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Ill be up in that thang!

Prince, his guitar, and a new band, 3rd Eye Girl, hit the Roseland Theater

http://www.oregonlive.com...eland.html

Ida Nielsen got the call in 2010 while she was playing a festival in Europe. It came from Prince's manager. Prince had seen some online videos of Nielsen playing bass and he wanted her to come to Minnesota and jam.

Drummer Hannah Ford got an email last year. Same deal. Ford remembers the message saying, "We've come across your videos and we would like to know if you would audition for our new project." At first, she knew only that it was a major artist. Only later was Prince's name used, at which point Ford says she ran around her church like she'd lost her mind.

Not long after, Ford says, Prince asked her and her husband to be on the lookout for a female guitar player, so they hit the Web and found Donna Grantis.

That's how 3rd Eye Girl, the band Prince will bring with him Sunday for two sold-out Roseland Theater shows, came to be, and their story is illustrative of Prince at 54.

He's been around long enough (his debut came out in 1978), and chased so many muses, that while no one likes everything he's done, everyone likes something he's done. And if you don't, well, you don't like fun things? Why don't you like fun things?

Over the decades he's been sex in high heels -- and religiously restrained. He's played all his hits -- and none of his hits -- changed his name to a symbol, avoided the spotlight, and hosted the best halftime the Super Bowl, one of the biggest events in the world, will ever witness.

Prince -- who just three years ago released a record ("20Ten") via print newspaper in London and told that newspaper, the Mirror, that the Internet is dead. That same Prince is one of the few people in the world who can make that same perpetually cranky Internet behave on his terms.

Earlier this month, his people filed a copyright complaint and had a number of six-second videos removed from Twitter's new Vine app. His people keep a close enough watch on YouTube that the first page of a search for "Prince" returns three hits for the '90s sitcom "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air." Three results are Prince doing Prince songs. The top search result is Prince on "The View."

Online isn't necessarily his favorite thing. But he's Prince, so of course he'd recruit online, and when it came time to start rolling out new music, he rolled out from a mysterious-at-the-time character on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook called 3rd Eye Girl.

Blessed is this rock star, for he remains devilishly entertaining.

Consider the rest of the quartet that broke out to massive stardom in the 1980s. Michael Jackson went tragically off the rails. Madonna ran out of re-inventions and was last seen (last week) exchanging words in the press with the president of Malawi. Bruce Springsteen doubled down on the all-American iconography of "Born In the U.S.A."

Prince just plays music. Lots of music. All-the-time music. Funk. Blues. Soul. Rock. Jazz. Hip-hop. Whatever and whenever and often into the earliest morning hours.

In separate interviews last week, the members of 3rd Eye Girl described the last three months as something like a rock fantasy camp, 12 hours a day of jamming, rehearsing, recording and preparing for this tour, which will feature early and late shows each night.

They sounded excited to be playing music with Prince.

"As a guitar player, to hear him rock and do his thing," Grantis says. "I feel like I've got front row seats every day to hear some of the greatest playing of all time."

Guitar?

"He's definitely going to be playing the guitar," Nielsen says.

"A ton of guitar," Grantis says.

Guitar!

It's another paradox of Prince that he can be one of the world's all-time-great guitarists, and sometimes barely touch the guitar. Prince playing guitar is exciting and possibly worth the high price of admission by itself (Roseland tickets started at $175).

Backing up the band's words is the material that's been teased for this tour and (presumably) Prince's next album, (presumably) titled "Plectrum Electrum."

"Screwdriver" is a slinky rocker. They released rehearsal audio of a slow-charging, guitar-stomping version of his hit "Let's Go Crazy."

There's hollering, and laughter and a whole lot of sound. Grantis says she's bringing 20 effects pedals and eight amps on tour.

"It's going to be pleasant," Ford says, laughing. "I guess pleasantly loud, and feedback-y and crazy. It'll be a pleasant show."

So pleasant, she suggests leaving your phone in your car. You won't need it. The video you're taking won't stay online long anyway.

[Edited 4/21/13 10:20am]

Everyone have fun tonight!!

jackmitz said:

xhalation69 said:

jackmitz said:

Enjoy, everyone! I've been going through withdrawal since Friday's late-show ended. I hope you have as much fun as we did in Seattle!!

Me too! Stolen from a FB post: Princepartum Depression. I think it's in the DSM V

It's in the DMSR. GET IT???

[Edited 5/7/13 9:34am]

pricy503 said:

Damn good show! A must see.

Could you please post the setlist?

Good vibes to read about! Was there any ( © lezama )

Cant recall the setlist fully but second show was a bit more live and Liv Warfield performed a couple songs. The biggest surprise for me was that Donna was better than I initially thought. She got tons of shine and her solos were very good. I would say Bambi was the highlight for both shows that joint rocks big time.

pricy503 said:

Cant recall the setlist fully but second show was a bit more live and Liv Warfield performed a couple songs. The biggest surprise for me was that Donna was better than I initially thought. She got tons of shine and her solos were very good. I would say Bambi was the highlight for both shows that joint rocks big time.

Thanks!

Great review here: http://www.oregonlive.com...heate.html

This will never happen, but of all the recent tours, this one seems best suited to some sort of official video release. The energy level seems crazy high.

xtz said:

"But what if -- and again, just a theory -- what if Prince is really theHiggs boson particle? "

hahahahahah perfect!

[Edited 4/22/13 8:09am]

Shango said:

Where's the setlist? Anyone?

A set list would be great!

Does anyone know what song he did with the "Crosseyed girl" blues number? Was that a cover?

nvm: it was Beggin Woman Blues

[Edited 4/22/13 11:35am]

EARLY SHOW

Here's the setlist. Amazing energy. Lots of fist pumping. Many Wild Signs thrown.

LET'S GO CRAZY

--Sick groove starts. Curtains open to prince stone cold pimpin sitting on Hannah's kit . . . Crowd goes nuts! Simply bananas. Then, he picks up his guitar and goes to play, but it's jacked up! He unplugs it, the band keeps the groove and he just holds it out as the tech runs out with a new one. Prince with the gas face the whole time as he waits!

ENDORPHINMACHINE

SCREWDRIVER

SHE'S ALWAYS IN MY HAIR

DOLPHIN

--Prince on keys, which were in the far right in the back, so many people couldn't tell he was there. As hard to believe as this may sound and even though this was one of the songs i pined to hear, it was the low-light of the evening for me. It was subdued and lacking, and dare i say boring . . . and i love this song. Go figure.

I COULD NEVER TAKE THE PLACE OF UR MAN

COLONIZED MIND

GUITAR

PLECTRUM ELECTRUM

FIX UR LIFE UP

I LIKE IT THERE

BAMBI

--"This song's about confusion" and then they rip into it. The strobe lighting during this was sick; a minute straight of just strobes, pounding drums and hard guitar. Wicked.

Encore 1:

2YOUNG2DARE

CAUSE & EFFECT

Encore 2:

PURPLE RAIN

--He changed into his blinky-lights shoes. Prince on keys. Audience wailing. Minds blown.

Couple more details. Can't remember during which song, but he directed the left side of the crowd to clap on the 2 & 4, then directed the right to clap on the 1 & 3 and when he had us all clapping he stopped the band which left the crowd clapping with this stereo effect to which he sang over. It was hella cool.

Also, at one point he acted like he was going to give away his guitar to a person in the front row. Then he was like "psych! you crazy" and did the ding-a-ling-a kookoo hand gesture. hilarious!

See this tour!

[Edited 4/22/13 17:42pm]

[Edited 4/24/13 22:02pm]

sherbertbones said:

A set list would be great!

Does anyone know what song he did with the "Crosseyed girl" blues number? Was that a cover?

nvm: it was Beggin Woman Blues

[Edited 4/22/13 11:35am]

[Edited 4/22/13 11:52am]