Hello!

So i did it. I flew all the way from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, to see my musical and spiritual hero for over 20 years. TRC blew me away and I knew something special was going on. And it did!
A lot has been said already, but if you don't mind I want to share my experience as well.
Ofcourse it all started at attending the soundcheck. It was great to see Prince so calm and relaxed. It was like coming to his home and drink a (musical) cup of coffee with him. By the way I haven't read anything about the way he looked during the soundcheck. He looked very nice. Wearing a nice small hat, glasses and a 'suit' of loose fit material. Bluegrey as I remember. The soundcheck has been described before, but the main thing about it for me was the mellowness of it. Just saying hello and share some time with eachother. Great!
The show... The show was really the best I've witnessed. I started at Sign of the Times and seen him a lot of times after that. Back then the show was as important as the music, sometimes even more important. Through the years I more and more longed for concerts where the music was the key thing. This one is like that. It's like a 'rehearsed aftershow'. It's about music and music only (besides the content of TRC which is also communicated through the text and video-images). With 'rehearsed aftershow' I mean that it almosts feels like a free jam but it isn't. Prince is still in control and knows what he is doing. There is some space for improvisations but the whole is more or less 'locked'. (And then again it can change every show. On saturday he did 'Joy...', on sunday Carlos came up playing. So what do i mean 'locked'?! But you get my meaning, I hope) Unfortunately I missed the expected aftershow of the sunday show, but I think that is the place/moment where the band goes completely free. Don't get me wrong: what was offered now was more than satisfying. 'Controlled' or not it was awesome. The band is GREAT. This is the right crew to do this. Ronda (you lovely allround outstanding bass (and some keyboard!) player , Renato (thank you for the electronic feel added, besides your free playing), Greg (a bit underexposed in the show but take you away and things go wrong) and ofcourse John (a lot has been said but you are THE man. From subtle jazz grooves to hardrockin' kickass beats. You can do it all). And besides that there was MACEO (the man IS) and Larry (kinda like the man...).
Oh yeah and there was this man playing all kind of different guitars and he was singing and playing the keyboards too! THANK YOU!!!!! You started it all. And you're still on top. For me you never been away, but man o man it's wonderful to see you in such an excellent (and highly spritual) way. You give me so much joy. With your music, but also with your appearance. Especially on this tour. Thank you for being so open and accessible.
Was it worth the rather bizare trip (arrived friday, saw the show on saturday, flew back on sunday)? Haven't even asked myself that question. You'll know the answer!

Love and peace (and be wild once in a while).

Art,
Amsterdam.

2 words: lucky dog!

art said:

Hey, you were the guy sitting next to us in Row F almost by the aisle, right? I was amazed you flew 8 hours just for that show and you'd be flying right back. So, you deserved to have a good time after all of that! Glad to see you made it back safely, but you missed a hell of a show on Sunday!!

Glad you had a great time! Thanks for the report!

Hi art,

Thanks for being a good sport and nice to see that somebody from so far away (well not for me, just 40miles) took the step to see it in the States. Yeah, I hope my wish to see a concert there did came through. Maybe next time. I missed your feelings of comparison to some dutch shows he gave here, mostly about the crowd differences and the people who where at the venue.

Tof, gaaf, cool, ga zo door, misschien ga ik volgende keer mee. By the way : maybe we could see the june event at MPLS together.

Wow, all the way from The Netherlands!

U sir, r a Prince fan indeed!

Good report too, thank you!

And hope u got a chance to check out our beautiful city with the great spring weather we had over the weekend!

peace!

Hi Art,

Was our Dutch Candy there as well? I thought she was joining the tour after the break in March, but she is not mentioned in any report sofar.

Hope to see ONA in The Netherlands soon.

Regards,
John

And of course you did not forget to ask Prince when he was planning on comming to Holland. Right?!?!

What was his awnser?

('98 was verdomme de laatste keer

No sign of Candy. She is touring right now. As far as I understood she will be joining end of april and may...
And sorry, I didnt ask if our hero came to Holland. As you probably already know, people on sunday asked if he came to Europe, on which he answered: I really like to. Let's hope and hope.

To b4ever: the crowd was real black and white mingled. I think with the last shows overhere the white folks dominated.
The average age was 30+. Altough I saw some kids and some ± 20 (he still gets young fans...!) The atmosphere was real good. Not really any different with here.

To Geminisfunkyjams: didn't have that much time to see your city. I didn't like the neighbourhood of the theatre (altough the theatre itself was truly wonderful and intimate). On saturday I took a bus to Columbia road/avenue (the street with all the foreign restaurants). I liked that very much. But again I didn't have the time to truly judge your city.
Art,
Amsterdam

And I thought I had been the only for the 30th show to travel some distance. I guess Wisconsin does not even come close to comparing to Amsterdam.