Attended the HK harbor fest, coming from China. Arrived promptly at 8, and was punished for my punctuality by 30 minutes of Canto-Pop from Karen Mok. My last P concert was the Tokyo gig, and the crowd was totally different. About half expiate, half local. Since decent gigs are to Hong Kong what snowballs are to hell, there were a lot more people desperate for decent entertainment than actual faithful, NPGMC-abused fans.

Prince came on at about 9. The concert started out with Purple Rain numbers: Let’s Go Crazy, I Would Die 4 U, When Doves Cry. Nothing really exciting until he got into DMSR, which was mad funky. He changed some of the dirtier words around in this and other songs (for example, during “I Feel 4 U” he sang “it’s mostly a spiritual thing”) but his intense spirituality never bothered me. Whatever keeps him inspired is fine by me. The crowd was pretty into it, standing on chairs, waving/clapping/chanting on cue, even though they found it hard to substain a wave/clap/chant very long. But that’s HK, go-go-go, onto the next thing.

After the beginning set, he fell into ballad land. I prefer funky to falsetto, so it was kind of a chance to relax. Towards the end he ripped it loose, however, starting with Sign ‘O the Times, hitting on Soul Man and Let’s Work.

He came out for the encore wearing a hat. Even though they were doing “Purple Rain” I hope this meant “Days of Wild”. No luck. Toward the end of the song he literally threw in the hat.

Not as great as the shows I saw in Japan last year, but then again it was a more intense crowd, better seating and a well-oiled show.

Unforutanly, I couldn’t go to the aftershow. No, it was back across the border into China for me.

thanks!

DMSR mad funky...mmm...

Thanks for the info - did you get the free gift? What was it?

Bambi319 said:

Pleonasm!

Free gift: 1 copy, regular program.