Come now...SOMEONE must have seen Tamar/Prince in MPLS last night.

the concert hasn't even started yet.

okay, i'm figuring that the concert's through its halfway point or so now...it's still going.

the show was great! i was front row.

the kid was on, and tore up that axe!

HiinEnkelte said:

MORE, dammit! i wish to hear more!

HiinEnkelte said:

Details! I want details! What songs did he play? What did you think of Tamar? Any word of an Afterparty?

I just got back about 10:30 and from what I can tell it was like the other concerts so far. Prince played part of Partyman. I didn't hear anyword of an aftershow either. He was good on the guitar though. It was kinda disapointing since it was the minneapolis concert. I didn't see any music at the merchindise table either, only shirts and buttons.

sthoudek said:

oh, okay...the rest of the mpls orgers must be in bed asleep by now.

I was there. Third row center. It was fun, kinda what I expected from other reports. Prince did play a lot of great guitar and sang some, shouted out to the crowd . He seemed into it and like he was having fun. They could not find anyone who could sing "Play That Funky Music"!! Lame! The three little girls on stage were cute though. I was surprised that they did not do "Beautiful, Loved, and Blessed" They played a record of it after the show. Oh yea, and there were a bunch of people with postcards advvertising the afterparty at Paisley so definitly something going on there. I would go but I got a new baby (27 days old) and was guilty enough going to the Orpheum show, I can't be out all night! Oh yea, Chris Reimenscneider and Jon Bream were in front of me. It'll be interesting to see what they write in the paper.

sonicfreak said:

It is already online!

Támar proves Prince knows when to share spotlight
concert review R&B chanteuse -- and protégé of the Artist -- shows she's got what it takes for center stage.
Chris Riemenschneider, Star Tribune

Prince is a man of his word nowadays, which could have been an unfortunate thing for fans who attended his concert Saturday night at the Orpheum Theatre with his new protégé, Támar.
As promised, the sold-out show -- which his handlers announced on Tuesday as "Támar featuring Prince" -- was more about the young R&B chanteuse than the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer.

Even when Prince did take the spotlight, he stuck to the pledge he made on his 2004 Musicology Tour that future concerts would not include his old hits. Not only that, he didn't even play a song off his new album, "3121," which comes out March 21.

Fortunately, though, Támar proved to be one Prince sidekick worthy of getting pushed to center stage.

The 90-minute show started like few other Prince events: on time, and with the Artist himself in the shadows as he started up his new, modest but mighty four-piece band with a husband-and-wife rhythm section and holdover Morris Hayes on keys.

The starry entrance was all Támar's, as she shuffled out alongside twin-sister dancers who were with her the whole show -- her version of Tina Turner's Ikettes. She was definitely Tina-like in sound and appearance, too, with a bit of a Beyoncé and "American Idol" update.

Her set focused on hidden-gem cover tunes and new material, presumably taken from her upcoming debut album, which you-know-who produced. Of the originals, highlights included the all-funk opener "Every Little Step You Take" and the bouncy pop ballad "Milk and Honey." The latter had Prince written all over it, especially the hook, "You're my milk and honey/ I want to spend money on you."

Támar was at her best in a pair of soulful, down-and-out covers, Meli'sa Morgan's "Love Changes" and "Never Loved a Man" (recorded by Aretha Franklin and others). In the latter, she belted out loud enough to be heard down at Prince's place in Chanhassen, while the band soared with a Muscle Shoals kind of power soul.

After a quick costume change, the show turned heavy as a Cemstone truck. Prince got off like Deep Purple's Richie Blackmore in "Red Headed Stepchild" (not the Golden Smog tune). That was followed by a dual Michael/Janet Jackson pairing, "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough" and "What Have You Done For Me Lately" (perhaps the first time he has covered his '80s rival).

Prince finally took the mike for a blasting take on "Party Man," from his 1989 "Batman" soundtrack, and that led to an elementary run-through of "Play That Funky Music."

Fans didn't seem too disappointed there wasn't more Prince (and perhaps the after-party at Paisley Park made up for it).

"Even a half-hour of Prince is better than most," said Erik Cagle, a longtime fan from St. Cloud.

Actually, 90 minutes of Prince as sideman is still pretty special when it's an artist he and the crowd clearly believed in.

sonicfreak said:

Very cool...it sounds like pretty much the same setlist as the show I saw in NYC.

I will be jealous if there was an Afterparty at Paisley Park though...I'm DYING to go to one, and he didn't have any in NYC after the Nokia show OR SNL.

Thanks for posting the review.

Must every new female artist be compared to Beyonce.

sonicfreak said:

i was expecting jon bream to be the one who typed up the report...

HiinEnkelte said:

It was GREAT seeing you there! I know we only talked for about 37 seconds, but it was AWESOME having you in the row in front of us and occasionally catching your eye as something crazy happened and knowing EXACTLY what you were thinking...




and, I have no idea how many times after the show I said, "DUDE, he's ALL about the guitar right now! And it's ROCKIN"

good stuff!
[Edited 2/25/06 23:40pm]

as for the after show...we had mixed info about it. I didn't see any postcards. I did get a tip from a trusted source that something was on. But, in the end we had nothing too tangible. So, a sign of our age I guess and we decided not to do the drive to chanhassen just to see what was up.

I have a strong hunch that I may wake in the morning to some crazy reports, but what can you do? Besides, I figure I've been lucky to be in MPLS all along, have seen so much and have the whole 3121 party on the horizon. So, if I did miss out, it'll be okay. Oh, and I was in the second row in shock for the whole show tonight. You can't top that.

That is, unless the rumored special guests were actually at the Park...

and, with that said...

it was a GREAT nite...was blown away by the show and did a bit of dancing downtown after...I'll be back in the morning to write more...

endorphin74 said:

Yes there is/was an afterparty and its still probably going on but Amy has to get up very early. Dr. Mambo's combo played which features ex-Prince people Margie Cox, Sonny T, and Michael Bland.

I decided to leave when I saw Morris Hayes leave because it made it seem very unlikely that Prince owuld be taking the stage.

In my head I was coupling the fact that Sonny and Michael were on stage and Tommy Barbella and Morris were watching and Prince was also there so I couldn't help thinking it would have been the coolest thing ever to reunite the 94 band. I'm sure my girlfriend Amy could have played Mayte.

Also for the record Prince was wearing an AWFUL outfit at Paisley Park. He was wearing shiny white clunky shoes, black pants, and an extreme white suit coat with white dress shirt and tie. He looked like he was a waiter

endorphin74 said:

They weren't handing enough out and the crowd at the park was very thin because of it. There are practically as many security people as people in attendance Not quite that bad but the crowd easily fit into the Love4One another room with ease.

sthoudek said:

They were handing out postcards as people walked in but the man seemed to miss most people.

They had a huge merchandise setup at Paisley park which I only glanced at but it seemed they dug out everything they have ever sold. You could even buy the Mill City poster.

I didn't look at the prices but apparantly the shirts were twice the price that theya re through the website. My friend said the shirt he liked which was 31.21 online was 60 bucks. Ouch.l

What was the setlist? What side of the stage was P. on? Any idea how I can go about asking nicely for a guitar pick? I have just purchased a guitar and though I will order some through npgmc.com, it would be all kinds of awesome to like, have one of his.

Also, I have been practicing singing the song that an audience member gets to sing along on.

All together!

'Play that funky music white boy
Play that funky music right
Play that funky music white boy
Lay down that boogie and play that funky music till you die…'

Hope somebody had the sense to grab one of those postcards/flyers to scan and upload for our gallery....

i suppose it's a good thing i didn't end up going to the aftershow...seems like i didn't miss anything.

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

I woke up again around 6:15 AM and logged in compulsively just to make sure I didn't miss anything!



I need to get some coffee in me and then I will try and make a proper post about the nite.

BananaCologne said:

lovemachine?

endorphin74 said:

I left them in Lovemachine's car so hopefully he didn't throw them away.

Or I have them in my apertment..I can't remember now. I'm tired.
[Edited 2/26/06 8:14am]

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

I thought you were going?

If nobody else does it I could scan the invite the next time I go to my mom's.

Also, another kind of funny thing I remembered about the show/afterparty. Prince's old long time security gaurd Aaron (bald white guy) was there with Tommy Barbarella. I don't know why but this struck me as funny.

Also, one of the local news anchors and a popular top 40 morning show DJ were at the afterparty.

rozilla said:

Prince stayed on the audiences left side of the stage all night. People used to stay around at the shows an Takumi would give them guitar picks as he was cleaning up but it appears Takumi is gone and I have no idea if the new tech would do that.

It's funny all week long, on the local tv news they were hyping this as "Prince Show"... I didn't fork over the $50+ because I knew better.

I love hearing the man play guitar, but not for a protege' for 90 minutes.