TheEnglishGent said:

That was the opening night. Not Friday. IMO, I think he ought to be playing a little more from PE. It'd also be nice if he played some thing of of 3121 that he doesn't play all the time...like Fury or Love or Incense and Candles. just Sayin...

Hi all, here's my review of the main gig which I wasted a whole load of work time writing this morning to send round to my work collegues!

'Suffice to say it was awesome, I was always likely to say that but
it genuinely was on merit. One of the few times in life you have the
highest expectations of something and they are actually met.

02 Arena is impressive but very corporate. However sound quality
is decent for an arena and all seats in the lower tier are very good in
terms of view.

Stage was set up in the middle of the arena and was shaped like the
Prince symbol with the band playing in the O towards the top. Prince
based himself in the middle but moved round the whole stage almost
continuously. He played four different guitars and the bass for a short
time.

Show started at 8:40pm till 10:40pm, set list as follows:


01. Down By The Riverside (Instrumental Jazz standard)
02. Satisfied
03. Cream
04. U Got The Look
05. Musicology
06. Play That Funky Music (Wild Cherry cover)
07. What A Wonderful World (Instrumental Jazz standard)
08. Joy In Repetition
09. Anotherloverholenyohead
10. Peach
11. Lolita
12. Black Sweat
13. Kiss
14. I Feel For You
15. Controversy
-----encore 1-----
16. Purple Rain
-----encore 2-----
17. Crazy (Gnarls Barkley cover)
18. Let's Go Crazy
-----encore 3-----
19. Take Me With U
20. Guitar

It's worth saying straight off the bat that Prince's vocals,
dancing and guitar playing were all brilliant. His energy level for a 49
year old is extraordinary and he is not just some ageing pop star stock
piling money he'll never get a chance to spend, (here's looking at you
Sting, Jagger etc.). He will and does sweat blood for you on stage!


Opening was a little bit strange and perhaps a little unsuited to
such a large venue, but hell this is Prince and you wouldn't expect or
want him to be conventional! Started with just the horn players playing
while walking down the aisle from the back of the lower tier to the
stage. They were then joined by the rest of the band and they worked
their way through 'Dow by the Riverside' which I believe is an old jazz
standard. The man himself then arrived amongst a mass of dry ice (raised
through the floor into the centre of the stage). He then prowled the
stage for a couple of minutes before letting out a classic Prince scream
and going into the first song proper 'Satisfied'. A slow number which
again would have been better suited to opening in a smaller venue
although the first line, 'It's gonna be a long night' naturally went
down very well.

He seemed to acknowledge the slightly obscure nature of the opening
by then working his way through two sure fire crowd pleasers, 'Cream'
and 'U Got The Look'.

'Musicology' and 'Play That Funky Music' were the highlight of the
first section. Both ultra funky, and a real chance for Prince and the
band to stretch out and jam. He got some people up on stage to dance,
hilarious moment involving a rather over zealous women dancing
appallingly right in front of Prince. Que Prince stopping the band and
announcing, 'The bar is now closed!' Classic!

He left to get changed while band played 'What a Wonderful World'
and returned for 'Prince in guitar God mode' which pretty much continued
for the rest of the gig. The next three songs were incredible, probably
the equal highlight of the whole gig. Great song choices and Prince
absolutely shredding our faces off!

'Lolita' and 'Black Sweat' were the two genuine missteps of the
whole gig. Fairly obscure songs and not particularly strong ones at
that. Completely forgivable in light of what had come before and what
was yet to come but a misstep none the less. He redeemed it by playing
'Kiss' straight after. Not a particular highlight for me but a great
moment for the less hardcore fans especially coming after the two more
obscure numbers.

Straight into 'I Feel For You' written by Prince made famous by the
Chaka Khan cover version. Then to the highlight of the whole gig,
'Controversy'. Epic, epic jam, absolutely pulsating whole place rocking.
Made the hairs on your neck stand on end. The exact reason he is, in my
opinion, one of the very best out there.

First encore 'Purple Rain', it's still an albatross round his neck,
but it's a good albatross! Again, very guitar heavy version.

Second encore, cover of Gnarls Barkley 'Crazy' sung by his backing
singer. She did a great job and it worked well. 'Let's Go Crazy'-
superb. Best of the really big hits for me.

Third Encore, 'Take Me With U' then finishing with the new song
'Guitar'. Might have been better suited to finish with a classic hit but
the nature of the song perfectly suited the rock heavy nature of the
show, and I think he knew that.

All in all great stuff. Not perfect, as mentioned the opening
didn't work too well and some of the song choices were unnecessary. Also
the covers, although uniformly excellent are in my opinion unnecessary
when he has such a strong back catalogue of his own. The jazz
instrumentals in particular although showcasing the skill of his band
tend to sap energy. Also, for the sake of the more casual fans he
probably should have played another couple of the really big hits,
particularly as he played more hits on the two other nights so far.
These are all minor quibbles though.

If you ever have a chance to see him I would strongly urge you to
go even if you think you don't really like him. His ability to work
through so many genre's of music combining showmanship and musicianship
to such a high level is really very special and I think unique within
the industry (most either excel in one or the other)'.

17daysLuv said:

-----
"good fella"
unfortunely we living here on earth in a "plastic" consumers MF-world!!!!
[Edited 8/4/07 14:22pm]
[Edited 8/4/07 14:26pm]
[/quote]
Totally agree with u there.I went on sat 4th August and when Renato started playing that song thousands left their steats and went 4 "drinkyfuckingpoos" totally oblivious of the musicianship they were hearing and witnessing.I was fucking disgusted
Then I thought well maybe they just came 4 the ride and aint as hardcore as some folk(like me and all of y'all in the org ) but it still saddened me so ppl who have yet 2 appear at ne of the shows b prepared 4 this mass act of musical disrespect and ignorance