I decided to post this here since the current vibe about this gig is less than positive on this site. I don't think the sound was nearly as bad as you all say it was.

Purple Rain
(Atmospheric intro with heavy keys and sparse guitar soloing. Same melody as the Purple Rain outro. Amazing job on the vocals. A much better arrangement than most recent ones. Wendy was with him on this one.)

Take Me With U
(Amazing rock-driven version sllightly different from the ONA version. Lots of Strat soloing going on. Great crowd-interaction.)

Guitar
(AWESOME INTRO. Everyone in the arena was pumped to hear this. Lots of great vocals and plenty of awesome riffage and soloing. The Twinz' dance moves were hot. Prince changed up a few lyrics. Extended solo section at the end.)

Shhh
(Just sublime. Drum intro played perfectly by Ms. CC Dunham. Plenty of passion evident in the vocal delivery. Great soloing, as can be expected from Prince. Abundant shredding. Great sustained notes which made me feel as if time had stopped. Awesome shredding outro.)

Musicology / Bass solo / Prince & The Band
(I'm not a fan of Musicology at all so that was slightly boring to me. However, the sections after it where Prince was just "testing" out a bass guitar and where he rapped his live classic "Prince & The Band" were awesome. Great sax solo by Mike Phillips. A heavier-set man on stage danced like a fool)

Play That Funky Music
(John Goodman was brought up on stage to sing this one and he got some props from Prince. As Prince soloed, John dabbed at his head with a handkerchief, as if wiping sweat off of his face. Great work by everyone in the band here.)

Let's Go (The Cars)
(Prince rocked it up with this song. I don't know it very well, so I can't go into detail, but he played pretty well from what I can tell. Lots of great riffage and soloing. See a pattern here? Had the audience sing the chorus many times.)

Satisfied
(Awesome version. Thankfully, Morris was practically unintelligible so we didn't have to suffer through his preacher rantings. Great vocals by Prince and an intense sax solo by Mike. Great church organ.)

What A Wonderful World
(Great little break from the big-band craziness. Renato and Mike delivered some peaceful melodic playing and some loud and furious solos as well. Most used it as a bathroom break. I felt bad enough sitting down. They really missed out... especially if they were gone long enough to miss part of the...)

ACCOUSTIC/ELECTRIC SET:
(Prince and Wendy walk out on stage, holding their electric guitars and strumming the intro to...)

Little Red Corvette
(Intro was lost on a few people but once he sang the first line everyone got a clue and cheered like crazy. Greatt singing by the duo)

(Prince announces at this point that he is playing with one of his very best friends and Wendy put her head on his shoulder. They appeared very close.)
Raspberry beret
(Great vocal delivery and very involved with crowd)

The One U Wanna C
(Prince quit a few moments into the first try because he realized "It wasn't out yet" and we didn't know the song. He said that people would bootleg it, especially one girl in the audience. Wendy lied and said we would never do that. Prince said they would do a new version "for the bootleggers". It began at a lethargic pace with mumbled country vocals but he made it better and by the end it was a worthy rendition of the song)

Sometimes It Snows In April
(Prince announced he would play a beautiful song he had the pleasure of recording with Wendy. He poured his heart into the song and then they ended this "accoustic set".)

7 / Come Together
(The crowd went completely crazy for this. Prince sang over the intro sample, which I had never heard him do before. Wendy remained on stage for these songs. Wendy and Prince jammed back-to-back and side to side for all of Come Together. A totally crowd-pleasing moment through and through.)

PIANO SET:
(At this point, Prince walked over to a newly set-up keyboard and began playing...)

Do Me, Baby
(Passionate vocals. Audience members of the female persuasion ate this up. Screams were heard. The band joined him after he completed the first verse solo and he sang it again with the band.)

I Wanna Be Your Lover
(Perfect transition. A definite favorite from the piano medley. When the band came in, they jammed on the outro a bit before Prince stopped them just as quickly as he had started them.)

How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore?
(Great volume dynamics on this one, as it should be. Very emotional vocal delivery.)

Diamonds & Pearls
(Extended the intro quite a bit. Only sang "This will be the day, that you will hear me say that I will never walk away, no band. Walked back to the middle of the stage, ending the piano set.)

Cream
(As the cowbell began, the place erupted in cheers. Prince moaned with excitement as the kickdrum lead us into the main riff of this jewel from Diamonds & Pearls. Amazing guitar solo. Great dancing by the twins. Perfect transition into...)

U Got The Look
(Heavier rock guitar version. Stopped singing the verses after #1 and just soloed and jammed with the band in between choruses.)

If I Was Your Girlfriend
(AMAZING. Perfect vocals, great interaction with crowd, funky bass. Audience clapped and shuffled from side-to-side. Truly one of the many highlights of the evening.)

Black Sweat
(Awesome arrangement. Funky as hail. Only disappointment was Prince not playing a bass or keys intro.)

Kiss
(Normal rendition. The Twinz' carrying his guitar over was a funny thing to add to the song.)

Let's Go Crazy
(Abridged, chorus-only version. Such amazing guitar-work, as can be expected. I actually think the Macy's performance of this song was better but this was definitely not far behind. Sheila E was brought up on stage for this and delivered her percussion solo to the song.)

(Encore)
A Love Bizarre
(Slightly boring after hearing the exact same version at Macy's. Well performed and enjoyable for those who hadn't seen it at Macy's I'm sure.)

Encore #2
Crazy
(Sung by Shelby J. She had a tough gig as people were sitting down unenthusiastically after she came out. But she won them over with her sultry, soulful voice. Prince showed how much he was feelin' this gig by being onstage with her the whole time, adding little licks here and there and hyping up the crowd from time-to-time. Added an amazing guitar solo to it.)

Nothing Compares 2 U
(A fond adieu to his loyal fans... not. Great saxophone solo and amazing screams by Prince.)

Encore #3
Glamorous Life / Sheila drum solo
(Aged much better than A Love Bizarre. Just an all around great performance by everyone, especially Sheila E. At the end of it, Prince remarked "Whose show is this?" jokingly as Sheila played a fantastic drum solo. The show ended with a bang, literally as the band backed Sheila's smashing of the cymbal until finally resolving on one powerful chord. Very nice wind chime fade-out.)

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

- Opening with Purple Rain went over waaaaay better than I thought it would back when I heard he did it at Las Vegas. Probably one of the best ways I've ever seen a concert begin.

- Great light show. Always matched the band perfectly, and the colors were always bright and showed everyone clearly (unless they were shining a lone spotlight on a band member).

- Sound quality was waaaaay too quiet and that sapped a BIT of enthusiasm out of the whole experience. Not much at all though.

- Good dancing by The Twinz. Those girls have such energy and they're pretty damn hot, if I do say so myself.

- Prince was ON FIRE instrumentally. His super-funky bass solo, amazing rock-guitar soloing, and the drama of his piano-playing exemplified our experience from "great" to "once-in-a-lifetime".

- Highlights for me were: Purple Rain, Guitar, Shhh, Satisfied, Piano Set, Black Sweat, If I Was Your Girlfriend, A Glamorous Life / Sheila E Drum Solo.

- Prince was obviously in a great mood. Dare I say that our little guy was homesick? But really, he talked about how he had missed his hometown, he was smiling and very cheeky with the crowd, and he kept on adding more and more encores to the show.

Prince, thank you so much for putting on the best show I've ever seen. Come back soon, y'hear? Hope you don't get lonely in London.

cool review- thx 4 sharing

Thats for the review - I would be overjoyed with that playlist!!!!

Oooo we! Funk me baby...ouch! Thanks for the review...it was almost like being there.

I LOVED that review! Thanks!

Great review, Gohi. Were you taking notes?

Great review! Thanks a bunch. Thanks for the set list!

Wish I was there!
Great review.

Awesome review - thanks!

MPLS was a very lucky city yesterday!

Gohi said:

Awesome Review!!! Did u walk in the Target Center with a writing pad!!!

Excellent review!!! I did not know Wendy would be at the show and to see her playing that acoustic set with PRINCE was worth the price of the ticket alone. My favs in no order are. 7/Come together, Do Me baby, How Come U Don't Call Me, Shhh,and of course the sick Purple Rain opener which left me shaking my head in disbelief. Tough act to follow. Great show that had to be paced so the crowd could rest up. It was a long hot day for those of us who waited in line for First Ave tickets. Sitting down was a luxury and not a sign of disrespect. Not all of us R energizer bunnies like PRINCE.

Totally agree with the review. My favorite part was the piano set 'Good God'. I could only sit and sniffle. I love me some Prince on the keys and I got to see Sheila E! twice in one day. She played the bongos too. I'm still floating...

purplefiend said:

Haha, naw. I have an amazing memory when it comes to concerts and setlists though.

i'd b so awestruck- i probably wouldnt remember my own name

Does anyone know where I can find the songs Come Together and Shhh? What CD are they from? I can't find them on itunes.

Haha, I just remove unimportant details in my head like childhood memories and lock combinations.

But really it was so intense and special I couldn't forget it if I tried!

steph6525 said:

Come Together is by The Beatles and is on Abbey Road.
Shhh is on The Gold Experience.

i love come together
australian band geisha did a cover years ago- fanatstic song

would love 2 c P do a recording of it

Geez with all the covers he's been doing lately- he could do an cd completely of covers- and it would be a hit

prb said:

So I just realized that my two favorite musical artists--Prince and Aerosmith--have covered "Come Together" That rocks!

Awesome review! great detail! someone secretly recorded...

tznekbsbfrvr said:

I wish!

I'm sure someone did though.

purplefiend said:

its a great, classic song

Cheers for that - very excited about the O2 gig next month.

That's getting pretty close to an ideal set list for me. It never can be, as there's just too much - but included a good few hits, an acoustic section with Wendy, including Sometimes It Snows in April, and a piano led section with some greats from the early albums. That's getting close to perfect for my money!

Here's hoping the rumour about Wendy pitching up in London is true - will be gutted if she's there some nights only, and I miss her tho'.

i loved when prince and wendy went into "the one u wanna c" and he went into a little schpiel about how he was gonna sing it all country to throw off the bootleggers in the audience.

Gohi said:

lol- maybe. but these concerts [7/7/07] and some of the vegas shows should be released on DVD..... shouldn't they?

tznekbsbfrvr said:

i'd just love some still shots of prince playing guitar against those giant screensaver animations - that was HOTT. i don't even need video at this point.





but i will at SOME point.

I thought the show started off a bit slow, but man did it turn into a good one. I loved the piano set.

Anxiety said:

I couldn't stop laughing when he started THAT version.

Thank you Gohi for a wonderful review and the set list. I'm glad you have a good memory because I don't and after leaving the concert I was so much on cloud 9 that I couldn't remember the order of the songs.