From The Toronto Star:


BEN RAYNER
POP MUSIC CRITIC

The first sign that modesty was not on the menu for Prince's Musicology tour stop at the Air Canada Centre last night came before the wee showman had even taken the stage.

As the lights dimmed, a quartet of video monitors surrounding the cross-shaped bandstand roared to life with images and music culled from Lord Purple's illustrious career, cut precisely to milk every ounce of idolatry from the fawning speech Alicia Keys bestowed upon the man during his induction into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame earlier this year.

The fanfare was a bit unnecessary, considering Prince has been selling out multiple arena dates on his tour (including another tonight at the ACC) and there was already a seriously wound-up throng of 17,000 or so waiting on the floor to see him perform. He didn't have to sell or prove himself to anyone.

Fortunately, for most of the night, he behaved as though he did — albeit with the poise and strut of a guy who knows he is, as Snoop Dogg might once have put it, "da shiznit."

Prince would probably never admit it, but the youthful 46-year-old appears to be enjoying the popular reappraisal of his work ushered in by Musicology. The most traditionally Prince-ly album in more than a decade of creative restlessness, it's put him back on the charts (partly due to handing a copy out with each concert ticket sold) and inspired a tour stocked with crowd-pleasing hits rather than 14-minute jazz-fusion jams.

Never one to coast, of course, Prince has given the jewels in his back catalogue a thorough, James Brown Orchestra-style recasting for the Musicology show, twisting great gobs of funk from such unstoppable chestnuts as "Let's Go Crazy," "I 4 For U", "U Got The Look" and a live mash-up of "When Doves Cry" and tightly placed snippets from "Kiss" and "Come" with precision support from his New Power Generation band.

The band — featuring sax stars Maceo Parker and Candy Dulfer, along with former P-Funk All Star Greg Boyer on trombone and drummer-beyond-compare John Blackwell — is of the unimpeachable standard one would anticipate for a gentleman who records every note on his albums himself. And indeed, the NPG was positively deadly, riffing liberally on the rubbery funk grooves of "D.M.S.R.," "Musicology," the appropriately titled new "Life O' The Party" and an entertaining late-set jab at Sam & Dave's "Soul Man."

"This is not MTV," Prince commented at one point. "There will be no lip-synching onstage tonight. This is real music, played by real musicians."

The NPG, in fact, would upstage a lesser frontman. Prince is the real deal, though, an equally talented singer, dancer and guitarist whose fondness for self-worship — the dude actually stopped the show to read a Rolling Stone cover story about himself until he deemed the crowd noise sufficiently loud to continue — is, mercifully, exceeded only by his obvious love for and commitment to music. Keeping a house in Toronto has also given him time to work on a Canadian accent, which he tried out to much approval last night.

The rollicking throwdown sounded its only bum notes during a way-too-long acoustic session that found Prince sabotaging decent, stripped-down versions of "Raspberry Beret," "Little Red Corvette" and "Alphabet Street" with a lot of mugging and rambling, jokey blues numbers. The self-indulgence was suffocating, but the band eventually bounced things back into place with raucously funky versions of "Sign O' The Times" and "7" and all was forgotten.

http://www.thestar.com/NA...9483191630

Ace said:

Anyone that says the acoustic set was "way to long" is a complete wanker! Some people will never get Prince and that's ok with me.

Did I read that correctly...he sung 'Come?'

This is an ignorant writer. He didn't sing anything resembling "Come". The acoustic set was slamming. I've never danced so hard to a solo acoustic guitar/vocal performance before. I've never heard acoustic guitar/vocal music that was so funky. That blues tune he did was hilarious, AND a great tune. I don't get this guy (the writer).