Just got back from the concert and i must say it was FANTASTIC.


The soundcheck lasted for about 90 minutes...

Instrumental Jam ( snippets from Housequake)
Santana medley
Blues jam
Bambi
Whole lotta love
The question of U/The one/Fallin'
Empty room
...maybe i forgot something..??

Prince was in a fantastic mood and joked around a lot...
he was learning his band some new things ... sometimes very funny as well.

The setlist from the concert was almost similar to Rotterdam..he started at 8:30 PM untill 11:15 PM

katlenko said:

He was in a very good mood indeed. Have to say Eric Leeds was fantastic! Maceo is a cool guy, put Eric fits in better. Wonderful version of Days of Wild to end with ("it ain't over", it lasted for 20 minutes I think with Prince playing the bass guitar, and throwing it away on stage to ance his trousers off!). I hoped he would play some new songs, too bad, but hey: it was fantastic..and.. John Blackwell is the best!

Yeah, this Antwerp concert fits in my all-time top 3 Prince concerts. No doubt about that !

The concert was very similar to the one in Rotterdam, maybe not as energetic (but maybe it's just my perception, because it's the 2nd time I've seen it)

- but what a soundcheck! Didn't it last for almost 2 hours?

He played The Greatest Romance Ever Sold as well, and a great version of Something in the water. (the band played an instrumental version first, in the second Prince was singing.
It was great he did full versions of the songs mentioned above! Empty Room! The Question Of U was a beautiful surprise! He incorporated The One in it, as well as Fallin' by Alicia Keys.

And he was very funny. His band started playing Sinatra's New York, New York as a joke, followed by Dave Brubeck's Take Five! Now this was very interesting: Prince started to arrange the horns to play their part, gave instructions to John Blackwell and talked to Renato as well. He clearly wanted to change the piece into something funky!

I'm not sure if there was an aftershow (there is a party at 'Red & Blue').
But we really had our pre-show!

don't know if he does it every time, but during Sign o' the times he did a great trick with his guitar. He took it off and played the guitar horizontal in front of him. Then he started to play with the feedback and made some strange noises, before putting the guitar on the floor, while it made strange noises. Man, that was sounding incredible!!

signorichard said:

Yes, he did that in Rotterdam too. But it's very impressive I think... highlight of the show!

Just got back from the best soundcheck and a great show. No Aftershow just a party. Prince was in red and blue quite early but left around 2:30 with the band. They had 2 go to berlin. Prince helped the DJ with picking music and was really enjoying (his own music) with orchestral movements...

Soundcheck:
1. The Greatest Romance Ever Sold ( NPG Only)
2. Instrumental(NPG Only)
3. The Rainbow Children (NPG Only)
4. Something In The Water (NPG Only)
5. The Question Of U (NPG Only)
6. Housequake
(Prince joins the band and says good evening)
7. Santana Medley
8. who knows (hendrix stuff)
9. BAMBI
10. In time????
11. A Whole Lotta Love
12. Empty Room
13. Something In The Water
14. The Question Of U
15. The One (Real heavy guitar version)
16. Take 5.
17. The Greatest Romance Ever Sold

This was already so much that I was ready to go home happy and leave the normal concert for what it is.

AND the best thing:the sound was brilliant (much beter than Rotterdam)
[This message was edited Sat Oct 19 2:50:52 PDT 2002 by spaceboy]
[This message was edited Sat Oct 19 2:54:52 PDT 2002 by spaceboy]

Roger Nelson was working his ass off in Belgium because he knew if he didn't Bart Van Hemelen would rip him a new asshole.


Prince

ONEderful & thank u 4 the report!

Peace
[This message was edited Fri Oct 18 21:28:19 PDT 2002 by EchoOfMySoul]

spaceboy said:

uhm ... sorry, but were we at the same shows ... the sound in antwerp can be described as muddy at best...the antwerp sporthal has terrible accoustics, as does rotterdam ahoy

at least in rotterdam i could hear all the separete instruments and voices ... no way that could be done in antwerp ... especially during the soundcheck, when the venue was still empty ... bass came rolling in reflected from the back ... always half a second after the original sound ... a LOT of echo ... everyone i spoke to described it as "sound soup"

once the venue filled up, the sound got a lot better, but at no point was it better than in ahoy.

Other than that, a very good and memorable show!
[This message was edited Fri Oct 18 21:23:11 PDT 2002 by m3taverse]

spaceboy said:

"Who knows" from the Band Of Gypsies

m3taverse, i don't know where you were at in Antwerp, but definitely not in the Sportpaleis!! The sound was at least 10 times better then in Ahoy (what left me almost def for 2 days, no problems now after Antwerp!) And most people I talked to felt the same way about the sound. And the show ... well Holland folks ... we Belgians ARE much funkier then Holland, Prince confirmed what we allready knew for years. Last time in '98 we allready took over from you guys as for getting the best concert and fridaynight in Antwerp did it again ... a much better show then the one we saw in Rotterdam. Much more spontanious, way funkier, longer, hotter, ... you name it !!! Face the facts Holland ... wake up !!!
Oooh and then that soundcheck ... ooh man, a concert before the concert and he played for soo long, nice, really nice, what am I saying, nice? Superb!!
Thank u Prince for leaving Belgium with such a great gift... see y'all in Öberhausen and Rotterdam again ... but life will never b the same after Antwerp ... all good things they say never last!

zannalee said:

jimipaisley said:

R u sure , some1 write that was "South Saturn Delta" ?

m3taverse said:

I recognize that it has to do where you are positioned then. For me this show powered me again. Man I awoke this morning with a super grinnn , what a good show (the soundcheck and his laughing did the trick).

jimipaisley said:

100% sure!!!

well zannalee, no soundcheck report by u this time, this is a shame I guess we all have been witnessing the best soundcheck ever

HI Style, Had a big laugh about the guy dancing next 2 Prince with the Paisley ParkVault t-shirt. That was bad (good)

timber said:

After Prince heard people booing about Holland, Prince did mention, I think, 3 or 4 times that we are all one and that there is no difference between people and countries. When he says something like this 10.000 people are giving him an applause. But not more than one day later people are telling that Belgium is much better or funkier than Holland???

AAAHHH, WE 4-GOT ... BAMBI ...

Belgium, Thank you 4 a funky time, Call whenever you wanna play again. You're so sweet.
[This message was edited Sat Oct 19 3:02:12 PDT 2002 by spaceboy]

When Prince playd some funky drums on his keyboard during the soundcheck- that was 2 funky!

I'll have to say: the sounds in Sportpaleis was quite bad during the soundcheck. It seemed like the lower speakers were not on yet. During the actual concert the sound was much, much better. Not sure if it was better than Rotterdam, but still good and clear.

It's the very first time I've been to a concert in the antwerp sportpaleis, where the sound was so good.

At the soundcheck the sound wasn't that good because the venue wasn't full of people, that makes a very big difference for accoustics.

Nikkie said:

That's why it's called a SoundCHECK ! Come on, don't complain about the sound during the first part of the soundcheck.

And why do the Dutch people feel so bad after such a excellent show ? why ? why ? why ?

--> because BELGIUM is too

Naaa...I'm dutch and Antwerp was great..

And i just LOVE Prince or Rhonda hitting that button on the floor, starting the fat Greatest Romance or Days of Wild-beat..
Ouch!

hey i'm dutch also and antwerp rocked the place apart in my opinion it was way better than rotterdam not only to the fact that prince was in a better mood but also the public was way better in antwerp...i even think prince wasn't in a good mood in rotterdam because of the dutch fams running and crusching each other when the soudcheck began...there's much to learn before the next concert in rotterdam...thank to belgium for the best and funckies concert ever and to prince for the brilliant soundcheck never seen better, what a mood he was in!!!

see you all in oberhausen en rotterdam...

spaceboy said:

Whooo...that make's Rotterdam soundcheck feel a bit of a let down compared to this...
Hope he will be in better spirits on the 2nd nov. show.
I mean, just to hear the band play New York, New York AND Take 5 altogether with him making inpromptu arrangments alone...
2 funky!!

ps. My left ear is STILL a bit numb after Ahoy, God it was loud!!! Anyone else also having slight problems??

thanks Superhero, I thought it was funny as hell

Does anybody know if he did that *NSYNC-thing before? Thought it was quite funny...