. That’s my idea of a great Saturday night!

The highlights of the main set were as follows:
Prince sitting at the edge of the stage, 2 feet away busting out TRC on guitar…this just gets better watch time I hear it. The location helped as well! Incredible seats! As usual 1+1+1=3 brought us to our feet and just kept us there with love roller coaster and sing a simple song. With Macao and Larry and Prince on vox, this classic has never sounded better.
I have always loved this Sly song, and specifically the lyric "You’re in trouble when you find its hard for you to smile. A simple song might make it better for a little while.” Always meant a lot tome. Now hearing Prince sing that line…gives me chills.

During one particular round of applause, prince told us we “make him feel so good he may buy a house up in Toronto!”

The piano medley was as short as Hamilton’s. the new jam “Prince and the band” was expanded upon tonight, with a full funky backbeat (as opposed to prince in pitch darkness on keys) and Prince jumped offstage to wander through the crowd, and the song somehow turned into girls and boys…I still don’t know how that happened!

Local R&B/Neo Soulster Glenn Lewis was namechecked in Adore as the passenger and later jumped on stage to lead the crowd in a singalong…with Prince on keys. Although I personally don’t find much appeal in Lewis’ music, it was nice to see him floored by this opportunity to share the stage, acting humble, like most new musicians forget to do.

Also varied in tonight's piano medley:
Starfish and coffee
Free
Sometimes it snows in April…a very emotional into advising us to be good to our loved ones cuz we never get that time back.

All in all, the energy levels and Prince's overall fun with us made this my New favourite Prince show, knocking hamilton to #2.

4. The after party

We arrived at the Red Rink to find 100 or so ppl already jammed in, we were some of the first prince ppl to arrive, and the music was dull and dancey and drinks were $8!!!

Slowly but surely, the concert crowd filtered into the club, and the dj took action, filling the place with solid retro funk! Within 15 minutes the place was torn UP! Much thanks to Chicago’s April and SanFran’s Bobby…for making everyone else feel uninhibited and feel good about cutting loose!

thanx sounds fonky !

Real nice review. What an incredible journey

Thanks for taking the time to post a review.

Wow, great review! Whole Lotta Love...I got to hear this!
But I guess you mean his Hohner Telecaster, right? Or did he really play a Stratocaster? Would be the first time for him, I think.
[This message was edited Sun Jun 16 7:56:30 PDT 2002 by calldapplwondery83]

Thanks for making me your guest in line, Bobby, and allowing me to experience my first home town show with the best seat in the house

Great review... don't think I need to do one now.

I'm sure I"m speaking for most of us who were stuck in the Gallery (RS) ...If you weren't a Prince fan or still is you enjoyed the performance but the sound quality was really terrible. The speakers were low, his voice was muffled...other than that seeing the performance was amazing. Being a fan, I really enjoyed it because hearing the piano/guitar before he started singing I was jumping up and down ready to get down. A few chiquitas behind me kept on asking me what song is this, is it from Purple Rain...I responded with Prince's line..."if you're here for Purple Rain you're in the wrong house" and they kinda give me a snot look. Oh well..!!! I wanted to promote NPG Club (hehehe)

For me the experience was greeeaaat; my feet were tired from the high-heels; my voice was gone from screaming but yes, the experience was unbelievable...it was the best!!!

Thirdly, Bob I saw you (wow, you cut your hair off---sexy) ...and love the armless shirt. You were driving me nuts, oops, I should have been watching Prince

Cheers!
Tracey

a magical leprechaun, eh? ROFL.. i like that..
again, i am jealous yet excited again to see prince this weekend..

never mind
[This message was edited Sun Jun 16 14:57:14 PDT 2002 by NeptunEos]

If you know who Kat and Sharon are (from Toronto), slide me an email. We hooked up with them during the concert, but got split at the after party without getting emails... Need to talk to you Kat!

To make a long review short: It was WELL worth the drive from Ohio!

calldapplwondery83 said:

You know what, i know shit about guitars. I was hesitent to mention any guitar, but it was the honey coloured Dirty Mind guitar.

Call it what ya want, it sounded FANSTASTIC!

Thanks though,
Bob

manci said:

Sorry I dont know them offhand...were they in the lineup for the soundcheck? Let's hope they're on the org.

Bob

Great review!

The crowd around me did not seem to be into the concert as much as I had hope. There seemed to be only 2 us in that whole back area that actually grooved, sang, screamed, and got crazy during the whole show.

There were many people that just stood when supposed to, sat before they were supposed to, clapped a bit and kept looking at their watches. A lot of these same people were leaving the show at the piano set. I even told a couple of them that the show wasn't over. It was disgusting!
I only wished that I could have switched seats with some of these idiots. Why did they even bother to show up?

I actually had first row gallery seats as I wasn't planning on attending the Toronto show. In the very end, and thanks to Jay (thanks Jay!!!), I manage to get centre floors, row r or so. What a show, of course you can't really beat being up front!

Great review Bob... see you later this week.

Bob you nailed that review down, the concert was absolutely amazing. You did a great job with the list and the line.
BTW... I am Jason, I was with Darlene (#12 & 13 I beleive)
I will see you at the Celebration next week.

What time did you leave the RED at? we stayed till about 3am. We were standing by the VIP area and there was a door to the right (against the same wall as the bar). At about 1:00 the bouncers were waiting by the door, one of them told us as soon as the cell phone rang that Prince would be arriving, then about 2:00 he got another call and said he would be there in 5 minutes, about 30 minutes later he got another call from trevor saying he will not show up.

Did you hear anything?

NewPowerNorth said:

Yup...that's the Hohner Telecaster!

Hey Jason, nice to have met ya.
Yeah apparently he showed up a bity after 3, did the usual uptight nervous thing...dont know WHY he surrounds himself in that negative energy after a great show.

he was out long enough to get on stage again...nah cant ask for too much.

thankfully the Ottawa aftershow was almost all stuff we heard at the soundcheck

Take care, see u next week.

Bob
LOl @ 12 and 13...remember those numbers man!!!

WyseOne said:

NewPowerNorth said:

Huh? there was no stage at the club. Where you there when he made his appearance. how long did he stay and did he just sit in the VIP area?
[This message was edited Mon Jun 17 10:36:15 PDT 2002 by WyseOne]

WyseOne said:

no there was no stage. but some ppl said he didnt have enough time, or was tired...but in all the time he made u swait and just sat around, he couldve played at a decent place...but i cant complain. it depends on the crew and band too...damn ottawa

he showed up around3 i heard. left soon after.

no big deal. watching him sit around aint that much fun fo rme.

Bob

NewPowerNorth said:

True, I sat around at the afterparty when he played at the Gardens years ago, he sat on the couch with Mayte for 5 hours, there were maybe 40-50 people there, back then there was no members and it was special invitation only. He had 8 bodygaurds at the time, it was cool to sit 4 feet directly infront of him for those hours but yeah it was kinda boring but exciting at the same time.

tust me, after the celebration, you'll get very used to seeing him just...around.

Bob

WyseOne said:

NewPowerNorth said:

What do you mean by that? Does he make alot of appearances during the day? how are the shows, are they like mini concerts? Sorry this is my first year at the celebration, I am looking forward to hooking up with you, do you have a number I can reach you at, I have Bobby's pager number will you be hanging with him?

yes yes very well done

kamasutra said:

Actually I didn't see the Hamilton show but my girlfriend and I both agreed that his voice was VERY muffled during the soundcheck, If I did not know the songs I wouldn't have been able to make out what he was singing, the music overpowered his voice. I was very glad that things sounded the way they did for the concert.

NewPowerNorth said:

Can u please give the complete setlist of the Ottawa aftershow 2 the poor europeans fans?

blueangel7 said

i am really sorry i had an email with the list, but i deleted it after...hoping someone would post it.
it is very similar to the soundcheck in toronto with a few more songs...

Bob

NewPowerNorth said:

Yes, they were on the list. They looked like...well...I remember thinking "Shockadelica!" when I saw them.

Great review...thanks!