Wrong forum - try Concerts.

WOW!WOW!WOW!!!! Of the 11 Prince shows I have seen since 1988, this was easily one of the BEST!!! What an amazing show!!! Anyone that has a chance to see one of these upcoming performaces: GO! I feel bad for Prince fans that have been disappointed in him lately & will miss out on this one. Boy did he ever deliver! NYC LOVED it!!!
Our seats were one row from the last in the back of the balcony! Yep... way back there! I will say that because of the venue, we could see really good for how far back we were. I could see much more in this balcony then the best seats at any arena show I have been to, so it was fine by me. The sound system at Lincoln Hall was supurb.
The stage was simple, but absolutely beautifully lit. There were old-style movie spotlights set up around the stage and often when there was a section featuring a certain performer, they would be illuminated by a single one of these spotlights. A very classy effect.
He was very playful throughout the night and at one point in a mid song break, teasing us about weather or not to continue he blurted out: "Do you know WHO I AM?"
Maceo played perfectly on sax, Rhonda spent most of the show on a smooth stand up electric bass. John Blackwell was sonically mesmerizing. And the quote from NuPwrSoul says it just right:
"on Renato: this man approaches his keys like a lab scientist... he's like the 21st century Dr. Fink cuz he was SO into those keys, I mean he put his WHOLE body into playing... hunched over like he got something cookin."
I was really into this stage set up. In the last couple of larger venue shows I have seen Prince ('97Jones Beach & '98MSG), the band was set up toward the back of the stage in the shadows, the main focus on Prince up front and not really being able to see the rest of them unless pulled upfront by P. This was kind of a bummer for me as I always like to see him interact with the band. At this show the simple stage set up (& being up in the balcony) allowed the group as a whole to be enjoyed.
OK, I'm going to try to get down some of the details that I can remember.

The Rainbow Children
Muse to the Pharaoh
--I really dig TRC so having the show kick of like the album with these 2, was A-OK w/me! The lights slowly dimmed and the groove of TRC eased it's way into existence as Maceo made his way up the isle toward the stage under a single spotlight. Prince begun the vocals with the altered low effect which he utilized sparingly and I thought came off well live. His gutiar playing was like it is on the record and the effects puurered through the Lincoln Center sound system. I loved getting to hear TRC stuff live and relished the moments figuring that he may not stick with this material in future concerts. Muse came off smooth and cool. During his spoken lines he has added harder accents in the groove and he said something funny with the OTAN line, but I couldn't quite pick it up.

Xenophobia
--A long pulsing groove. I LOVED it! Sometime during this song, Prince went up to someone in the front row and asked:
"Is it better to give... or receive?"
To which the person replied: "Give!"
To which Prince replied: "Well then would you give up your nice front row seat to one of those poor brothers up in the back?" Which got a hearty cheer out of us!
I think the person in the front row yelled: "NO!" so Prince strode over to the other side of the front row and asked someone else: "Is it better to be a leader... or a follower?"
To which the person replied: "A follower"
To which Prince replied: "Then follow me up here", pulled him up on stage, invited him to have a seat on some pillows that were set up off to the side.
"Would you like a beverage?" he asked and then said: "I am Going to play this guitar solo for you" Which he did! Ripped out a mighty fine one. He played his old guitar for the whole evening. He only played Habbibi on "Family name" & "Anna Stesia" He did not play the cloud guitar at all. And no bass either. No complaints here though. 'Twas quite an enjoyable show! John Blackwell was everything you have heard about and MORE. I took great pleasure as a drummer checking out his mighty slick tricks and motions. The guy is drumming perfection. He had some LOL moves like during his solo, he kept the pace and tension perfectly with his feet while putting down his sticks taking off his hat and giving his hair a good combing in a mirror all MD style just to put his hat back on, pick up his sticks, and resume the solo :O !!VAMPY, you would have LOVED that one!!

A Case of U
--I know he has played this song on stage quite a few times in the past, but it was my first time seeing it and it was lovely. So nice to see him do Joni. Topped it off with a gorgeous guitar solo!!!

Mellow
--I love this song on TRC and naturally it was even better on stage. The TRC stuff sounded so smooth. In the past it was so nice to hear P dip into jazz on something like the Ballad of Dorothy Parker. At this show, we got to hear MANY amazing sounding fully performed jazzy numbers. It was nice when Prince would say something like: everyone sit down and relax for this one. I was in heaven! He souled up the vocals just a little more than the recording. "Q Tip & Common were there" Made combing gestures for
"..takes a while... 4 me... to do... my hair"
I think this was the song where he brought a woman up on stage and danced with her and then sang to her at the end of his arm. She seemed a little reluctant to get too close to him, & hiding her face... hmmmmm... Would you?
Was he holding her out there at the end of his extended arm? I couldn't tell.
And while Mellow was winding down, you just knew what was coming next!...

1+1+1=3
Roller Coaster of Love
--The great thing about how he connected these 2 was that while he was pumping out 1+1+1=3 he'd call for guitar breaks: "on the one" and then you know... call the band to jump back in. Well on one of the breaks, he laid into the guitar riff for Roller Coaster & then called the band into it. He'd sing a line or 2, had NYC sing the woo hooo hooo line & then slipped back into 1+1+1=3! MMmmmmm... Next guitar break: Roller Coaster and then they laid in to it. Had NYC singing. EVERY time he asked the crowd to sing (& many times he didn't have to ask!), NYC R E S P O N D E D!
The crowd was all the way there and it was very exciting indeed!

The Other Side of the Pillow
--We are big fans of The Truth album, so this song was a real treat for us. A fine full band version. Real smooth & jazzy.
When it was over, he asked us if we liked our radio stations here in NY. The crowd boomed: Nooooo!
"What?!" He seemed totally surprised. "New York City doesn't like it's radio stations?" Then this was great, he says: "I'm from Minneapolis.... and I think our stations pretty much suck too!" He pointed out the list that was being projected of all of the corporate owned radio stations in NYC & said: "Just think, none of those guys that own these stations can tap their foot on the 2 & 4"
..."They don't know who Maceo Parker is.... They don't know who Parlament/Funkadelic is.... and they don't know who Prince is"
He then stepped behind the keys and as the lights were dimming to black he said: "When we want to hear good music... we make it... then I just close my eyes & imagine that the radio sounds like this...."
Launched right into:

Strange Relationship
--What a great fresh full version of Strange Relationship! Riding on a sweet groove. At one point Prince said: "Maceo, you play DJ for a while..." (reminding me of the when he said "This is your DJ Prince" during the intro of Strange Relationship at the debut SOTT show). Maceo comes up to the mike, signals a break and starts singing: "Pass The Peas, Pass The Peas... like we used to" to which the band broke into a solid slinky Pass The Peas groove. Being a bit of a JB's fan, I was pleased Gregg made his trombone sound like a trumpet.

Sing A Simple Song
--Call me old fashioned, but I can remember my parents sitting me down in between the living room speakers and playing Sly and the FS "Stand" album when I was a wee little kid , so to see Prince & Larry do a good "Sing A Simple Song feels damn good to me. I have seen them do it with Larry playing bass at the Today Show in '98 which was the pinnacle of the Prince/Larry connection for me. I was wondering for a moment if this one would be a little too much for me. Nope. It sounded great! Say whatever you want about Larry, he looked good (sharp ass white suit), sounded good trading off verse lines & joining the choruses with Maceo & Prince, and moved good!! Man, you couldn't hold that guy down!! He was poppin around all over the stage. One thing you could not deny is that those three guys LOVED playing that song. And just like any amazing say, Beatles song that has suffered throughout the times from just plain existing and having been played so many times, the very core of Sing A Simple Song is brilliant.
IMO

La La Means I Love You
-- I was a little surprised that he toned down the mood here, but never having heard him do this one, I enjoyed it and found it very fun to sing along with

Rhonda & Prince's duet
Q-Tip appearance
--P disappeared for a minute & Q Tip came out, took the mike & teased the audience with snippets of his lyrics. The ladies behind us were yelling "sing the whole song"! They were down w/Q Tip. He did some mumbling & stage wandering before P reappeared. It was funny when Q-tip got a little serious telling us that "this man here was one of the biggest influences on me..." he kept going on and on with praises until P was trying to slip the mike out of his hands

When You Were Mine
--ROCKED and L O V E D I T!

Avalanche
--One thing I think that is getting missed in all the "controversy" surrounding this song is that it SOUNDS GORGEOUS!!! Totally delicate falsetto vocal over soft --yeah dew drop music. Anyone else agree??....
I don't know if I have much of an opinion about the AL thing just yet. I was paying a lot of attention to the performance. One thing I noticed was ppl reacting to his lines as he sang them. He started singing the name Abraham Lincoln and because the tempo was very slow, the words were drawn out and as he said the name, ppl started react, clap, to make noise, & his hands kind of raised up like wait and see how I finish this line ..."was a racist". Maybe I saw it a certain way because I had already read (from the trusty .org) what the line was. In any case, I totally loved the way he performed this song.

Family Name
--I really dig Family Name on TRC, so I was really hoping he would play it. I wanted to see him lay into this one and he really TORE IT UP! It seemed to me like the crowd wasn't into this song as much as a lot of the others, but I was freakin' out!! This was the first song that he used a different guitar, Hibibi. He extended the ending section so that it built up EVEN MORE in which he continued to whale on the guitar!

Take Me With You
Raspberry Beret
--These 2 were connected, but at the end of the WHOLE song Take Me With You! Now just how many songs could I name in 5 seconds that I would have RATHER seen him perform other than TMWU/RB? The fact that he played them both fully and not just spliced together (like for how many years now?) coupled with the sheer excitement & participation of the crowd and the fact that Raspberry Beret was the first Prince 45 that I had ever bought way back when made it worth the 10 mins or so of showtime for me. There was something about actually hearing the bridge of TMWU live after all this time that was slightly thrilling.

I think this is where he said that he was handing out percussion & he wanted everyone to make some noise. Sure enough someone came out onto the stage and started handing random percussion instruments out of a cardboard box to the ppl in the front row. He ripped through a scorching Santana Medley. I know a lot of you have seen him do this number many many times. I've seen it a couple. I could find no fault at all with this one. He brought a woman up on stage and she kept shakin' her shit for the entire jam!! She'd do break down moves for the changes and everything. We were cracking up.
After Prince & the band left the stage, they made us wait with the lights out for what seemed like a very long time. One thing I can say for the balcony, we may have been in the back, but we really made a hell of a noise even though I'm sure a lot of ppl KNEW he would be out again anyways. The crowd was totally charged and man what a reception he got during the piano medley!
Not only was the first song he did on the piano
ADORE, but he did a long, slow, FULL, soulful version with lots of breaks & pauses. He joked about the smash up the ride line, stopping his playing and in the dark acting out his reaction to finding out about the smashed ride.
"Who was in the car with you?..... Q Tip?... I'll get him to pay for it" The performance of Adore though was, hate to use the term but here goes: magical.
I can't remember the exact order of the piano section, but I can tell you that he played longer versions of certain songs than in past piano medleys.
Do Me Baby set off the ladies behind us big time! They were all the way gone!
From what I remember, Do Me Baby was more than just a snippet of the song. The Beautiful Ones was one he played here and it sounded so good. The crowd vocals added such a nice augment to Prince's lead. The sound in the hall was warm and full unlike the echoing boom of some stadium crowd sounds. You could tell that he was just killing ppl left and right as they would call out during the lulls in his delicate piano playing.
When he went into Condition of the Heart my wife completely lost it for a second being one of her very favorites. We just wish that he would have played more of it. He only did the first verse. Man, can you imagine seeing him lay into the chorus of Condition Of The Heart???!! Oh Prince why not?? Instead he went into Nothing Compares 2 U which the band joined in on and wasn't bad at all you know for Nothing Compares to you and all. I don't know. Do you think that he thinks that we REALLY want to see him do that one again. Do We? There was nothing bad about it though. It was funny when he started to play Purple Rain on the piano and my wife made a frowny face at me. I assured her that he wasn't really going to play it because I have been reading the tour reports here about how he starts to and then doesn't. And wouldn't you know it... the band joins in and he is doing Purple Rain. it was an interesting version for me because he played it entirely on piano with no guitar playing for one and he started talking to us about what had happened here. He lowered his head and said he felt for us. It was a nice moment and then he proceed to tell us that in these turbulent times the thing we need to do is open up our scriptures and read the bible. Now I know you always get some of this in a Prince show so I don't really mind, but for me the thing to do after seeing something like September 11 happen right in front of my own eyes was not to open up the scriptures. I can respect that that is where he is coming from even though it may not be my thing. He also told us that ppl now want to know what the future will be and that it is already written in the bible. Also he said that some ppl may not want to do it, but they should or whatever. There I could feel a sense of inclusion
I really dug when he did Sometimes It Snows In April. The first time I have seen him do it. The band added little touches and he played most of the song. A subtle projection of falling snow played on the screen. Yes, 'twas heaven.
He told us that in these turbulent times the song for him is:
They closed the night with Anna Stesia. The only other song that he played Habibi and the first time I've seen him play this song since Lovesexy 88. It was a very nice way for him to go off I thought. after his solo and having the crowd sing the chorus and doing all of the NPGMC advertising stuff he walked off the stage and the band took the next few minutes to ease the song down gently like a sonic leaf slowly winding it's way down to the ground far below.


I am still kicking myself for not being able to make it to the aftershow, but I did make a sacred pact w/myself that next tour, I'm THERE!

I say that IF YOU CAN SEE THIS SHOW THEN DO IT!!
I'm still high from it!! No one does it like PRINCE!!!

[This message was edited Thu Apr 11 21:19:50 PDT 2002 by chewymusic]

Chewymusic you are my eyes and ears.
I couldn't have been there you make it possible for me to share that moment where Prince makes your booty go boom boom and your mind go rat a tat.
That's right. Funky Biatch.

Rev said:

W H A T ? I MEANS WHAT ARE U TRYING TO SAY - EXACTLY -




HMMMMM
[This message was edited Sat Apr 13 10:51:03 PDT 2002 by sosweetofspirit]