Some of my friend who are Prince fans wanted a detailed account of the shows. This is what I've come up with in the days since. I wrote it in three emails: Preparations up to the regular show, the concert, and the rest of the night. I thought others might like to see it as well.

It's admittedly zinj-centric and as long winded as Prince's guitar solos at the aftershow - I hope you don't mind. Writing it has been a great experience, reliving all these great moments again and preserving them for posterity.

*****
* PART 1 *
*****

OK, so I saw 6-7 hours of performance Tuesday night, and I'm finding it exponentially more difficult to get it all down than the 2-3 I'm used to. I'll start by going up through the "soundcheck". It was such an amazing time, I'm going to get this down in some detail. Feel free to page down for a brief setlist of the hour long performance at the soundcheck.

Tuesday was largely a wasted day for me - I wrapped up a draft of a thesis section in the morning, fired it off, and spent the rest of the day getting ready for the show. I had my red and burgandy wavy velvet tapered pants, my ankle high semi heeled pointy toed burgandy zipper boots, and my red felt fedora, but no shirt. After looking around a bit, I settled on a black silk pajama top, and finished it off with a 2" hoop in the right ear and a fake diamond in the left. I'm stylin and ready for the show.

While looking for the shirt, I stop by the Schnitz, our opera house where he played. It was just after noon, and I wanted to see if people were lining up. Nope. I was about to leave when I spotted some NPGMC laminates. They'd been to the Seattle show, and were picking up their tickets for their place in line (we were given numbered ticketes first come first serve). I followed them and was #8.

I finish getting ready and get down there about 3:30 in case there's mayhem around the line-placement tickets. A crowd gathers around 4, and I get to meet some Portland/Northwest fans among others from further away. I found out there's actually a Washington/Oregon fan group out there, which I didn't know.

People are talking about an aftershow - last schedueled show, none in Seattle, talk of the Ohm and Quest, then word spreads about the Roseland. A car from Z100 pulls up handing out Cokes and stickers and asks if we know about the afterparty - they confirm that it's at the Roseland. Sweet. The Roseland is a well known concert venue in Portland for club gigs.

We line up. There's a couple ladies with high numbered tickets milling around the front of the line. People are getting nervous that they're gonna cut. One of them is convinced to find her place in line while the other bides her time in the will call line (Portland was ALL will call). When the doors opens, she jumps in about 5th. Hrm. I'm #8, but among the first guys in line - the lines are segregated and due to several ladies having much more to search than most of the men, I wind up going in before some others. [sorry ladies, I didn't realize this would have the impact that it did]

I make my way in, the house lights are off, stage lights are on, and they're playing an instrumental I SHOULD know - I believe it's a Parade instrumental B-side, Prince is playing the lead on guitar and the band is in full force. I grab 2 seats in the front row, just inside the pillows on left stage. I sit down, settle back and get casual. The line cutters are front row center - the one who managed to cut saved a seat for the other. When I'm dressed as I was, there is a recognizable pattern I see when people check out my duds. Prince does, and I tip my hat. He moves over to the piano for Money Don't Matter 2Nite. Then a long jam that he says afterwards is on Maceo's album. "You might find a couple copies in the lobby...." ...confirmation of that... "...what a world...who needs Tower Records? What are they getting 8 bucks for? They ain't on stage..." Still at the keyboards, Condition of the Heart and Question of U instrumental. Somewhere in there he feigns a break down, "I just need to go home..." In a voice like someone talking to him he says he needs to get himself together. He gets handed a guitar and does Talking Loud and Saying Nuthin. Then to the band, "You wanna play after? It's up to John." Thumbs up from John. Then to us. "Where's the afterparty?" We tell him it's at the Roseland. "How big is it." The word gets across that it's big enough. Somebody's cell phone rings, and Prince says to hand it to him. Too bad the call had already been declined, but when the phone raing again they declined it again! Why had I silenced my phone after my buddy in Washington called me? Two more long instrumental jazz/funk jams. Between them he jokes that the sparkly shirt the line cutter is wearing is distracting him. "6:15 - time to get my hair done....oh, you thought this was my hair?" He talks a little bit about the Experiece Music thing in Seattle...said Maceo had his picture taken for it. In response to a question, he confirms he had to pay to get in.

At the end of the soundcheck, his last comment, somebody said something (I didn't hear) and he said something to the effect of "oh, don't make me read from the book...ok, think about this...when God put Adam to sleep to take out his rib to create Eve...it never says he woke back up...does that mean we are we all in Adam's dream?" He points at us, and he's off to get ready for the show.

The "soundcheck", really an hour long concert, is over. We spread out and get comfortable in the place, listening to the Xenophobia album on the PA.

Track list sloppy and brief of the performance:

Parade B-side (I need to get these in a digital format so I can confirm)
Money Don't Matter 2Nite
Maceo instrumental jam (don't know the title, probably couldn't place it
hearing it now)
Condition of the Heart
Question of U
Talkin Lound and Sayin Nuthin
Instrumental jam
Instrumental jam

It was really neat to watch him point and cue people in for solos. I could have gone home after this - most casual, intimate, free form set I'd ever seen.

Around 7 others start milling in. I realized we'd gotten so casual in the place when we had to start dodging people searching for their seats. Membership has its privledges.

Mutiny was a brewin' among the group about the line cutters. They stayed away until the show started. By the end of the evening I realized that she had gotten a little drunk in the mean time. The people with #6-7 were in the 2nd row right behind them, and made sure people knew. There was a karma thing going on there - she had a great seat and really enjoyed the show, but there was a lot of negativity being directed towards them, and you could tell they were kind of on the defence.

My brother had seats in the Dress circle at the front of the balcony section. We meet up with him when he shows up, there's an announcement that the show will start soon. Lights flicker to get peoples attention (I assume because it starts so diffused through the house instead of the whole band on stage), the lights go dim, and we start seeing band members spread around the house.

Next, the concert.

*****
* Part 2 *
*****

I'm so long winded...you're getting my writeup so I recall it all...I'm putting the tracklist up top this time

The tracklist, provide by Funk4Ever (thank goodness, as I said, I found I lost track by the end of the night) at:

http://www.prince.org/msg...&tid=13581

Rainbow Children
Muse 2 the Pharoah
Extraordinary
Mellow
1+1+1=3
Roller Coaster of Love
The Ride
The Other Side of the Pillow (done blues-style, we was snappin our fingas,
like he tode us to)
(he did funny dancing, impersonating our uncle, drunk at the BBQ on a
Saturday night)
Strange Relationship
Pass the Peas ( The WNPG segment where the names of radio stations appear
on the screensPrince says if he had a radio station, hes play Parliament
Funkadelic, Ohio Players, Rufus with Chaka Khan and Prince)
Sing a Simple Song
La, la, La Means I Love You
Rhonda Smiths song
When U Were Mine
Abraham Lincoln diatribe
Family Name
Take Me With U
Rasberry Beret
Everlasting Now

Encore at the Piano:
Adore
I Wanna Be Your Lover
Do Me, Baby
Diamonds and Pearls
The Beautiful Ones
Nothing Compares 2 U (the band comes back in here)
Purple Rain
How Come U Dont Call Me Anymore?
Anna Stesia


The "Abraham Lincoln diatribe" listed above is Avalanche. I think this list is pretty well complete.


John Blackwell comes in playing drums that aren't there, then plays on the stage, then picks up the beat on his drums. The horns (Candy and Maceo on sax, Greg on trombone) start making their way down the aisles. Candy comes up on the side opposite me, she gestures and I see Greg is coming up my side. I'm chanting "Greg blow your horn!" and he stops in front of me and boogies a little bit as he plays his trombone. When he gets on stage, I see Maceo has made it up already. Into the familiar Rainbow Children and Muse 2 the Pharoah. Prince is wearing a red suit with black shirt and pocket handkerchief, and what I came to think of as his ruby red slippers (well, high heels). He came out with a red fedora with a black NPG band on it, but didn't put it on. I think I'd already upstaged his choice of hats Hey, I match Prince! What's up with that?? Hey wait, I match the whole band, what's up with that?? I develop crazy conspiracy theories that it was because of me

I forget which song (early in the show) that he said to a female guest, "Is it better to give or receive?" She said give, he said to give her front row seat to a brother in the 4th row, she did, and he stopped her from trading with him to come on stage, chill on the pillows for a bit while he gave her a solo. Extraordinary? Other Side Of The Pillow? Also, early in the show, a great segment where John managed to remove his top shirt, drink water, and pimp Morris Day style in a mirror held by a stage hand doing his best Jerome, all without missing a beat.

I've gotten rather accustomed to the what I've heard about this tour so far, and was happy to be frequently surprised through the show by divergences from what I'd heard. Extraordinary instead of the piano segment, a much longer 1+1+1=3 and much shorter Roller Coaster. An amazing The Ride - I don't know if it's just that I'd never seen it live, but I don't remember this song sounding this good on recordings. It was inspired. He would repeat lines to make sure we got them, and act like he was making the assorted noises he created with his guitar with his mouth instead. He really seemed like he was having fun with it. The Other Side Of The Pillow caught me completely off guard because it was so bluesy. He had a lot of fun acting like a drunk uncle dancing and dipping unwitting partners. He did his radio speech, and then "On my radio station we would play Parliament Funkadelic. On my radio station we would play Rufus with Chaka Kahn. On My radio station we would play the Ohio Players. On my radio station we would play Maceo and JB. On my radio station we would play...Prince." Great Strange Relationship with Prince on keyboard. One of my wife's favorite songs, she was loving it. He presents the next song on WNPG, and Maceo comes up to do Pass the Peas.

Not too long into the song, he points to a girl next to me and says "You need to come up here and dance." I'd been talking to her and her husband quite a bit before the show, and her husband had said that he'd like to live vicariously through one of us going on stage. He was loving it. Then Prince points to me. "You need to come up here and dance too." Let the games begin. I get up and start working through my moves. I'm afraid I'm looking like a freak, but I gotta do what I gotta do. Later people would be asking us if we were planted to come up and dance - some people thought we were performers! In my distinctive duds, I became a bit of a superstar for the rest of the night - everyone came up and complimented me, and felt compelled to talk to me about how they feel about Prince. We dance through Pass the Peas and Sing a Simple Song. I'm having a big old blast, playing with the horn section, leaning in and grooving while they play their line, and then grooving back like I'm blown away between the lines, and they're good enough humor me. The tempo slows down, and my dancing partner asks if we should leave. "You wanna go chill on those pillows for a while?" I ask. We do. "After you," I say, but she let me have the front pillow spot. We groove through La La La Means I Love You and a song by Rhonda while Prince is off stage. Takumi, Prince's personal technician, lets us know it's time to get off stage, and at my dancing partner's request he brings us bottles of water and used guitar pics with "Prince" on them.

And now back to our regular schedueled program. When U Were Mine took me by surprise - I didn't realize he was playing this. It's among my brothers favorite songs, so both my wife and my bro got their favorite grooves on that night. Avalance was nice live - I'd been hearing all about it, and didn't get the impression that what I had heard captured it all. It didn't. The screens added a lot of context in this song and through the show too. Segue into Family name, some names get changed. The line-cutter is asked her name, and she gives her first name. He teases her and asks her LAST name, and changes it to Outlaw. He asks my wife her family name, and it makes it into the show. Our last name was changed to Lynch. After a fine jam on this tune, he does a spoken segue into Take Me With U and Raspberry Beret. I thought I'd be tired of hearing these oft-played tunes, but it was just plain fun live. He has us singing various lines, and when he points the mike at the line-cutter's guest, she screams into it. He gives a shocked look and says, "Lady, crack kills." Everlasting now was a jam, but I don't recall any standout moments.

In my latest bout of collecting, I've been enjoying hearing how different crowds/cultures chant and clap waiting for the encores. I was proud of my Portland crowd for moving through a series of group claps and chants. His "thank you goodnight" was unconvincing, even if we didn't know we'd get the usual encore anyways, due to the rearranging of the stage.

Prince returns alone, in a black outfit with red trim (Hey, I Still Match Prince! What's Up With That?). Talked about how his daddy told him to follow up a jam with a balad. Adore is a lot of fun. He makes a long funny about - "even the ri--- holdup" - steps away from the piano - "do NOT smash up the ride....I repeat, do NOT smash up the ride...what?...you...you smashed up the ride...where is it...in the drive way?...oh no, not the grill!...Oooh...tell me you were alone...you weren't alone?....who was in the passenger seat....oh no, Scotty Pippin!?" Scotty Pippen was in the front row (he's in the Portland Trailblazers currently). I Wanna Be Your Lover on the piano was great, I'd never heard it like that before. A lot of fun. I've heard others say he let the crowd sing the more tantalizing lines, but he covered them all. Do Me Baby was a surprise since it was among the songs I'd heard he joked about people wanting to hear earlier in the tour. Diamonds and Pearls was nice, The Beautiful Ones was near complete and simply amazing. The whole piano medley was richer and more complete than any I'd heard before. I'd never heard him play Nothing Compares 2 U, that was nice, and the band came back in here (Hey, I Still Match The Band Too - What's Up With That?). Purple Rain, complete and on the piano like I've never heard it, used as a bit of a pulpit. He went increasingly "deep" during the piano encore, talking about the qualities of Rainbow Children (don't care about color of skin, money in your pocket and what not, don't celebrate holidays, "...did I go too deep?"), went on to having us sing bits and talking about us being in harmony, and moving from musical harmony to ideological harmony. He says we agree with him, but then points out that we give it to him so he'll give back to us. The "depth" creschendoed in Purple Rain, which kept the crowd's content attention for his deepest bits. I'm cool with it, but I talked to several others who took issue with it. He made a nice point about birthday candles seeming like a pretty demonic ritual, and pointed out that we should be reading the New World Translation of the Bible.

He segued out of the depth with a wonderful How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore, and then ended deep again with a Anna Stesia that made my heart pound. The lights came up, and the afterparty was announced. I invited my dancing parter and husband to ride with us, and we walked out with the Aftershow on our minds.

Making my way out of the auditorium, I was a superstar. Everyone knew who I was, complements all around, the first inqueries into whether I was a performer which would continue all night (I guess that if I WAS a big ol' freak, it was in the best sense of the word). I called my brother, and he was already at the Roseland. Off we go.

*****
* Part 3 *
*****

I'm having a hard time putting together a track list on this one. The guitar jams were so long and inspired, all I remember is constant high-intensity funk interspersed by some amazing song performances. I've never seen him work a stage like he did here. I don't have any point of reference, but dang, *I* certainly haven't seen him do such an intense guitar driven performance live, and have to go back a loooong time flipping through my mental rolodex of concert videos to find a comparison. There's definitely a significant blind spot between those two, but it's what I've got. He was pulling out all his tricks, and it didn't help my filing away of information that once again I was leaning up against the stage for it all. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Here's a brief sort-of-tracklist that I'm not entirely confident about in the details. The songs listed are there, and in the set they're in, but may not be complete or entirely in order. I've tried to get others to supplement, but to no avail. It gets a little more complete each time, and this time was no different, recalling A Case Of You.

1st set:
Talkin' Loud and Sayin Nuthin jam
Dolphin
a blues cover?
A Case Of You
Paisley Park
Calhoun Square

2nd set:
Joy In Repetition
loooong Peach jam
Johnny/Alphabet St./Johnny
Santana jam

Now for the long windedness!

We drove across downtown and park, and pretty quickly spot the crowd. On the drive over I get the phone message from my brother that he'd bought tickets and stuck them behind my licence plate. "STOP THE CAR!" The rest of the passengers are mystefied as I come back in with tickets to the show. He might not have realized that I got in free with my laminate, and a friend we tried to convince to come didn't seem to be there, so for the time being the friends we met at the show used the extra ticket for the guest between them. We hold a place in line and then go to see if our NPGMC laminates will get us in quicker. It's tough to tell, because my recognizability is letting me breeze through the crowd.. A truly bizarre phenomenon. I walk to the front of the crowd and in the door with the friend met at the show, and am looking for someone to ask. There really isn't anybody to ask before the crowd funnels into the ID check and frisking, and nobody seems to mind that I'm there. It's tempting to use my new found powers to my own gain, but I figure I oughta go back to my party and it'll all be good. It was. The line went quick enough, and more time was wasted milling about with everybody inside packing into a line to get upstairs before we found the members enterance on the roped off EMPTY side of the room. We go past the velvet ropes and out the door marked "FIRE ESCAPE," up the empty stairs and are deposited at the enterance to the taped off area in front of the stage. Sweet!

A crowd is forming behind the tape, and inside the VIP section we're just lounging with room to spare. There's a bench along the stage and people are sitting there as much to just SIT as to reserve a spot in front of the stage. It's pretty obvious that the tape isn't going to last long - it's just serving to let NPGMC members get their place up front first. We grab a drink and chat. Of course, it's like being in a fishbowl in here, and people on the other side of the tape are complimenting and quizing me. "Do you know Prince?" "You saw me as close to Prince as I've ever been tonight." Truly bizarre. I wound up plugging the NPGMC so many times that night. On the inside, I've been hanging out with these people off and on for about 7 or 8 hours, with a few hours split between two performances in there, so we're catching up after the show and chatting. Eventually the VIP area is about full, the stage is about set, and the lights are dimming. I'm next to the blue sparkly Outlaw and friend, which as far as I'm concerned is all good now. They got their share of negativity at the Schnitz, and there's no cause for negativity at this amazing event. The crew had stopped working with one of the mikes, the front and center one Prince would use, and we got the impression there were problems with it. A stage hand kept coming up at and patting it down with a napkin. Later he would tape a napkin to it. Hmm. The lights were dim and the stage set for a while. The crowd was packing in. It looked like the tape might have been gone by this point. I see my brother a bit closer behind us now. Early in the show our new friends would help him get up near us, thanking him for the extra ticket. Band members start appearing and Prince shows up.
Prince picks up one of the several guitars he would play in the show (I wish I could do a better job of describing them - I won't even try here), and jams on a couple of recognizable riffs. It seemed like he would go into Days of Wild or Thank You (Falletineme Be Myself Again), then it seemed like he would go into Alphabet St., then it just seemed like he was jamming. It was quite suspenseful wondering what he would finally sing. Finally he starts singing bits of Talking Loud and Sayin Nothin between sections of jams. Someone tosses something white up at him that hits him low on the torso - what's up with that? He flinches a little bit, but keeps singing. He leads us in a chant that at first I think is "It ain't alright" (in response to whoever that jerk was) but that I come to realize is "It ain't over." We chant this off and on through the long jam, interspersed with more jamming and more lyrics to the song. After he wrapped this up, he teases us with some guitar riffing that turns into chords that I come to realize is Dolphin. Cool! One of those songs I never thought I'd hear live, and like the rest of the show, guitar is to the front. Next, I think, was a blues tune I concluded to be a cover but who knows. More guitar teasing that turns into Paisly Park. Sweet! Sweet Sweet! We're singing along and he's showing his first signs of just plain loving us My favorite sign of this was a buck-toothed smile he flashed all night that I'd never seen before. He takes up the habit of turning his mike to us when he wants us to sing. Sometimes it's just between his lines, sometimes it's for long segments. This would occur throughout the show.

Sometime during the first set, he did a long funny dialog about a kid who came up to him and asked him to sign his Around The World In A Day Album. "PrincePrincePrince u have to sign this! Where's your mama? I have to go to my job! Why don't you have a job! PrincePrincePrince u have to sign this! That album's 20 years old! What do you want an autograph for? So you can give it to EBay? PrincePrincePrince u have to sign this! When I was 10 I dug James Brown but I didn't chase him down the street! PrincePrincePrince u have to sign this! This kid was SKINNY! I mean THIN! I mean, thinner than ME! PrincePrincePrince u have to sign this! I'm your biggest fan! I have all your albums! ...well, so do I! I have to go to my JOB! Why don't u have a job?"

A Case of You took me a while to recognize, but it was so sweetly sung. It was so nice to be so close and see him so enjoy singing it. *ahhh* Calhoun Square topped off the set. Soooo much guitar. Soooo much guitar. All his tricks. It was an intensity of an era I thought I had missed him live. Wow. Wow. He lets us know that they aren't done, they just need to take 10 minutes and take care of the mike.

The stage hands come out and work the equipment, Prince appears on the balcony and talks to his wife. They're taping off an area up there, but I can't tell exactly what it's about.

Prince returns, takes up a guitar, and again tantalizes us with some jamming that turns into a familiar tune...this time Joy In Repetition. My oh my oh my, I'm hearing all the tunes that I never thought I would. This turns long long song, with a long long segment of Candy playing and him cuing us to say "Joy!" He seemed to take particular joy in turning the mike to us and having us sing the line "Soul Phsychedelicide!" He had us chant "Joy!" for so long, and made like he was weeping. It was wonderful.

I'm less certain that I have all the songs in the second set than the first, but the second was also entirely composed of looooong jams so this could be complete. The next I remember is Peach. Again, guitar jamming that isn't anything recognizable but which is just plain awesome, and he tells us that they're going to play this one for 20 minutes. He has a guy next to my wife come up and dance, and he's LOVING it. Puts on his sunglasses and just gets freaky. He drops what looks to be a hemp necklace with a crystal in front of Prince that he had been trying to give him all night, and Prince flicks it back to him with the end of his guitar. He starts calling ladies on stage, and starts singing Peach. Cool!. I can't tell if people are getting called up individually, but there comes a point where security is pulling stage rushers off. The only guy who got to stay on stage whas the first one Prince had come up. Several ladies got pulled off too. One stage dived. It's just long and funky, doesn't sound like the Peach I know. He makes good on his promise to play this one a long time. The dancers are escorted off backstage, and next is another funk that I think is going to turn into Days of Wild (oh please play Days of Wild!). He sings a bit of Johnny, with "Tell me tell me tell me what am I supposed to do?" followed by different lines. This turns into a bluesy singing of Alphabet St. over that same beat.

At the end of Alphabet St., still with the same beat, he looks down at me and says "I KNOW you wanna get on this stage!" I come up and he says "Ladies and gentlemen, Boy George!" Hehe...I guess I'm just glad he didn't introduce me as a girl like the lone guy on stage during Peach Here's my favorite moment of the whole night...he looks at me and says "Man, you're WEARIN that hat!" I'm much more tired at this point, and doin' more of a George Clinton than a Prince on the dance steps - slow, but trying to make every move count. I take to some funky strutting around the stage, and lean back for the "oh-oh oh oh-oh-oh"'s of the reprise of Johnny. He keeps stopping and starting, which is a bit disconcerting when you're on stage dancing..

He stops when I'm on his side of the stage, turns and puts out his hand. I shake his hand (soft but solid, and I can feel his smooth sleeve against my fingers) and lean forwzrd to take my chance to say a little something to him. When I lean back again, he guides me with his hand to the front of the stage. I take my place again, and he plays his Santana jam.

I realized during the Santana jam that the show was ending. I'd seen so much of him that night, over 6 hours, that I it didn't feel like it would ever end. The lights go off and he says his goodnight. People are clapping and staying in hopes of an encore, but it doesn't come. The stage hands are disassebling the set. One throws a drum stick, and I catch it. It's splitered like all get out. John is an ANIMAL! I pull it out of sight quick to avoid a struggle from the anxious fans around me. John comes out, talkes to the stagehand who points out in reference that he'd tossed the drumsticks to the crowd, and John hands out a couple fresh ones. My dancing partner from earlier in the night waves hers, and I tap it with mine. Everybody's happy. The crowd starts thinning, and we make our way to the stairs to head out. We're on a heavy funk buzz, and reminiscing about our night. It was so wonderful.

We drop our new friends off at their hotel and my brother near his apartment, and head home. A couple brief ventures online for a quite brief mention of the show, marveling at our night, and precious sleep before our unfortunate morning obligations. I woke up wondering if it was all a dream. As my buddy CATastrophe said, "that's what you get for going to a concert in your pajamas"

Whoa!

haha, That was very well detailed my brotha...I was diggin that....I knew that red hat looked familer. Yeah I recall seeing U do yo thang up there....I'll give U props U was respectfully holding it down on stage. It was nice 2 see some others in the joint stylin out 4 what was "The Greatest Show On Earth" right here in P-town~

To call this concert an extravaganza is no exaggeration.

man, this is so unbelievable, I wonder if it's just made up like FunkBible's story !
Seriously, I looooove such reports! You did a great job, and had quite some luck that night! Seems like Prince remembered you from the show and wanted you to do it again at the aftershow.

And I tell you one thing... if they recorded the aftershow, and if Prince ever decides to release this, I'M GOING MAD!

Great review. Nice hat.

Yea, everything you said was pretty much right on.

The fist song of the sound check (instrumental song) was
"Alexia De Paris"

I was telling Prince that "we are ready to get deep" and I pulled out a snorkel and mask. Prince cracked up and jokingly said "don't make me go there" "don't make me go get my books".

Also, the Blue sparkle line-cutter and her friend were MUCH more annoying and rude than you described, but I am glad you focused on the positive I think the only reason Prince left us at the end of the soundcheck was because rude Sparkly blue woman kept interrupting him and talking over him. He was ready to "get his books" and drop some serious words on us, but she killed the vibe and Prince felt it and instantly decided to bolt.

thank you for a well writen report. and once again it sound like Prince making dreams come true for one fan at a time

HOT DAMN that was sweet!!! Thank you so much for sharing, it was GREAT to read. The honesty & detail is much appreciated!

great report man...PRINCE RELEASE THIS AFTERSHOW ON CD AND DVD,DAMN.
I hope that he will really come 2 France and play a long aftershow like this 1...2 hours of Prince on guitar playin' songs like "calhoun square","beautiful strange" and "paisley park",I can't wait no more.

Thank you zinj for the incredible review!I feel like I have been in a dream state since returning from Portland.You have made it all real again.
One mention about the aftershow...he broke three guitar strings right away.Broke 1 on the small version of Habibi and handed it to T and was handed the George Benson custom built,part b10 part b100, then broke a string on that,got the first guitar back and broke a string...finally got the Symbol guitar up and stuck with it for awhile.I was hoping he'd play the Gibson L-5 ,but whatever is in his hands sings like an angel.
I think you are obligated to wear the awesome red hat to everyshow from now on!
see you next time,
ksda sky

(wearing the NPG choker)

Thanks for the long, detailed review. Kudos for all the work you put into it.

how could I have forgotten Xenophobia in that record of the night? that tune is slammin! Can't wait for the album...

Great review. Thanks

What a great review.

I am SICK that I didn't go to the Portland show. SICK. If I had any idea that it would be EVEN FUCKING BETTER than the absolutely incredible Seattle show. . .*sigh*. But I'm just being greedy. This is such a wild time to be a Prince fan.

Doves,
tackaMel!ssa

That was way cool.

The tickets behind the plate thing was way cool too.

Reminds me of me and my brother's share in Prince music and going to shows.

This made my monday morning with a smile.


Thanks for all you put down. Too cool.

Zinj said:


I'm #8, but among the first guys in line - the lines are segregated and due to several ladies having much more to search than most of the men, I wind up going in before some others. [sorry ladies, I didn't realize this would have the impact that it did]


Hmmmmm, why would Prince want males on the first several rows at the show? I am not standing in a separate line to be searched. Phuck Manuela insecurites, she's phucking wit people's money now!!!!! If she felt that way, she shouldn't of married him!!!!! Beooootch!!!!! Please!!!!!

Ladies, Prince is looking phucking scrumptious isn't he!!!? Who's next?

this is the best concert review i have ever read.

thank you.