Report: August 18 show in Boston (as seen from row 1)

Today was our 7th wedding anniversary. We met in ppml.org's Prince chat room in December 1996 and got married on August 18, 1997, so tonight was going to be a special night for us no matter what.

The challenge for us was to come up with another funky outfit. I think we managed: Dragana (my wife) was wearing a fluffy white zip-up jacket on top of a bra, a short skirt, and purple thigh-highs under her high-heeled colorful boots. I was wearing tight zebra pattern pants, a purple T-shirt, purple fluffy jacket, and... get this... a pair of 4-inch high heeled Prince-style shoes that belong to Dragana. I can tell you that wearing high heels was definitely a first for me!

Once we got out of the cab at the Fleet Center, we immediately got compliments from people and smiles and stares. That felt pretty good, I must admit -- haha. We got a nice couple of seats as well: Section AA, Row 1, seats 13 and 14. We were psyched to see it was row 1, but I remembered from someone else's report that section AA could mean you end up right behind John Blackwell with the drum setup blocking most of your view of the stage. That was indeed the case for us, but nonetheless these were excellent seats. It's just so much more comfortable having front-row seats.

We arrived a few minutes before 7:30pm, which is when, unexpectedly to us, a group of musicians including Maceo Parker started playing on stage. They played a very good set that started off with "Soul Power". I don't know who the singer was, or who the drummer was, but they were good! They certainly did "get your body movin'"! The drummer played on John Blackwell's kit. A song or two into the set, Candy Dulfer and her mum (who's also her manager) were watching them play from the side of the stage. I waved at Candy, and even though she probably had no clue who I was, she smiled back. (I actually met her in person years ago, but that was more memorable for me than for her ) Candy then joined the band for the remainder of the set. When she came back off the stage, I wanted to shout "Hey Candy, goed gedaan, meissie!", but I couldn't find a moment quiet enough to be sure she'd actually hear it, so I didn't do it. (No, I didn't get around bringing that Dutch flag. Kinda regretted it now.) What I really liked about the support act was that there mix sounded very good too. Often, support acts are not mixed as well, to let the main act stand out better. I remember this particularly from the Nude Tour show in August 1990 where Lois Lane was playing before Prince: their mix was incredibly weak, not doing them justice at all. Not here in Boston: this sounded great, and they had a good light show going on as well. Definitely enjoyed this set very much. It ended at around 8:10pm. I feel sorry for the people that arrived after that and missed it.

At 8:50 the Prince show started. The crowd was cheering wildly while the black box on with Prince inside was rolled in. Dragna and I high-fived Mike Scott and John Blackwell as they walked by right in front of us When "Musicology" started, Prince immediately walked towards the B section again. From our AA section that meant a great profile view of the man. The confetti dropping out of the ceiling during "Let's Go Crazy" is a pretty magical moment. That's a serious amount of confetti. I couple of those long purple strands landed straight around my neck, so I left them there.

We saw a lot of John Blackwell's back, which was actually very interesting: it almost made it feel as if were watching the concert from back-stage. During "Shhh" this gave us some excellent views of his absolutely amazing talent.

At the end of "D.M.S.R.", Prince walked out to the B-section again, and spotted this one girl having a good time. He pointed at her several times before it sunk in for her that indeed Prince had just hand-picked her to come on stage. She was on stage for the next two songs. During "Pass the Peas" he asked her: "Are you having a good time?", to which she cheerfully and loudly replied "I'm having a GREAT time!". She danced at the end of the catwalk with Prince dancing around her while making funny faces Later, when she'd be back at her seat, Prince made eye-contact with her a few more times, because she was clearly on an adrenaline rush

During "No Diggity", the "Black with a splash of red"-act was now about "Gold with a splash of white", with Chance Howard wearing his Gold-colored suit (just like in the tourbook). "This is a pimp", Prince kept saying, "And not as in Paisly Independent Music Production" (or something like that) "but as in..." etc.

Prince seemed to be a better mood tonight compared to last night. During Controversy/A Love Bizarre/Controversy he played a great guitar solo on his Hohner Telecaster (I have the exact same guitar, but from a later year, by the way), and at one point he let everybody wait around for him while he plopped down in Rhonda's corner on her pillows to read a copy of Rolling Stone. He helt it up high, so we could all see his face on the front page clearly He only got up once the crowd had started cheering loudly enough, and he led the band to continue the jam He did some more funky riffs on his Hohner -- sounded great. He did some shoutouts: "Here's a shoutout to MTV! Not!", equally "Not!" to radio and some others till he said: "Here's a shoutout to real music! Yes!" We were paying attention, because everybody in the audience said the "Yes" in synch with him.

Today it was a beautiful rendition of "Georgia On My Mind" (who was singing this tonight?) instead of the instrumental "Wonderful World" that was played last night.

For the acoustic set, Prince wore an all-white outfit. (By the way, Rhonda looked absolutely stunning again tonight, ladies and gentlemen! Later in the concert she said down in this low plush-looking seat next to John's drum kit, and she looked powerful and beautiful like that.) The acoustic set was a bit different from yesterday. He didn't play some of the new songs, but he did play "Dear Mr. Man" -- yes! thanks Prince -- and another favorite of mine: "17 Days". (For a full set-list see my other post.) I loved it that he did "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" again: he plays it well, and he sings it even better! Really liked it. Before the show I saw a guy walking around wearing a big Rolling Stones T-shirt (with the massive tongue sticking out over his beer belly) -- that guy must have loved this part. Just like yesterday, Prince sang different verse lyrics for Satisfaction, fitting the song right inside his School of Musicology theme, by complaining how you can't get satisfaction from radio anymore these days: "I call it regurgitation". Prince also played the first few bars of "Jailhouse Rock", before abruptly stopping it with the comment: "You must be a Prince before you can be a King". He ended "Raspberry Beret" with the clear instruction to all in synch sing back to him "I looooove you". I really enjoyed this acoustic set. I am glad he added this as part of his shows.

The full band kicking in again on "7" is such a rush though. I cannot go long without a heavy beat. This time I got my share: because of our front row seats right behind John, every kick on his bass drum went directly into our guts, throats, hearts, veins, you name it -- we could feel the bass freaking everywhere! It was LOUD yo!! We got some more of it after "Pop Life" and "Sign of the Times" had finished and Prince had put his light-blue Fender Stratocaster guitar flat on the floor to show off his "Look ma, no hands!"--guitar solo again. It is hard to imagine what goes into the amplification of little vibrating guitar strings into something so overwhelmingly thunderously soaring that it makes you wonder how your body is possibly able to withstand it all. That said, it felt goood! There were a couple of sweet moments in "Question of U" before this solo: a teddybear was thrown on stage from somewhere on the left of us, and Prince did a really nice subtle guitar solo as well. Prince, if you're reading this: I loooove the musical scales you're using for this song in the melody lines! After his no-hands solo, Prince twirled around the stage gently before going into "The One". The best singing-bit of that song was performed in great view of us, right in front of the B section crowd. Beautiful.

"Let's Work" featured Prince tearing it up on bass again, also doing a nice in-synch duet with Rhonda.

About a dozen lucky girls were brought on stage for the remainder of the show before the encore: "U Got the Look", "Life O the Party", "Soul Man", "Kiss", and "Take Me With U". Someone commented that last night it was only black girls. I didn't even notice that, and I couldn't care less, but tonight it certainly was a mixture I didn't see Prince pushing any of the girls around this time. I think they just stayed clear of certain key areas automatically this time. I could not see it as well this time though because of the drum set up. There was this one cute black girl who had a great time cheering on the people in the B section. She was definitely in her element -- great fun to watch her The music stopped and girls were off-stage by 10:50 I believe.

Encore: carbon copy of last night. Short version of Purple Rain. The walk-around-to-bow-at-audience routine at the end was exactly the same as well, with him signaling credit to the Lord instead of to himself.

After the show, John Blackwell and Chance Howard stuck around on the floor to talk to fans. They were super-nice and very easy going. We shook their hands and told them how amazing they were. John signed one of our Musicology CDs for us and he signed a drum stick (not-used, new one I got from the drum tech guy). Chance also signed the CD.

Good show. Thanks so much. Already looking forward to tomorrow night: I am getting used to this now!

I think I will be wearing my zebra-pants with light-blue belt and high-heeled shoes again. Not sure what I'll wear on top yet.

Peace, and "Get Wild"!

- Erik
[This message was edited Thu Aug 19 7:13:33 2004 by vanderneut]

God...to be at a Prince concert... Its a wonderful thing!

Here's us in tonight's outfits, just before we headed out of the door to go to the show:




And here's the signed Musicology CD. The big sig in black-marker is John's. Chance signed top left with a regular pen:



- Erik

Congrats on your 7th wedding anniversary.

Thanks for the review and the pics. You and your wife look so adorable. I am really digging your wife's boots and your purple boa jacket.

My friends and I saw you two last night and thought your outfits were great!!

vanderneut said:

What a great story!!!!...you both looked like you were definitely out to have fun, loved your clothes!!!! I hope one day if he ever performs in NY again that I get a front row seat....hey! have fun for me tonight too and give me a shoutout!!!!!

that was Maceo Parker's band opening!!! and yes they are great some of the funkiest musicians around

Nice story and Congratulations. you two look so cool in your outfits.

I too was behind the drummer on the end of the cross stage. I was in loge 1 row 1 in front of the little curtain door where all the band members came out, and the stairs where all the girls came up on stage. I was with my sis and we were wearing matching home-made purple tanks with purple rain albums cover decals on them and I had a black love symbol baseball hat on. I was waving my purple glow-stick most of night. Was blown away by the concert. He was amazing.. I don't remember seeing you guys though. Dunno how I missed ya. Maybe you were on the other side to my right. I do know there was an African-American couple in front of me on the floor waving an old Album ( a REAL Album remember those!! The ones with the vinyl record inside.) Prince pointed to them at some point when we was talking about "old school" fans and said "OH yeah, YOU guys are def old school!"

We started out at the Harp for a few drinks . Then after the concert stopped to listen to the cool bongo players outside. Then stopped at Coyote Ugly for a few. There were quite a number of concert goers at both places. I had a blast and was in recovery mode all day yesterday.

You guys look mad cool! I love that white fur jacket on your wife (by the way...you did good my friend). The Zebra pants and heels? Fabulous. Only at a Prince show can a man do that, get away with it and get compliments.

First off, GREAT OUTFITS!!! And I just wanted to say to whoever said that there were only black women on the stage on 8/17, that's totally untrue. I was up there and I'm Asian. Dancing with me was a blonde white woman that Prince had picked from the audience himself, one hispanic girl I made friends with on the way down, and at least another non-black woman. So, all shades were represented C'mon now!
[This message was edited Mon Aug 23 6:16:00 2004 by Tatifoshizel]