Vancouver report I read on AMP

Hey !!! I saw this review on alt.music.prince, and it had a little more on the interaction with Prince during the soundcheck, concert and afterparty. I think this is the type of detailed report NuPwrSoul was looking for . I know I enjoyed reading it !!! Keep up all the awesome reports on the concerts everyone !!!

Vancouver Show

Okay, it's nearly five in the morning, I just got in, and I'm really tired, but here's a brief run down...

Got to the theater at 4:30pm. Talked to some club members out front, who were all pretty cool. Found out that 52 seats had been sold to club members, and that we had the center sections of the first two rows to ourselves. Sweet!

They slowly started letting us into the lobby just after 5pm. At about
5:35, they let us into the theater where Prince was sitting at the piano performing Money Don't Matter 2 Night. I got second row, center. He welcomed us, and informed us that this was "Eric's" first night on the tour, and they needed to run through some parts of Xenophobia, so to be enthusiastic when we heard it again later. "Eric" was none other than Eric Leeds (yay!).They played a few sections of the song, then Prince picked up his guitar and played it a bit. Throughout the soundcheck, he made quite a few funny comments. A lady got up and was leaving during Xenophobia, and he shouted up the aiisle, "Hey! That's my mom! Come back, mom. Man, she hates it when I don't play the slow songs!" I shouted out that she had to go put another quarter in the parking meter, and that got a laugh out of him.

At about 5:50, the informal chat started. Prince sat on the stage pretty much right in front of me, and I must say there were some good questions from the members, many about the song-writing process and music business. Yes, Ani Difranco came up. Any questions relating to pre-1998, he answered by saying that he "doesn't remember that period." It was kind of funny. The discussion lasted a full forty minutes(!), and this alone was worth the price of admission and the club membership. Prince passed up the opportunity to diss Britney Spears (who was also doing a concert in town tonight) when her name came up during the discussion, and I found that classy of him. At one point, Prince asked how we were all digging the One Night Alone CD. I said that I hadn't received it yet. Prince asked kind of surprised, "really?" And I said, "It's okay... I only joined the club last week, so I'm sure I'll get it soon. I was hoping you'd have my copy with you." This time he was less than enthused with my jo ke. Someone asked if he would be rereleasing the Madhouse CDs, and he said that there is a lot of interest in them, and that they would look at getting them back out there.

The show started about fifteen minutes late, at about 8:15, and ran until 11:05. The set list was pretty much the same as Seattle. He did Nothing Compares 2 U, which I didn't remember from Seattle, but aside from that I think it was the same songs. With Eric there instead of Candy and Maceo, there was more emphasis on Prince and his showmanship than on the frequent horn solos, so it truly was a different performance than what I'd witnessed one month ago. A *lot* of people were allowed up on stage at various points, and this too was a big difference from the Seattle show. One of the two girls who got to go on stage to sit on the pillows during the "better to give or to receive" bit commented to Prince that she was "going to pee her pants." "Don't do that," he said, "I just bought those pillows!" During Adore, the "smash up my ride" bit at this show was due to an accident with Alanis Morrissette in the passenger seat of the car. "I don't have a record contract... maybe she can buy us a ne w car!" The crowd was extremely receptive and into the music, and Prince was very obviously enjoying himself and the audience's response.

The aftershow location was not announced at the end of the concert, but during the discussion, Prince had asked his guy to set up something "just for the club members," and word had spread throughout our group as to where it was. I can't remember the name of the place the after-party was at, but it was a small club in the downstairs of the hotel he was staying at. About half the members showed up. There was a reggae band playing when we arrived, and they were pretty damn good. I had a $3.50 Diet Coke.

Prince showed up at 12:40am, and sat in a roped-off area. Ten minutes later, the intro of The Rainbow Children started playing over the sound system. Then everyone slowly noticed that playing on the screen behind where the band sits was a concert video, and that what we were hearing and seeing was our show from that night! The sound quality was phenomenal! They played about forty minutes of our concert -- The Rainbow Children, Muse 2 the Pharaoh, Money Don't Matter 2 Night, Xenophobia, 1+1+1=3 -- before it was shut off so that the reagge band could finish their set. Throughout the night, Prince had his guys bring up the occasional club member, and he sat and chatted with each for five to ten minutes. After the band's set, the band announced that they had to leave as "Prince was kicking them out." Then the club employees started asking everyone to leave.

Knowing that if Prince was kicking out the house band, he was sticking around for something, so I stayed and hung out with the two "pillow girls" from the concert. They kept getting harrassed to leave, but their friends were over sitting with Prince talking, so they weren't particularily happy about being asked to go outside in the rain. No one hasselled me, and we figured it was because I was dressed all in black -- the club employees thought I was with Prince, and the Prince employees thought I was with the club (hehe).

Eventually we all went and sat down with Prince and the small group at the table, too. He asked us our names, and we all answered and he said "hi" as we did. Me, always the smart-ass, said "And you are...?" which got a laugh from him. I won't go into details, but for the next one and a half hours, we all sat around the table with Prince discusing "the truth." He had two main requests of us, but I'll boil it down to this and leave it at that -- find the root of what you believe in, and what you take as reality, and study it; before dissing a belief, study it; study everything you can to find what speaks to you. The rest of what he said is a conversation you'll have to have with him yourself. All sides and opinions were vocalized during the discussion, and anyone who thinks Prince doesn't talk... damn! He never stopped!

Well, it's now a full hour and a half later than when I started this... I need to get to sleep! I've already called in late to work, otherwise I'd be getting up in fifteen minutes. Please forgive any errors/ omissions/ spelling mistakes/ out-right lies... did I mention I'm tired?

P. S. -- Pillow girls, if you're reading this, drop me an e-mail! )
--- Lorne
[This message was edited Thu May 30 7:16:29 PDT 2002 by dendmmr]

Dude, man..thanks for the report. It was cool how you shared the jest of what Prince said to you in "private" without putting all his business in the street. Very admirable. Thanks again for the report.

Very very nice man, thanks 4 posting this...

Thanks for the report...i just skimmed thru--as i like to experience a tour without knowing what the setlist may be...but the great news: ERIC LEEDS was there!!!

I thought they had a falling out of sorts...but to see his name again...a breath of fresh air!!!

All due respect to Maceo, Candy, Najee...ERIC LEEDS will always be my favorite sax player for Prince. The solos in Housequake, Hot Thing, etc are all 'MR MADHOUSE' and i have yet to hear anything that matches Prince's music so well.

I've seen Eric Leeds in St Paul, MN at the Artists' Quartet, a local jazz club, if you guys ever want to check him out.

Thanks again!!

Thank for posting this review.
follow your bliss,
ksda sky

dendmmr said:

And, I was one of the staggeringly lucky members of that reggae band ( www.dubfreque.net ) ! The thrill of a lifetime. I'll post what I wrote up elsewhere...

Hey lorne where are you??!

SignOthetimes said:

Right here, Sign o'!

Thanks dendmmr for posting my review from amp. Even though you did it without my expressed written consent, I won't sue you since the "pillow girls" have both contacted me through your posting of it.