I just came back from the Hamburg concert, whew (Icouldn't post this earlier because internet wasn't working)! This was my first concert, and I tell you, it rocked. Everybody was feeling it, Prince rocked us and when you looked at him you could say that we rocked him, too! He was definitely loving it.

I arrived together with my friend at around 2.30pm at the venue. There were about 15 people already there.
At 4.30pm they let us in (everything went very smooth, good organisation).
Then we had to wait again right before the hall. The soundcheck started a bit late, at 6.20pm.
Me and my friend got great seats, second row. Sooo close to Prince's mike.
When we came in, John Blackwell sat in the first row, talking to Takumi, if I remember correctly.
The other band members came out soon too, including Eric Leeds (who did not play that night).
Prince then came out in a white sweat shirt, a white cap, sun glasses and sandals.
He waved and then went to the soundboard. The band began Pop Life several times, probably to get the sound just perfect.
After that, Prince started the Santana Medley on guitar. Great to see, they really rock this one!
He joked around a little afterwards, before beginning The Ballad of Dorothy Parker on the keys. They didn't play the whole song though, instead they worked on the 4 riff for some minutes.
Prince then said goodbye. The soundcheck wasn't very long, maybe 40 minutes, but still nice and interesting to see them practise a bit.

They played some great music over the PA before the actual show started, a remix of Come On, something that sounded like a smoking new version of The Question of U, some other hip hop tunes I don't know and some music that could be from the Xenophobia album. 5 other friends of mine were further in the back, I went over to them and said hallo.

The show started at 8.25pm, and it immediately started to become HOT!
Here's the set list (as much as I can remember, I guess it's almost complete, but I'm not sure about the order):

The Rainbow Children (smokin'!)
Muse 2 the Pharaoh
Xenophobia (boy, that rocks!)
The Work (surprised how absolutely great this one was!)
Strollin'/U and Me
Xtraordinary
Mellow
1+1+1is3/Love Rollercoaster
The Other Side of the Pillow (I'm not sure if this wasn't played earlier)
Speech about media
Strange Relationship
Pass the Peas
When U were mine
Whole Lotta Love (he really is in full rock star mood here!)
Family Name
Take Me with U
Raspberry Beret
The Everlasting Now

Piano segment:
Adore (with new joke:"Was I really the first... or maybe the second?")
short Girls and Boys
Diamonds and Pearls
The Beautiful Ones (with band, full version!)
Nothing Compares 2 U
The Ladder (unbelievable)
Sometimes in Snows in April
Starfish and Coffee
Purple Rain (long, with guitar)

Some thoughts and comments:

The crowd really was into it. From what I can tell everything got a great reception and Prince was in a
fantastic mood. Somtimes he seemed overwhelmed by our enthusiasm.
There was also very little preaching, and what he said was very thought-out, I think.
His singing is just fantastic, he just gets wild on the axe, and somebody say once more that the passion is gone...forget it. He's feeling it, you can see it in his face. In every song.
What more to say...the band was great of course, they really are very good, Renato Neto is amazing!
I would say my highlight were Xenophobia, Whole Lotta Love and definitely NC2U/The Ladder.
The Ladder especially was just breath-taking.

One comment about Purple Rain:
When he started this one, you could see some not-so-happy faces between the members. But you really have to acknowledge that he is feeling that song. He isn't just playing this to please the people, him and Habibi were screaming like there's no tomorrow.

There was an aftershow(party) at the Mojo club, but I can't tell you wether he played or not. I stood in line, but my back was hurting, I was thirsty and just exhausted. Besides that, I saw a sign at the door that said that you have to be 21 to be let in (in Germany it's usually 18 ), so I said before I wait an hour and then will be send away, I'd rather go home. Maybe I missed another kick ass performance, but I don't regret anything.

...after all, there's still Berlin to come! Wooohooo!
[This message was edited Thu Oct 17 2:18:14 PDT 2002 by calldapplwondery83]

And Candy Dulfer and Rhonda Smith are definitely mighty fine! Whew!

calldapplwondery83 said:

I'm dying to see those footses for some odd reason...



:O Whaaat??? But will I ever get to HEAR it???

Glad you had a great first concert experience, Calldapp! I know you've been waiting for this for a WHILE - we've drooled over many concert reports together...

hi there, thanks for the great review! i too think it was a fantastic concert!
just a few comments:
they played almost the whole Miles Davis "A kind of blue" album over the PA, i'm pretty sure no xenophobia. "the question of u" must have been an older live version, sounded great!

the only thing that sucked: the sound was quite terrible, but i know it's a problem of the cch, has to do with the acoustics of that venue and / or their PA (if prince didn't bring one on his own, which i doubt, because he plays in so many different sized venues).

the band is unbelieveable.

Can confirm this:
A new recorded version of A Question Of U was played.
Had a certain live feeling.

What is this 'new' song: 'U and Me' ? Never heard of that one before. Is it a Prince song?

YEAH! Muse, Family Name, Extraordinary and Mellow made it back into the setlist. I hope he plays some newer stuff in Antwerp also.

Great review by the way.

Antoon.

I think this 'U and me' rumour started on the org. I would say it's more like an extended version of Strollin'.

He did it at the London soundcheck on the 5th and he told the band "Strollin', last part." He didn't say "U and me" or anything to indicate it was a seperate song.

roughe: I feel a little ashamed...didn't know that was Miles Davis. Actually, I really wasn't sure if that was Xenophobia since it sounded more like real Jazz and not this fusion thing, but I was outside for a while and did not hear all of it. Thanx for the clarification.
Where were you in the concert? Member section or not? I'm no expert on this, but I think the sound was alright. At least in the front.

Calhoun and Antoon: Thank you! I had a great time indeed. Now I'm looking forward to Berlin. I hope he plays SOTT there...and maybe Bambi. That would kill me!


...oh, greetings to Pellwormer!

and you should have seen the dancers on stage during 1+1+1is3: one guy was doing the splits (what surprised Prince) and another one in leather pants was dancing really crazy. I think Prince looked a little...astounded.

At the end of Whole Lotta Love he made some very freaky sounds with the guitar. He sang with it (that was definitely impressive) and then just held it up and let it reverb. He gave the guitar a clap for being such a bad guitar, pretty funny!

great review. thanks.

It was a live version of question of U and Renato had a solo part on it. Definately recorded on this years Celebration!!!

jeanriek said:

Thanks for the info! I wish I could hear it again, simply rocked! Great performance.

The 4 highlights for me on the Hamburg concert:

- John Blackwell's opening solo and the "mirror" routine
- Maceo's sudden appearance on the balcony while playing his sax solo to "Nothing compares.."(not sure if it was this song but i think so), standing in the audience and spotlight on him - great!!
- The full blown version of "Whole Lotta Love" - just awesome!
- Sometimes it snows in april whith the snowflakes video thing and "The Ladder" - luv that song.

All in all a great concert - think about going to the Berlin concert as well cuz hopefully he will do an aftershow there.
[This message was edited Thu Oct 17 9:04:44 PDT 2002 by BartvanHeineken]

---
They played some great music over the PA before the actual show started, a remix of Come On, something that sounded like a smoking new version of The Question of U...
---
Also some jazz. I'm quite sure Chet Baker was played.

And the aftershow/party was more like a party.
Prince was on stage, talking, joking and searching music for the JD. A lot of live songs. I remember NOW! and Pass the Peas. Maybe from the upcoming live CD. Starting at 01:45 ending about 02:30.

Hi! It's me, Pellwormer.
We met each other at the end of the concert.
Thank u very much 4 payin' the lift 2 the Mojo Club
And jes, he was there in the mojo.
I was just sittin: on a sofa & talkin' with a girl, when he came in just in front of my feet. He nearly kicked my feet! He was very close 2 me.
At the end of the Aftershow I was sittin' at the bar & his very own DJ came 2 us, talked with us and drank some beer with us!

It was a great eve. I will never forget.
So I got no problems 2 keep me alive 4 24 hours in Hamburg!

BartvanHeineken said:

I think it was Strollin' or Gotta Broken Heart Again because Candy played the solo on NC2U.

Pellwormer said:

That's cool. Glad you had a nice time!

Great review. Thanks man.

BartvanHeineken said:

I wanna hear that SO bad...