Jseven already posted a great review but thought I'd do the ol' copy and paste from my HQ post over to here. Amazing night!

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Oh my god, where to start?!?!?!? I am still in a daze from this unbelievable night we experienced. The document on my computer where I wrote some notes at the airport was simply called "Wow.doc". Apologies in advance for the length of this post, but I had to get everything out while I remember it. And before I forget, here's a brief video clip of the lobby area: http://video.yahoo.com/vi...vid=738126

JSeven - thanks for jogging my memory on several things. You covered the celeb angle well - on a side note, Chelsea Rodgers was in the house. Just there to attend, but she was there. I'll start with the main show...

Thankfully, the Ballroom was not as crowded as the night before. They let us into the venue around 11:15 like the night before. Beforehand we met some super nice fans from Housequake (what up Ashley and Hazel!) and exchanged our Prince stories. I was so excited for the show I could hardly contain myself. DJ Rashida spun some of the same tunes from the night before and eventually, the lights went down and the band filed up on stage. I didn't take a setlist down so between Jseven's recollections and mine, we'll have to fill in as best as possible. Prince came out before the band started to give Sheila a hug and sit with her for a couple of minutes. He got a big cheer from the crowd and sort of waved his hand in acknowledgement. When Sheila's in the house, you know you're in for something special. He has to perform for his sister!

So the band starts in and Prince comes out from backstage but at floor level. He walks to the second couch and climbs up on it, resplendent in a white suite, gun mic in hand and directing the crowd to clap along. Stays up there for a minute or so and then hops down and heads up on stage. They go into a kickass version of Girls and Boys. Immediately, we can tell this is going to be completely different from Friday night, he's taken it up several notches and he's ready to PARTY. Takes a great guitar solo on the song, moving across the stage, side to side, dancing his little ass off. From here my setlist gets a bit hazy but I'll just fill in with my usual recollections...

He invited Sheila up on stage to sing and they did Love Bizarre together; they're just too cute. Prince and the band went into "Play that Funky Music White Boy" and invited guys up on stage to sing. In typical fashion, the first few singers didn't know the words, only the chorus. But the band and Prince stayed with it. This is when Patrick Swayze came up, the crowd cheered and he sang the chorus. Then he went into this funky chicken dance, engaging with one of the twinz who didn't really take the bait. He danced for a bit and then headed off stage, Prince says into the mic "Ladies and gentleman, David Hasselhoff". Classic. Finally Tyler Perry stepped to the mic and same the song properly with the help of a woman on stage, getting the band to the chorus and finishing up the song. Prince says "Now that's what I'm talking about!". He was having a great time.

Other songs performed were Take Me With U, and Musicology where he substituted with "Sheila E's gonna be there, but u got to call her". Like on the Musicology tour, the horn players gathered behind Prince, Prince pulled the mic down to get more of their sound. He was grooving HARD loving every minute he was up there. Prince had an incredible energy up on stage, like he had a B24 shot or something. Ok, so you know normally when Prince wants to say something to his guitar tech, he'll kneel down and chat. Well last night, Shelby was singing and Prince all of sudden literally lets his body fall into a pushup position, then slides himself forward to chat with the tech. U had to be there, but it was this very noticeable, athletic, high energy move that made my eyes bug out. I have not seen him do a move like that in awhile. He was really feeling it.

During one of the songs, can't remember which, I looked up at the horn section in the back and Greg was leading them in their own little choreographed dance... Mike Phillips did a lovely What a Wonderful World during one of the breaks. Mike is really stepping up as the leader of the horn section and definitely the aftershows... Prince was playing entire songs last night, not just snippets, and on every song he took his time with a guitar solo of some kind. Early in the show, he walked over to Renato's area and stood next to him, grinding away on guitar while Renato bobbed his head on keys. And on another song, Prince jumped on Renato's other keyboard and played, then swapped with Renato (move over man!). It was great. Black Sweat was great again, and he picked up that black bass I love so much. On the line "I don't wanna take my clothes off, but I will" he stripped his jacket off as he did the night before, and lemme tell u, Prince had a black sweat of his own going on. He was working HARD! He told the crowd to get him going with "Come on Prince, play that bass" and headed over to the left side to slap on the bass for a bit. Smiling, smiling, having a great time. They played Take Me With U and we got the normal sly smile during the line "You're sheer perfection" which we all screamed at him.

Jessica Simpson was on the second couch in the middle and she was into it, up dancing much of the performance. During Black Sweat he said "You'll be screaming like Jessica Simpson when I count to 3". It was very cute. He later threw out his white bowler hat into the crowd and Jessica's friend caught it. Next time Prince put a little more on the throw so it reaches us in the back!

Ok, you still with me? Th lighting in the show was great, I'm sure it was last night but I noticed it more tonight. In one of the encores, they completely backlit Prince so you got the classic silhouette of him, arms spread, soaking up the adulation. So iconic. Nothing Compares 2 U was sweet as usual, we love to sing it to him and he sings it to us. Let's Go Crazy was in the encore, including the "Yip yip yahooooo!" (will I ever get over how cheesy that is! ).

The band filed off and we thought maybe the show was ending, but they came back on and Sheila's timbales were set up on stage. Oh Boy! She came out solo and the band backed her up on Glamorous Life. Oh my god, she was killing the crap out of those drums, such energy and passion she has! I was exhausted just trying to keep up with her! She gave a great performance, short and to the point. Then Prince came back out and finished with a couple of songs. No Purple Rain so that tells u what kind of show it was. They also played U Got the Look in the set, and Shelby did "Sweet Thing" as well. Shhh was off the hook, Cora's drumming was awesome. The fans in the back went crazy when he started into Shhh. Guitar was great as well - I really enjoy this song life, it has a great riff.

Exhausted yet? U would have thought I was after only 4 hours of sleep the night before, but it was the opposite. We hustled out to the lobby and grabbed our spot for the aftershow. The area was buzzing, crawling with techs setting up the stage. Moving Renato's and Morris' keyboards in. A lot of people were hanging around for the aftershow. There was definitely a more serious air to the setup for the night and when 2 of Prince's guitars came out I knew it was going to be good! Sheila's timbales were ready and waiting offstage but she never did come down to perform (girl must have worn herself out on that encore performance!).

Apologize in advance because I am horrible with jazz numbers, so don't rely on me to name what they were playing. I know they did 'What is Hip' because Prince made us sing it. The band came up and started with a jazzy number that had a slamming chorus. Each band member was taking a solo. Mike introduced all the players and said the purple one would be down a bit later. Turns out the Purple One was up on the mezzanine level, watching everything. Sheila was up there too, seated and taking it all in. Shelby was up there too and Mike called her out saying "Prince calls her his best singer ever" and we all looked up and cheered for her. So Prince comes up on stage and joins the band. Before doing so, he hangs offstage, with one foot on the stage, tapping away, getting into the groove. Grabs the guitar and straps it on. He was very interactive with the band, sending them into solos or grooving with them individually. On one song, he and the bass player josh were bobbing heads and grooving together on a song. At another moment, the song ended and Cora finally got a little break. Prince starts picking away on his guitar with a steady beat, looking over at Cora to jump in with something. She's patting her brow with a towel, drinking a little water. It was funny, almost like she was making him wait, taking her time to catch her breath. Man she works HARD back there, slamming away at times, subtly keeping the beat at other times.

There were some guests in the aftershow. Eve came up and did a song, so did another freestyle rapper (didn't catch his name). But earlier in the night as Prince was getting up on the aftershow stage, he said something to Prince and Prince just threw his head back and gave a big laugh. Fun to hear. All in all Prince popped up on the aftershow stage about 4 times, for about 15-20 min each. We would think the show was ending but they would just keep going. It was heavenly! Prince was having a blast. Shelby sang her heart out on a couple of songs, "Love is a Losing Game" was one of them. At one point, she kneeled on the floor and bent over, forehead to the floor, singing into her mic. Prince was right beside her, crouching down with his guitar and keeping pace. Prince was in such a good mood that when his amp cut out, he just alerted the tech and started clapping and then jumped in singing the chorus on Shelby's song. Everytime Prince would jump off stage, I would look to the balcony moments later and there he'd be. I was like "Doe he have wings?". he must have been sprinting up those stairs! He was enjoying the show as much as we were, at one point sitting lengthwise on the ledge with his back against the wall, grooving. If he'd leaned out too far, he would have fallen down into the crowd!

As he left the stage one time, Prince whispered something to Renato and he went into a solo performance of The Dance. It was lovely. When he finished, I figured that was the end of the show but NO! Band came back up and Mike said into the mic "Maybe the Purple One would like to come down for one more?". So a few minutes later, Prince joined them again and started into the guitar riff for Peach. He even went for the mic to sing. He didn't sing the Peach lyrics, but sang different lyrics like he did in the San Francisco show ('Rock Me Baby' by Ike and Tina Turner - thanks Mrs.Nelson!). Peach was the only Prince tune they played at the aftershow.

Other random remembrances... As Prince was waiting to go on stage, this enthusiastic fan tried to shake his hand. Prince just threw up the peace symbol to him and sort of smiled. Prince was really grooving on one song, the whole band was bobbing up and down, I was starting to lose myself, totally in the moment. It's funny - u want to close your eyes and absorb it, but at the same time, u don't want to miss a thing. After all the head bobbing, u know Prince had to get his hair straight. So he walks up to Renato to talk to him, but it was like he was standing in front of a mirror, smoothing down his hair on each side. Don't worry Prince, not a hair was out of place. He's so damn cool and smooth. On another song, Shelby motioned for a male fan to come forward and she started rubbing on his head as she was singing some lyrics about being left alone. It was really funny. Later in another rockin' song, Shelby strode right offstage center into the middle of the crowd and then we heard her say "Jump up and down" and there's Prince, jumping up and down on stage so I had to join in. It was great! As the band finished up the final song, Prince left the stage and headed upstairs. Mike said 'Thank you' and we all looked upstairs and Prince was waving to the crowd, blowing us kisses. Awww. Shelby was waving the wild sign, bobbing her head and giving us props.

And then it was over, a blur of emotion, energy and amazing moments that will stay with me. We chatted with some band members afterwards who were exhausted. They were all so very sweet to the fans. The crew began breakign down everything - ballroom and aftershow, 3121 signs in the lobby were taken down. Time to packup for MPLS! The sun was coming up sooon after, my god it was 5:30am before we knew it. In total, we'd had almost 4.5 hours of music that night, much of with Prince on stage. Amazing. Where does he get the energy?

A million thanks to Prince and the band for a fantastic weekend. This Purple High is going to last a long while...

sbacon, thank you so much for taking the time to share your wonderful experience.

It sounds beyond outstanding.

Sounds absolutely amazing. It brought back memories of my Vegas experience. Can't wait until Saturday...

sbacon1999 said:

I agree it was one of the best shows I have seen! He was jamming like crazy! Loved it! I saw some shows in Vegas and the one the night before but this one was HOT! He kept The Twinz on stage more than usually, even when he was jaming which created more movement and fun on the stage and kept the energy up through out the show...but when are all 3 of them performing guitar? I love that song but when everyone is used to the commercial everyone expects the 3 of them rocking like they do in the commercial ...maybe in London *crossing fingers* But overall *bowing* great great show, the crowd loved it! and I loved it haha

You and J7 just jogged my whole memory of the night back...thank you!!!

Hi yA'LL,

Was wondering if the aftershow could be bought as a seperate admission or was it bundled w/ the main show or both? It's my wife & my's 1 year anniversery & was hoping to surprise the wife on 7/14. The roosevelt sadly was no help.

Thanks,

Farfunk

Farfunknugin said:

Originally the aftershow was only supposed to be for the vip tables holders, but GA ticket holders ended up being able to attend as well... You needed to be either or.. no seperate admission...

Seems now with the hamptons and Montreux that he wont be back in LA to possibly play the last two dates until prolly the 3rd week of july, in which case you'll have to buy 2 $312 tix if you want to attend with the wifey...