Detroit Soundcheck, Concert, and Set List

Hello again !!! Here we go !!! I know everyone is so anxious to see Prince perform. This was the 5th show of the tour, so only 15,000 people have experienced it so far. See the show, take it all in, love it or else !!! Thanks for the description of the day Ian.

Here's what I experienced. My friend from Chicago came in for the show. I was gone from work at noon, and by 1:30 PM we were eating at the Mexican Town Restaurant down on Bagley. We then drove all the way home and dressed for the show. We arrived down at the Opera House at 4:48 PM and snagged a parking meter spot a block from the venue. So after 6, it was free. There were about 50 people in line and by the time everyone was admitted into the soundcheck, the number of people was around 200-225. We were told that it was the largest crowd at a soundcheck so far.

Waiting outside in line was Rico, who has posted here and hopefully will post his experience once he wakes up today !!! Rico was first in line (There were two lines)outside of a set of double doors and they opened his set of doors for admittance. Rico was his usual self, loud, chatty, and laughing like crazy. So when we get inside, everyone sits down, with Rico in the front row and just as exuberant as he was outside.

Rico airbrushed at least 5 jackets with images of Prince and the ladies he did them for were all around his seating area. As we were filing in, the band was doing some instrumental doodling , and you can here Prince giving out commands and talking, but nowhere to be seen. Then all of a sudden he says "Who's the drunk in front"? Well that sets off a conversation between Prince and Rico. Prince says "Did you know that my image is copyrighted"? He was messing with Rico about his jacket. Everyone is cracking up !!!Prince said "What's your name"?

Prince then told Rico "You don't even know where I am", and everyone is looking around. He says " I'm right behind you" I'm looking into the soundbooth in back, the balcony, all over and no sign of Prince. All of a sudden, hunched down in about the 15th row, Prince gets up and strolls onto the stage behind his bodyguard. Prince gets behind the keyboards and he continues his conversation with Rico and calls him up onstage to sing. Rico say he's going to sing Adore, and was quite nervous so we couldn't remember any of the lyrics. Prince, Rico, and the whole crowd are laughing, making wisecracks, and basically waiting for Rhonda to come back out from backstage. Rico said "Shit" at one point, and offered to put some money he pulled out of his pocket into a curse jar.

Prince says to Rico: "Where did you get that jacket" "I made it myself" "You did not" "Yes I did, and I made all these ones also" Rico gestures to all the ladies wearing jackets and they turn around to show Prince the jackets. Prince says "Were gonna have to get you all up on stage tonight" Prince says "So Rico, you can draw like that right now" Rico says "Yes, I'll do that, give me something to draw with and I'll do it right now" Prince says "Takumi, bring out something for Rico to draw with" All of a sudden, Takumi (Guitar Tech) appears from stage right with the most dusty dry mop you have ever seen, sweeping his way towards Rico. There's dust flying everywhere, Prince is joking about the dust and Takumi sweeps Rico off the stage and everyone sits back while Prince leads the band thru an instrumental.

Rhonda had joined the band and they are playing around with an instrumental. Kinda jazzy, bluesy thing. Prince walked over to the outside of his keyboard area and told Maceo and Greg Boyer what he wanted them to do for a horn part. He's taping his foot and grooving to the beat that Blackwell, Rhonda, and Renalto are laying down.

I am in the 5th row on the left side watching Prince strap on his guitar and just by coincidence (???) yell out "Paisley Park", which I knew was played at the Chicago soundcheck. Two seconds later, Prince rips into the guitar riffs starting "Paisley Park" and my $100. Membership to the NPGMC was worth it that instant. It was a magnificent rendition with awesome guitar playing by the man !!! Fantastic !!!

After the song, Prince started fielding questions from the audience. The sound didn't carry for many of the guests, so I could only hear a portion of the questions and you couldn't even hear Prince when he was answering a lot of the questions. A woman asked for a hug and Prince said he was going to have to ask his wife if it was alright. He then gave her a big one. Another woman asked something, which made Prince ask her to join him onstage, and he took her behind the keyboards and showed her a verse from the bible.

By then, I had moved directly in front of Prince, four rows back, center stage. I then shouted out "Prince", "Prince" !!! He motioned for me to speak and I asked "How many songs has the band rehearsed besides the ones you've played at the four shows so far" ? Prince answered: "About 12" I asked if he was going to do any of them tonight and he said "Yes"!

So the last few questions were answered and Prince thanked everyone for coming and left the stage. We were taken out a side door and stated waiting in line back at the front doors. It was 6:48 when we got back outside and the doors opened shortly after 7:00 PM for the show.

We took our seats ,which were row K on the left. We went thru that stupid ticketmaster fiasco where the best available was not really best available, so we ended up 10 rows behind where we sat for Saginaw. Moonbeam (Ian) and his brother were right behind us and were grooving to the whole show !!! Ian was so excited, he forgot that Prince had played the Santana Medley in Saginaw.

Here's that Set List:

Detroit 3.6.02

The Rainbow Children
Muse 2 The Pharaoh
Xenophobia
A Case Of You
Mellow
1+1+1=3
Rollercoaster
The Other Side Of The Pillow
Strange Relationship
Pass the Peas
Sing A Simple Song
La La La (Means I Love You)
Didn't You Know - Rhonda and Prince Duet (Erika Badu Cover)
When You Were mine
Avalanche
Family Name
Take Me With U
Raspberry Beret
Santana Medley

Piano Medley:

Adore
The Most Beautiful Girl In The World
Free
Starfish & Coffee
Under The Cherry Moon
Nothing Compare 2 U
Girls and Boys
Sometimes It Snows In April
I Love U But I Don't Trust U Anymore
How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore

Anna Stesia

At the afterparty, I saw the two Italian girls that go to all the shows, and I mean ALL the shows and they said in their opinion, they thought the Saginaw, Columbus, and Detroit shows had more energy than the Chicago ones. My friend said the Chicago one she saw on the 3rd was as good as the Detroit show.

The Piano medley was definitely extended. During Girls and Boys, he wandered around stage with the mike, and had the crowd humming along. Then he heard Maria in the front row on the left side. She belted out an opera style voice along to his singing and he had her up on stage while he went back to the keyboards. Maria (I know her from Detroit Prince gatherings) took a spot next to Rhonda and sang into her microphone. As Ian mentioned, Prince told her she was going to steal the show from him, and at the end told her to sit down before he was made to switch seats with him. It was an awesome moment. After doing the piano playing and vocals alone for "How Come U Don’t Call Me, Anymore?", the whole band broke into the song and Blackwell tore up the drums for the rest of the song. Prince then made his way out from behind the keyboards to the center of the stage and put his hat on the mic stand and stroked the stand a few times. He then did a few improvised lyrics to the song, asking no one in particular "How come they never call", and stated asking what it would make a Black Man say. He kept asking as he made his way behind the drums and put the mic up to Blackwell, who shouted out a cry !!! After this fantastic version of the song, he broke into Anna Stesia, which we all agreed was a very powerful, moving version but was much shorter than the Saginaw and Chicago shows. He preached much more at the end of Anna Stesia than in Saginaw, but not as much as in Chicago. Ian described his sermon perfectly, so see his post http://www.prince.org/msg...2&tid=9955 on the show for a description.

So it an awesome show !!! He was in a fantastic mood , playing with the crowd and making eye contact and faces with the first few rows all night. He wore a Black suit like the 3/3 show in Chicago with tangerine tie with a cool pattern, and a red handkerchief in the jacket pocket. He had a matching hat that he wore thru the first half of the show. Unlike the Saginaw show, he came out in a different outfit for the PianoMedley, which was a mint color pants and shirt with matching shoes. He wore a silver chain with a NPG medallion blinging to the balcony !!!

Went to the afterparty and Prince showed up around 2:30 and played the following songs starting at 3:00 am: He started out with Tambourine, then played Gotta Broken Heart Again, Dionne, then drove us wild with DMSR, Interactive, and finished with a 35 minute version of Hey Hannigan !!! PSYCHE !!!! LOL !!!

Really, the afterparty was in a cool club, kinda crowded and pretty unfair on the entrance fee. I had to pay the full price. The doorman looked you up and down to decide what you were going to pay for the cover . That part sucked big time. We stayed about an hour and split for another Mexican dinner at Xochilmilco's.

Got to bed at three and here I am, tired as hell but doing my duty for the Prince community !!! Take it easy everyone and remember to see the show !!!

thanx 4 the notes wish i could have been there:)

Great Review. That's awesome he did TMBGITW. I got a question. During the piano medley, is it just Prince playing the piano, or is it him at the piano with the rest f the band playing?

This sounds like it had more energy than the first Chicago show. I was standing all night, but those around me were sitting much of the night. I would have liked for Prince to play the Detroit piano medley in Chicago.

oooohhhhh
I am doin Buffalo 2nite!!!!!
I can't wait!!!!!
3rd row!!!!
thanks for that great report!!!!!
u got me all worked up now, how my gonna make it through the rest of the day?????

damn!!

he played at the afterparty...sounds like its getting better and better i went to both shows in chicago...and the shows where great but the crowd enengy was lower than i expected..with the chicago nation and all...by the time he gets here,,,HOUSTON TEXAS in april he should be at full steam ahead...HOUSTON has always been a hot spot.

Hey Dennis, great review again!!Thanks
one thing to add was about John Blackwell when he did his first solo how he was switching his durmsticks from hand to mouth to other hand, then worked it sooo HOT he shook right out of his coat.just another little memory that made the show.

nusole said:

SlayerNPG said:

Got to bed at three and here I am, tired as hell but doing my duty for the Prince community !!! Take it easy everyone and remember to see the show !!![/quote]

Just want to add that it was so great to see all of the Detroit people at the show. Felt like we were at an official PrinceFest !!!

Where did he perform for the afterparty????? I was at ENVY until 2:30/3ish????

beautifulstrange1999 said:

Oh my gosh.... I feel much better now. I think my reading and comprehension skills have been affected by my lack of sleep! LOL

no there was any performace. only DjDudley,Princes Dj from Paisley Park,was there spinnin along with the club's Dj.

So are members starting to get goods seats without hassle? I hope those things are starting to work themselfs out.
MS

wow! Not only the shows, but also the reports seem to get better and better!
Thank you!

Nice report, so where is Rico?

sag10 said:

Mauve said:

MilkSode said:

Hey Dennis!
Thanks for the great review! I think our reviews compliment each other quite nicely! I would definitely agree that Blackwell was tearing things up! Glad to see that you enjoyed the show as well!

sag10 said:

Mauve said:

Moonbeam said:

dendmmr said:

Well, I went to the show last night. And I just woke up. All I can say is WHOA! I danced all night, I had an absolete BLAST! People talk about Prince not havin;' it anymore. Man! If that's not a bunch of bullshit. For now on whenever I read something on a thread on this site about how Prince doesn't have it anymore, and he's crazy or whatever! After last night, I'm not even gonna bother reading any of the negative comments anymore.
Prince put on a SHOW! NPG Radio is a good idea. He had the crowd jammin'and on their feet. Prince cracked jokes all night! It was almost a comedy show also. He picked with the crowd, and brought people on stage. He summed up all his religious beliefs at the end of the concert. It's definitely not as bad as everyone makes it out to be, especially on this site. Some of the stuff we blabber and debate about on this site, gets back to him. He cleared up who the Rainbow Children are. As most of us thought, "It has nothing to do with race." I lost my voice again, screaming, shouting and screaming. Xenophobia sounds Jazzy, Funky, Fusion-like. Overall I had a BLAST! I definitely got my money's worth. I wish I could have went to the after party. D.M.S.R. and Interactive LIVE! I would have loved that, but I had class in the morning I know I'm a lame.

Well that's my short lil review
lata
Blue Cashmere, The Blue Prince

Blue

You guys forgot to mention the dance debut of ADONIS.Homeboy was jammin as Prince kicked "RollerCoaster" for him.(but you gotta stop spittin in ya hands if you want Prince to shake em. Thats the REAL reason, not the rings, Danish!

Dennis I could not have done a better job of telling my story, this has had to be the greatest Prince moment of my entire life. I'm still basking in my 5 minute's of fame on stage with my boy, it took me 20 years and it was well worth the waite. THANK U PRINCE I cried in the bathroom it was that overwhelming for me. THANK U DENNIS NPG Music Club Still that (@%@%%) see Prince no more cussing doing it for the little one and Prince your jacket is on the way and if I owe U any compensation let me know I just enjoy painting U. and to my girl that got the bible U go girl (New World Order) going to get me a copy I still want a Prince Tattoo don't tell him OK talk to U all later..... also one of the best shows U all know that the best part was when the girl got on stage and followed him around and he called for security LOL gotta

Went to the afterparty and Prince showed up around 2:30 and played the following songs starting at 3:00 am: He started out with Tambourine, then played Gotta Broken Heart Again, Dionne, then drove us wild with DMSR, Interactive, and finished with a 35 minute version of Hey Hannigan !!! boldPSYCHE !!!! LOL !!! bold
Nice thought though.

Can someone tell me about "Avalanche"...