For those of you in attendance at the Saturday night show, any reviews?

purplextasy said:

hey purple, your dad is cool!

OK. I am going by memory with only a little bit of sleep, but here goes.

The doors opened up at 8:30 (much earlier than thought) and once in, most of us went to the left side of the stage (thank you for that suggestion because it really paid off).

The DJ started at 10 and played the occasional Prince penned tune until it became nothing but Prince. A short video was shown (British awards of some sort) and then he started at midnight.

The first song was something I didn't recognize, and since I wasn't writing it down, I'll list the songs I remember (but not in necessarily in this order):

Black Sweat
Kiss
Musicology

If I was your Girlfriend
A Wonderful World
Pink Cashmere
Shhhh (intro and 1st verse)
I Never Loved a Man (sang by Shelby)
3121
Lolita
DMSR
Old School Medley (with Roller Coaster of Love, Pass the Peas, Flashlight, Play that funky music White Boy)
Peach
Satisfied
A Love Bizarre
Purple Rain


The show was shorter than I expected (a little over an hour and a half) but Prince was amazing. My wife wished he would have played more hits, but she loved it too. His band is great, but lacks the personality of his previous bands. I don't even know who some of the players were, unlike previous years when he had personality overload with Michael B., Sonny T., Rosie, Wendy, etc.

Overall, it was an amazing show. Prince really plays to the left of the stage, and was playing bass and guitar 4 feet from us. He sang directly to us on many of the songs, and when he invited people up on stage, most of them came from our section. It was the only side of the VIPs that he visited as well.

Larry Graham came out for part of the old school medley, but the star of that part was a dude in a red hat (the funky white boy) who sang the lyrics on stage and even got a high five from Prince after the tune. If he wasn't a plant, he has the best story of his life now that Prince played guitar to HIM singing on stage in Vegas. There were also two girls on the left side of the stage (one black girl and one italian looking girl) who were as good of dancers as the twins. I hope Prince noticed them and hired them.

The show contained a few additional songs that I didn't know or don't remember, but since I am running on NO sleep for about two days, that is as good as this review is going to get. Maybe others can fill in the details.

The show reminded me of the feel I used to have when I'd catch his shows at the Glam Slam LA back in the 90s. Prince is a man who feels very comfortable on stage and loves performing and playing. It seemed loose, fun and even spontanious at times, regardless of the length. My only MAJOR complaint was that he seemed to have a lot of energy left in him afterwards. I remember Prince shows that he seemed drained at the end and you felt like you got your money's worth. Bruce Springsteen seems drained at the end of shows, and so did James Brown, but Prince doesn't... but I guess that is why James Brown was the hardest working man in show biz.

If you are thinking about going next weekend, GO. You will not regret it. I didn't go to the aftershow... wish I did!

OK, so what other orgers were there? What were your thoughts?
[Edited 3/26/07 0:00am]
[Edited 3/26/07 0:16am]

Well, I’m back to Europe after this crazy weekend of mine, I’m getting old for this really.

Saturday show was very nice. Friday show was an almost first row show, so this time we decided to go as further of the stage as possible to get a whole view of the stage and getting a better sound.

It was a great decision really ‘cause the whole venue looks outstanding. Being round helps so much to make it look so special. Black background and a nice light game with lots of purple, long and thin neon lights crossing the back of the stage all over. The horn section on an upper floor with a sign of the times heart just behind. The set seems like a house really, with the horn section in the first floor and the Twinz appearing from some kind of balconies at both sides of the stage.

In both sides of stage they had some silver chains falling as well as some flubby gold light tubes on the floor like two meters size.

The audience looks gold when spotlighted. The screens surrounding the whole venue plays different colours and images, mostly purple colour though I believe.

So main colours are black,purple and gold.

The whole band dressed white on Saturday. Talking about the esthetical experience I really have to express my truly disappointment with the spot light on Prince as he doesn’t have it all the time. In a dark stage as it is it’s a shame you don’t spot the leader and could really see more than a shadow on many times. When he got the spotlight the whole house enlighten really.

So being in this privileged position we watched the nice video about dance evolution, funky dance, African roots, Josephine Baker, Cantinflas, West Side Story, so many and good videos about dancing so well mixed together that its really a must see. Would love to have this video really. We wondered if it was a Prince made video or an already done documentary he just rescued for his shows. Very good.

Show started with the new ballad and no spotlight on him. It’s risky to open a Saturday show with a ballad, its more risky if its new, it can be a disaster if the singer has no spotlight on him, and being Prince the singer a double disaster as the way he performs the song, the way he moves, he acts is 50% of the artistic creation.

So not a powerful start but not a catastrophe.
He got into the 3121 songs which were played as we already know, so nothing special on this.

One of the highlights of the show was girls and boys outstanding performance, he leaving the stage to get deep into the audience always above it of course, and start a funky girls and boys chorus dancing to it and having everybody moving their hands which was extraordinary to see from where I was. He had the spotlight on him and dressed white while the audience was lighted up in gold and the black behind, very beautiful.

The way he broke Shh to get into Peach was another nice moment of the night, as he got Cora did the drums intro and after that with a guitar riff changed the melody to Peach. Very well done.

Another moment to remember was when he sang if I was your girlfriend and asked the crowd to move from right to the left. The audience moved slowly from one side to the other as seawaves. I understand why he always says “I love it” when he got people doing that. It’s very nice seen from this higher position.

But the best of the night was the funky set with the people on stage. No doubt. He really got the house crazy dancing there. People on stage were nice, letting him his space and not disturbing the show at all. The guy who sang a song for Prince was very good, he didn’t spoil the show but really enhaced it as he sang well and Prince enjoyed it very much. He looked at him from one side of the stage as he left the center for the fan. I can say Prince played guitar along to his singing with a smile on his face. It was nice to see.
This funky set with people on stage lasted longer than Friday and was in my opinion the best moment of the show.

I would like to add some other special moments, for example the duet between Shelby and Prince guitar, beautiful. Shelby sang a song I cant remember which one on the left side of the stage with the spotlight on her. On the center stage it was Prince surrounded by the Twinz. They did the chorus to Shelby and the voices sounded very well ensembled together.

Talking about other artists, Brother Larry was in the house though this time for just one verse of one of the five songs he plays, I cant remember which one.

The Twinz do a very nice job though I find this style of dancing pretty aggressive with all that head shake. There’s something they did both nights which I find very nice. One of the Twinz starts walking from left side of the stage to the center where Prince and the other twinz stand. The Twin walks with Prince guitar on her hands up in the air, so she gets slowly to Prince, place the guitar above him and with the help of the other Twin got it down to Prince shouders as if they were dressing him up with the guitar. Beautiful.

And I think that’s really all to say from the show. It ended up abruptly with PR and as we saw the curtain being pulled down we rushed to the aftershow line, stayed there for maybe an hour… don’t know and got in easily as first night to the second room, which means no charge at all. So two free aftershows that I thank Prince for from these lines.

When we entered the band played some jazz-funky but Prince joined them quick and broke it into a Brother Larry aftershow.

When Shelby got the mike to sing Baby Love we really jumped off our seats and danced to her great singing. This lady can sing. She is not one of the “”the more I shout the better I sing” singer, but the one who really can sing without shouting at all.

And the aftershow was cut up abruptly when it was getting better thanks to this girl. It’s true that there were lots of people in the first room really close to the musicians, very close, but I don’t know if that was the reason why they cut it like that. No idea.

On my check out just two hours after the aftershow finished I could see Brother Larry, Sister Tina, DJ Rashida, Shelby and another lady in the hotel lobby waiting for something before getting to the limousines that were ready for them outside the Rio Hotel. So maybe they wanted to have some rest before leaving?...

So my conclusion to this terrific weekend, from music point of view is this. Theses shows have added nothing new to my former experience, I’m not having with me anything new in music by Prince at all. What’s been absolutely new to me is that he has positioned himself in a secondary role or even no role in the aftershows when the jazz-funky band played and Mike Phillips seemed to lead it.

He had the opportunity at the reach of his hand to have joined this group of amazing jazz musician and provide us, the hardcores, with some new music instead of the same funky jams featuring LG. The quality of the music these guys do, Mike Philips, Renato Neto, Morris Hayes and Greg Boyer is so good Prince could have taken advantage of the situation and instead of breaking the atmosphere enhanced it with his terrific guitar. He did it just once the first aftershow and I can tell you it was amazing to listen to it. The heavy guitar he played for some minutes over this jazzy base and along with these musicians was a must to listen to. Amazing. Shame he doesn’t follow this road and takes the one thousand times taken but hey, still his option.

And that’s all I can remember after 16 hours flight and a completely health breakdown. Im getting too old for this …

Forgive me for typos and non native English.

Oh let me add something else. The damn tambourines. It should be forbidden to take any instrument with you to a show, any instrument, and of course we consider tambourines into this cathegory. As I cannot imagine someone painting some blue on a Picasso painting I cant imagine someone playing an instrument over a musician composition.

It really spoils the experience to have people banging on the damn tambourines even if they are in tune. If Prince is the one to make the music, write it, get the band together, rehearsals for some hours so it sounds good, you cannot come to the show with the damn tambourine to spoil the work of a musician and of course ruin the experience of the audience, who have come to listen to his music, payed lots of money, in some cases crossed an ocean and a continent, not to listen to the damn tambourines.

Delores dixit.

m3taverse said:

Hey Thanks, he is pretty cool when it comes 2 music. He's the reason I'm such a Prince fan. He was one before I was. He took me 2 my first concert 2 see Sheila E. when I was 8 years old (I probably mentioned that)& I took him 2 see Prince for the first time ever. Glad u remembered us, hope ur journey home was safe.