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Forums > Concerts > CONCERT REVIEWS (Post Here) - Fri 11/25/11 - Toronto, Ontario - Air Canada Centre
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Reply #60 posted 11/26/11 10:02am

RuthCass

avatar

MadeUpName said:

OMG! 1 of the best shows ever! 3.5 hours with 7 encores, I think. Closing with Let's Work. A 17 minute extended version of Musicology was my highlight! I'm at the Afterjam and P played guitar on Rock Steady. He also did some mic hyping with Rashida, and was taking photos. Shelby sang with Marla Joy too and said the NPG will play til dawn. Merch at show: W2C tourbook, black tees, black beanies. The rest is the W2A merch.

Was he taking photos with fans or just of the fans?

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Reply #61 posted 11/26/11 10:36am

missvirginie

I finally got my first experience with Prince live last nigt, after 20 something years of fanhood. I was afraid to faint, or to cry all night, but nothing like that happened. I was feeling genuinely happy, grateful, and I couldn`t stop yelling thank you ! I had an amazing seat, 107 row 2, just in front of the piano (I actually almost cried when I realized I was so close from the stage). I was one of the first entering the hall, feeling like a queen !!! After about 30 min, the show started, it was nearly 3 hours and a half that seemed to me only one hour, time ran so fast ! I had some of my favs, including Little Red Corvette, When Doves Cry and Jungle Love (he sang that one standing on the piano with the mic). But well I`m still hungry, looking for more guitar solos, and I personally think that last night the band was staying too much behind. I`m coming back tonight, with a nosebleed seat, but I don`t mind, I will actually have an overall view of the stage, and I have my ticket for the afterparty.

I came back home with some purple rain that fell on me during the guitar solo, the necklace that I bought for only 15 $, a few pictures (difficult to take pictures without the flash, all the fog and the flashing lights of the stage right in your eyes).

I can`t wait for tonight !!!!

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Reply #62 posted 11/26/11 10:38am

missvirginie

And yes, the people that got a table where invited twice to dance on the stage !

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Reply #63 posted 11/26/11 10:40am

RuthCass

avatar

missvirginie said:

I finally got my first experience with Prince live last nigt, after 20 something years of fanhood. I was afraid to faint, or to cry all night, but nothing like that happened. I was feeling genuinely happy, grateful, and I couldn`t stop yelling thank you ! I had an amazing seat, 107 row 2, just in front of the piano (I actually almost cried when I realized I was so close from the stage). I was one of the first entering the hall, feeling like a queen !!! After about 30 min, the show started, it was nearly 3 hours and a half that seemed to me only one hour, time ran so fast ! I had some of my favs, including Little Red Corvette, When Doves Cry and Jungle Love (he sang that one standing on the piano with the mic). But well I`m still hungry, looking for more guitar solos, and I personally think that last night the band was staying too much behind. I`m coming back tonight, with a nosebleed seat, but I don`t mind, I will actually have an overall view of the stage, and I have my ticket for the afterparty.

I came back home with some purple rain that fell on me during the guitar solo, the necklace that I bought for only 15 $, a few pictures (difficult to take pictures without the flash, all the fog and the flashing lights of the stage right in your eyes).

I can`t wait for tonight !!!!

I'm EXTREMELY JEALOUS!!!! I could just imagine seeing that man in person eek Was there a lot of people taking pictures? Also was the security strict?

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Reply #64 posted 11/26/11 10:40am

carinemjj

avatar

missvirginie said:

I finally got my first experience with Prince live last nigt, after 20 something years of fanhood. I was afraid to faint, or to cry all night, but nothing like that happened. I was feeling genuinely happy, grateful, and I couldn`t stop yelling thank you ! I had an amazing seat, 107 row 2, just in front of the piano (I actually almost cried when I realized I was so close from the stage). I was one of the first entering the hall, feeling like a queen !!! After about 30 min, the show started, it was nearly 3 hours and a half that seemed to me only one hour, time ran so fast ! I had some of my favs, including Little Red Corvette, When Doves Cry and Jungle Love (he sang that one standing on the piano with the mic). But well I`m still hungry, looking for more guitar solos, and I personally think that last night the band was staying too much behind. I`m coming back tonight, with a nosebleed seat, but I don`t mind, I will actually have an overall view of the stage, and I have my ticket for the afterparty.

I came back home with some purple rain that fell on me during the guitar solo, the necklace that I bought for only 15 $, a few pictures (difficult to take pictures without the flash, all the fog and the flashing lights of the stage right in your eyes).

I can`t wait for tonight !!!!

Aawwww Great! hug

Yeah, I love Graffiti Bridge movie, so what? ''Oooooooooooh Montreal, say it!''
If you can't be nice to someone on the net, you probably ain't worth much talking to in real life either.
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Reply #65 posted 11/26/11 10:41am

pasquerto

missvirginie said:

And yes, the people that got a table where invited twice to dance on the stage !

yessssssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!

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Reply #66 posted 11/26/11 11:51am

AFine1

luv4u said:

What I want to know is what merch was on sale and if anyone can remember prices.

Here's what I saw -

Welcome 2 Canada T-shirts = $35 and $40

Prince leggings = $40

Prince touks (is that how you spell that?) = I think $35

Symbol Tamborines = $80

Programs = $30

Oh, and walking outside the ACC after the show - all kinds of T-shirts for $10 to $30, pictures, all kinds of unofficial crap stuff being sold!

[Edited 11/26/11 11:54am]

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Reply #67 posted 11/26/11 12:00pm

missvirginie

RuthCass said:

I'm EXTREMELY JEALOUS!!!! I could just imagine seeing that man in person eek Was there a lot of people taking pictures? Also was the security strict?

The security was very strict in the beginning, saying that NO pictures were allowed at all, and then they said we could take pictures, but only without the flash. Nearly everybody was taking pictures, but mostly with their phones. At a moment, Prince even said with a smile : please leave your cameras and sing with me smile

It was impossible as well to stay on the floor if you didn`t have seats right on the floor. I saw a couple who tried to sneak in but the security ran after them. Not to bad, that was at the end of the show, and they could stay on the first row for the last songs.

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Reply #68 posted 11/26/11 12:06pm

serpan99

carinemjj said:

3 hour show, great news! Where are the pics!!! cool

arrow http://www.flickr.com/pho.../lightbox/

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Reply #69 posted 11/26/11 12:11pm

carinemjj

avatar

AFine1 said:

luv4u said:

What I want to know is what merch was on sale and if anyone can remember prices.

Here's what I saw -

Welcome 2 Canada T-shirts = $35 and $40

Prince leggings = $40

Prince touks (is that how you spell that?) = I think $35

Symbol Tamborines = $80

Programs = $30

Oh, and walking outside the ACC after the show - all kinds of T-shirts for $10 to $30, pictures, all kinds of unofficial crap stuff being sold!

[Edited 11/26/11 11:54am]

Any rasberry berret for sale?

Yeah, I love Graffiti Bridge movie, so what? ''Oooooooooooh Montreal, say it!''
If you can't be nice to someone on the net, you probably ain't worth much talking to in real life either.
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Reply #70 posted 11/26/11 12:11pm

carinemjj

avatar

serpan99 said:

carinemjj said:

3 hour show, great news! Where are the pics!!! cool

arrow http://www.flickr.com/pho.../lightbox/

Thanks a lot! Always there when we're craving pictures biggrin

Yeah, I love Graffiti Bridge movie, so what? ''Oooooooooooh Montreal, say it!''
If you can't be nice to someone on the net, you probably ain't worth much talking to in real life either.
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Reply #71 posted 11/26/11 12:12pm

AFine1

carinemjj said:

AFine1 said:

Here's what I saw -

Welcome 2 Canada T-shirts = $35 and $40

Prince leggings = $40

Prince touks (is that how you spell that?) = I think $35

Symbol Tamborines = $80

Programs = $30

Oh, and walking outside the ACC after the show - all kinds of T-shirts for $10 to $30, pictures, all kinds of unofficial crap stuff being sold!

[Edited 11/26/11 11:54am]

Any rasberry berret for sale?

Oh yeah, forgot those - I didn't see how much they were, but they were there!

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Reply #72 posted 11/26/11 12:34pm

serpan99

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Reply #73 posted 11/26/11 12:37pm

missvirginie

serpan99 said:

arrow http://www.flickr.com/pho.../lightbox/

Thanks for the link, great pictures. Mine are looking shitty, I took the wrong camera, will take the bigger one for tonight !

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Reply #74 posted 11/26/11 12:44pm

aribino

avatar

pasquerto said:



pddionne said:




pasquerto said:


Did vip get to go on stage?



Some did, not all. He did it twice.




Any info about that...I'm going to be at a table and I'm sure going to try my best to get on there. Was it a section or hand picked?



Yes, The crowd on The Stage were from The table section only.
First come principle and a little Selektion by Shelby.
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Reply #75 posted 11/26/11 12:51pm

pasquerto

What song numbers do I have to get up there? I have a table seat?

This is my number one main goal! I hear cool is one....what about the other?

aribino said:

pasquerto said:

Any info about that...I'm going to be at a table and I'm sure going to try my best to get on there. Was it a section or hand picked?

Yes, The crowd on The Stage were from The table section only. First come principle and a little Selektion by Shelby.

[Edited 11/26/11 13:16pm]

[Edited 12/5/11 8:09am]

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Reply #76 posted 11/26/11 1:18pm

aribino

avatar

pasquerto said:

What song numbers do I have to throw some elbows on to get up there? I have a table seat?


This is my number one main goal!





aribino said:


pasquerto said:



Any info about that...I'm going to be at a table and I'm sure going to try my best to get on there. Was it a section or hand picked?



Yes, The crowd on The Stage were from The table section only. First come principle and a little Selektion by Shelby.




Difficult to say. It is always when he is doing the 'do you like funky music' term. However he is going to announce the stage dancers than you should elbow your way to the stairs. And i guess (Never checked The Time)that he is doing the stage dancer part after 1,5 hours of The show. But no guarentee! Good luck.
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Reply #77 posted 11/26/11 1:31pm

2freaky4church
1

avatar

Beverly, I thought you went?

All you others say Hell Yea!! woot!
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Reply #78 posted 11/26/11 1:59pm

luv4u

Moderator

avatar

moderator

2freaky4church1 said:

Beverly, I thought you went?

I have tix for the December 13 show. cool

canada

Ohh purple joy oh purple bliss oh purple rapture!
REAL MUSIC by REAL MUSICIANS - Prince
"I kind of wish there was a reason for Prince to make the site crash more" ~~ Ben
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Reply #79 posted 11/26/11 3:29pm

Ace

serpan99 said:

http://www.680news.com/en...-hour-show

Prince launches Canadian tour in Toronto with electric, three-hour show

Nick Patch, The Canadian Press Nov 26, 2011 01:16:00 AM

TORONTO - To open the first show of his cross-Canada tour at the Air Canada Centre on Friday, Prince put his nimble band through a nearly 30-minute funk workout while he danced, gyrated and strutted across the stage with the easy grace of a performer half his age.

Finally, he stopped, bathed in green light.

"I gotta bask in Toronto's love," he said to, yes, an adoring crowd.

The break lasted only a moment before he was back at it, but he would have plenty of other opportunities to bask in the audience's warmth. Over the course of a three-hour-plus performance, the 53-year-old pop icon tirelessly took the game crowd on a journey through three decades of his inventive, idiosyncratic catalogue with a joyous, relentlessly entertaining show.

The performance kicked off in appropriately dramatic fashion. With the arena dimmed and the only illumination provided by the neon flashes of the lights lining the stage — pulsing on and off in time with the drums — each member of Prince's band emerged one after the other from beneath. Eventually, Prince poked his head out too, arms crossed over his chest, clad all in loose-fitting black with shades fixed to his face and gold jewelry dangling from his neck.

The stage was shaped in his signature glyph — that symbol Prince was formerly known as — lined with bright lights, with circular high tables set up around its perimeter, allowing a cluster of patrons the opportunity to sit and sip their beverages just a few feet from the action.

Of course, few in the audience were content to sit. From the beginning, the high-energy show inspired loose-limbed workouts in every corner of the arena, even the wilderness of the upper deck. Prince himself, meanwhile, rarely stopped moving, pulling off a flurry of moves that were both slick and seemingly spontaneous.

He elicited perhaps his biggest cheer of the night at the end of his 1986 hit "Kiss," shimmying mute in the spotlight, his hips swivelling furiously from side to side. He wandered every inch of the stage over the course of the show, showing no signs of fatigue — even during his third of six encores, he stood on a piano and hammered out a firecracker cover of Wild Cherry's "Play That Funky Music."

"This used to be my city," he said at one point, referencing the fact that he once owned a home here with his Toronto-born ex-wife. "Let's see if it still is."

Since the late 1970s, Prince has released new records with an almost workmanlike regularity — in total, he's issued more than 30 studio albums (the most recent being 2010's aptly titled "20Ten"), so he was able to order up Friday evening's setlist from a vast menu of material.

But his emphasis this night was on his best-known hits, to the audible delight of an audience that seemed most familiar with his '80s and early '90s output, shrieking at the opening notes of such well-loved tracks as "Raspberry Beret," "Take Me With U," "Cream," "I Would Die 4 U," and a mammoth take on "When Doves Cry."

Certified six times platinum, Prince's 1984 classic "Purple Rain" is his best-selling record in Canada, and a languid performance of the title track was a swaying singalong highlight, with purple confetti bursting in air as Prince launched a virtuoso guitar solo around the epic tune's mid-section.

Though the show came very highly polished, it still retained a sense of unpredictability that arena gigs sometimes lack. During a fiery take on "Cool" — from the Time's 1981 self-titled debut — more than a dozen people joined Prince on stage, surrounding him in a tangle of dancing limbs. And when one of his backup singers launched into an impromptu take on Michael Jackson's dancefloor classic "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough," Prince staggered and covered his mouth as if genuinely, happily surprised.

Prince himself offered plenty of unexpected moments too. The seven-time Grammy winner — proficient at soul, dance, rock, pop, R&B — shifted from song to song and genre to genre, at one point hopping from a cover of the Beatles' "Yesterday" to his "Nothing Compares 2 U." Later, the apocalyptic hedonism of "1999" transitioned mid-song into a gorgeously wrenching take on "Little Red Corvette."

His deft, powerful band was game for these sudden shifts, yet it was Prince's own musical prowess that wrested the spotlight. The Minneapolis native, who routinely plays every instrument on his recordings, seems to command every style and musical tool he dabbles in with a restless mastery.

On Friday, he focused on guitar heroics, tossing off several stunning solos to very different effect. On "A Million Days," culled from 2004's "Musicology," his soloing was anguished and expressive, while 1984's Technicolor wonder "Let's Go Crazy" — a sentiment the audience seemed to take as a direct order — featured downright blistering fretwork at its close.

He rarely addressed the audience between songs, preferring instead to sprinkle his shouted instructions and affirmations over the music. He was all about sustaining the relentless life pulse of the show, never allowing the energy to sag for even a moment.

"Y'all happy?" he questioned in one representative bit of banter. "I'm happy too!"

Prince was set to perform again in Toronto on Saturday before winding across Canada and wrapping his tour in Victoria on Dec. 17.

Gee, I coulda sworn he said '04 was the last time 'round for the hits... hmmm hah!

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Reply #80 posted 11/26/11 4:22pm

laurarichardso
n

Ace said:

serpan99 said:

http://www.680news.com/en...-hour-show

Prince launches Canadian tour in Toronto with electric, three-hour show

Nick Patch, The Canadian Press Nov 26, 2011 01:16:00 AM

TORONTO - To open the first show of his cross-Canada tour at the Air Canada Centre on Friday, Prince put his nimble band through a nearly 30-minute funk workout while he danced, gyrated and strutted across the stage with the easy grace of a performer half his age.

Finally, he stopped, bathed in green light.

"I gotta bask in Toronto's love," he said to, yes, an adoring crowd.

The break lasted only a moment before he was back at it, but he would have plenty of other opportunities to bask in the audience's warmth. Over the course of a three-hour-plus performance, the 53-year-old pop icon tirelessly took the game crowd on a journey through three decades of his inventive, idiosyncratic catalogue with a joyous, relentlessly entertaining show.

The performance kicked off in appropriately dramatic fashion. With the arena dimmed and the only illumination provided by the neon flashes of the lights lining the stage — pulsing on and off in time with the drums — each member of Prince's band emerged one after the other from beneath. Eventually, Prince poked his head out too, arms crossed over his chest, clad all in loose-fitting black with shades fixed to his face and gold jewelry dangling from his neck.

The stage was shaped in his signature glyph — that symbol Prince was formerly known as — lined with bright lights, with circular high tables set up around its perimeter, allowing a cluster of patrons the opportunity to sit and sip their beverages just a few feet from the action.

Of course, few in the audience were content to sit. From the beginning, the high-energy show inspired loose-limbed workouts in every corner of the arena, even the wilderness of the upper deck. Prince himself, meanwhile, rarely stopped moving, pulling off a flurry of moves that were both slick and seemingly spontaneous.

He elicited perhaps his biggest cheer of the night at the end of his 1986 hit "Kiss," shimmying mute in the spotlight, his hips swivelling furiously from side to side. He wandered every inch of the stage over the course of the show, showing no signs of fatigue — even during his third of six encores, he stood on a piano and hammered out a firecracker cover of Wild Cherry's "Play That Funky Music."

"This used to be my city," he said at one point, referencing the fact that he once owned a home here with his Toronto-born ex-wife. "Let's see if it still is."

Since the late 1970s, Prince has released new records with an almost workmanlike regularity — in total, he's issued more than 30 studio albums (the most recent being 2010's aptly titled "20Ten"), so he was able to order up Friday evening's setlist from a vast menu of material.

But his emphasis this night was on his best-known hits, to the audible delight of an audience that seemed most familiar with his '80s and early '90s output, shrieking at the opening notes of such well-loved tracks as "Raspberry Beret," "Take Me With U," "Cream," "I Would Die 4 U," and a mammoth take on "When Doves Cry."

Certified six times platinum, Prince's 1984 classic "Purple Rain" is his best-selling record in Canada, and a languid performance of the title track was a swaying singalong highlight, with purple confetti bursting in air as Prince launched a virtuoso guitar solo around the epic tune's mid-section.

Though the show came very highly polished, it still retained a sense of unpredictability that arena gigs sometimes lack. During a fiery take on "Cool" — from the Time's 1981 self-titled debut — more than a dozen people joined Prince on stage, surrounding him in a tangle of dancing limbs. And when one of his backup singers launched into an impromptu take on Michael Jackson's dancefloor classic "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough," Prince staggered and covered his mouth as if genuinely, happily surprised.

Prince himself offered plenty of unexpected moments too. The seven-time Grammy winner — proficient at soul, dance, rock, pop, R&B — shifted from song to song and genre to genre, at one point hopping from a cover of the Beatles' "Yesterday" to his "Nothing Compares 2 U." Later, the apocalyptic hedonism of "1999" transitioned mid-song into a gorgeously wrenching take on "Little Red Corvette."

His deft, powerful band was game for these sudden shifts, yet it was Prince's own musical prowess that wrested the spotlight. The Minneapolis native, who routinely plays every instrument on his recordings, seems to command every style and musical tool he dabbles in with a restless mastery.

On Friday, he focused on guitar heroics, tossing off several stunning solos to very different effect. On "A Million Days," culled from 2004's "Musicology," his soloing was anguished and expressive, while 1984's Technicolor wonder "Let's Go Crazy" — a sentiment the audience seemed to take as a direct order — featured downright blistering fretwork at its close.

He rarely addressed the audience between songs, preferring instead to sprinkle his shouted instructions and affirmations over the music. He was all about sustaining the relentless life pulse of the show, never allowing the energy to sag for even a moment.

"Y'all happy?" he questioned in one representative bit of banter. "I'm happy too!"

Prince was set to perform again in Toronto on Saturday before winding across Canada and wrapping his tour in Victoria on Dec. 17.

Gee, I coulda sworn he said '04 was the last time 'round for the hits... hmmm hah!

Please answer this question Who the hell is going to go to a show with no hit songs ?

In addition, P has a lot of material that he stopped performing before 2004 and we have not heard those songs since. What is the point of so called fans complaining about a artist performing song that his fanbase knows in a large arena setting?

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Reply #81 posted 11/26/11 11:09pm

rozilla

avatar

We were asked to move closer to the stage, got new tickets and so we did! Great view of Prince and the piano!

I am always ready to hear new stuff, he seemed really happy! I loved the white/black pants outfit the best.

Love wins. (Seen on bumpersticker)
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Reply #82 posted 11/27/11 1:17am

alphastreet

mrmarcus said:

alphastreet said:

Purpleelectricity is amazing!

The tourbook had photos of the tour and a couple of others I think, as well as of the NPG band members and random messages and quotes, but tbh, it wasn`t anything special. It would have been nicer if it was a tourbook highlighting his whole career since this is clearly a hits tour.

Read your thread about whether seeing Prince live would convert u. Didn't know you were from TO! I saw every show he did in Toronto since 1988... this is the first one I missed, cuz I don't live there anymore sad Looks like a kickass show as usual.. wish i had been there!!!

Yep I am smile You're so lucky you saw LoveSexy then, I think that's his best tour, I've seen clips at Purple Electricity and online.

As for that thread, I had a fabulous time and was emotional during Kiss and the beginning of the show a little and he's the best male performer we have left

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Reply #83 posted 11/27/11 1:18am

alphastreet

DoffieParker said:

alphastreet said:

Didn`t know about all that happening, I only posted it in the thread about first reactions to seeing Prince in concert (any concert). It was a good night, are you planning to go, it`s really worth it

If he sang that song, I don`t know it since there were a few I didn`t recognize or was hearing for the first time. I had no proper camera with me, just the phone lol

well that's lucky then! i'd be furious if i'd made the effort 4 the original thread!..

no i haven't planned to see any of the canadian shows, if i'm honest i'm still princed out from all the european gigs lol

it's cool he sang million days.. i read somewhere he did extraloveable, but this is obviously not true.

if i'm honest so disappointed he didn't do it! he needs to!

yeah it sounded so good live smile I thought he was going to sing Gold though, that's one of his best.

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Reply #84 posted 11/27/11 2:10am

spaceboy

avatar

Shockadelica during Hot THing was very cool

Ich bin bei der Neue Kraft Bewegung
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Reply #85 posted 11/27/11 8:36am

Ace

laurarichardson said:

Please answer this question Who the hell is going to go to a show with no hit songs ?

In addition, P has a lot of material that he stopped performing before 2004 and we have not heard those songs since. What is the point of so called fans complaining about a artist performing song that his fanbase knows in a large arena setting?

I'm not complaining (although, if I still went to see his shows, I'd personally want to hear more "deep cuts". I just think it's hilarious when musicians claim they're going to stop playing their hits (as Prince most certainly did in promoting the Musicology tour). They always end up trottin' 'em out again. It's such a douchey move. lol

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Reply #86 posted 11/27/11 8:38am

Ace

I'm curious: How did the shows sell?

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Reply #87 posted 11/27/11 11:41am

kewlschool

avatar

Ace said:

I'm curious: How did the shows sell?

The usa Tacoma show sold about 80% of the tickets in less than 1 week.

99.9% of everything I say is strictly for my own entertainment
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Reply #88 posted 11/27/11 11:54am

Ace

kewlschool said:

Ace said:

I'm curious: How did the shows sell?

The usa Tacoma show sold about 80% of the tickets in less than 1 week.

Oh, I was wondering about T.O. Curious how much mojo he still has in this town...

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Reply #89 posted 11/27/11 1:20pm

L4OATheOrigina
l

avatar

Ace said:

serpan99 said:

http://www.680news.com/en...-hour-show

Prince launches Canadian tour in Toronto with electric, three-hour show

Nick Patch, The Canadian Press Nov 26, 2011 01:16:00 AM

TORONTO - To open the first show of his cross-Canada tour at the Air Canada Centre on Friday, Prince put his nimble band through a nearly 30-minute funk workout while he danced, gyrated and strutted across the stage with the easy grace of a performer half his age.

Finally, he stopped, bathed in green light.

"I gotta bask in Toronto's love," he said to, yes, an adoring crowd.

The break lasted only a moment before he was back at it, but he would have plenty of other opportunities to bask in the audience's warmth. Over the course of a three-hour-plus performance, the 53-year-old pop icon tirelessly took the game crowd on a journey through three decades of his inventive, idiosyncratic catalogue with a joyous, relentlessly entertaining show.

The performance kicked off in appropriately dramatic fashion. With the arena dimmed and the only illumination provided by the neon flashes of the lights lining the stage — pulsing on and off in time with the drums — each member of Prince's band emerged one after the other from beneath. Eventually, Prince poked his head out too, arms crossed over his chest, clad all in loose-fitting black with shades fixed to his face and gold jewelry dangling from his neck.

The stage was shaped in his signature glyph — that symbol Prince was formerly known as — lined with bright lights, with circular high tables set up around its perimeter, allowing a cluster of patrons the opportunity to sit and sip their beverages just a few feet from the action.

Of course, few in the audience were content to sit. From the beginning, the high-energy show inspired loose-limbed workouts in every corner of the arena, even the wilderness of the upper deck. Prince himself, meanwhile, rarely stopped moving, pulling off a flurry of moves that were both slick and seemingly spontaneous.

He elicited perhaps his biggest cheer of the night at the end of his 1986 hit "Kiss," shimmying mute in the spotlight, his hips swivelling furiously from side to side. He wandered every inch of the stage over the course of the show, showing no signs of fatigue — even during his third of six encores, he stood on a piano and hammered out a firecracker cover of Wild Cherry's "Play That Funky Music."

"This used to be my city," he said at one point, referencing the fact that he once owned a home here with his Toronto-born ex-wife. "Let's see if it still is."

Since the late 1970s, Prince has released new records with an almost workmanlike regularity — in total, he's issued more than 30 studio albums (the most recent being 2010's aptly titled "20Ten"), so he was able to order up Friday evening's setlist from a vast menu of material.

But his emphasis this night was on his best-known hits, to the audible delight of an audience that seemed most familiar with his '80s and early '90s output, shrieking at the opening notes of such well-loved tracks as "Raspberry Beret," "Take Me With U," "Cream," "I Would Die 4 U," and a mammoth take on "When Doves Cry."

Certified six times platinum, Prince's 1984 classic "Purple Rain" is his best-selling record in Canada, and a languid performance of the title track was a swaying singalong highlight, with purple confetti bursting in air as Prince launched a virtuoso guitar solo around the epic tune's mid-section.

Though the show came very highly polished, it still retained a sense of unpredictability that arena gigs sometimes lack. During a fiery take on "Cool" — from the Time's 1981 self-titled debut — more than a dozen people joined Prince on stage, surrounding him in a tangle of dancing limbs. And when one of his backup singers launched into an impromptu take on Michael Jackson's dancefloor classic "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough," Prince staggered and covered his mouth as if genuinely, happily surprised.

Prince himself offered plenty of unexpected moments too. The seven-time Grammy winner — proficient at soul, dance, rock, pop, R&B — shifted from song to song and genre to genre, at one point hopping from a cover of the Beatles' "Yesterday" to his "Nothing Compares 2 U." Later, the apocalyptic hedonism of "1999" transitioned mid-song into a gorgeously wrenching take on "Little Red Corvette."

His deft, powerful band was game for these sudden shifts, yet it was Prince's own musical prowess that wrested the spotlight. The Minneapolis native, who routinely plays every instrument on his recordings, seems to command every style and musical tool he dabbles in with a restless mastery.

On Friday, he focused on guitar heroics, tossing off several stunning solos to very different effect. On "A Million Days," culled from 2004's "Musicology," his soloing was anguished and expressive, while 1984's Technicolor wonder "Let's Go Crazy" — a sentiment the audience seemed to take as a direct order — featured downright blistering fretwork at its close.

He rarely addressed the audience between songs, preferring instead to sprinkle his shouted instructions and affirmations over the music. He was all about sustaining the relentless life pulse of the show, never allowing the energy to sag for even a moment.

"Y'all happy?" he questioned in one representative bit of banter. "I'm happy too!"

Prince was set to perform again in Toronto on Saturday before winding across Canada and wrapping his tour in Victoria on Dec. 17.

Gee, I coulda sworn he said '04 was the last time 'round for the hits... hmmm hah!

and rave un2 the year 2000 would be the last time he would do 1999 too!! falloff

man, he has such an amazing body of music that it's sad to see him constrict it down to the basics. he's too talented for the lineup he's doing. estelle 81
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Forums > Concerts > CONCERT REVIEWS (Post Here) - Fri 11/25/11 - Toronto, Ontario - Air Canada Centre