My back is aching and my legs are cramped… but it’s still only the beginning! And who cares! Ive witness some of the best music around in the last 2 days. I’ve seen Prince play 3 times. First at the Bennett’s lane secret gig, second at the sound check and then at the concert.

3:30pm comes and I collect my passes I purchased as a member of the NPG music club. The excitement and the atmosphere was huge as about 250 Prince fans wait in line to see the sound check. This is the day we have all been waiting years for. 11 actually. A lot of people were old enough to see him when he last came out and even the time before that, but this was my first time. The sound check was a very laid-back affair and the band were having a good time jamming. They were playing similar jams to that of the Bennett’s Lane secret gig. This is a rough set list from sound check.
1. Xemlify
2. Jam (a jazzy instrumental)
3. Elephant And Flowers
4. Life of the Party (new song)
5. Bambi (went for 10 mins)
6. Whole Lotta Love – Led Zepplin (also went for a good 10 mins)
7. (another song from xpectations)
8. Xemplify and this also went straight into a funked version of ‘When The Saints Go Marching In’ –which he did at Bennetts Lane.

The soundcheck had a great vibe about it. The whole band was very relaxed and Prince joked with the crowd and was having a good time. Needless to say, his band is amazing. The horn section consists of Macio Parker and Greg Boyer, who were in both James Brown and Parliament’s horn section. Rhonda Smith on Bass and John Blackwell on drums were also big standouts!

So time came for the show. Seated in Row c on the floor, just to the left of Prince, I was pretty damn excited! Once the lights went down, there no such thing as seats anymore as we all moved to the front section between the barrier and the front row of seats. This was the moment I personally had been waiting years to experience and I was not disappointed. It was the best concert I have ever seen. The songs, the musicianship, the entertainment and just the presence of someone like Prince was enough to make anyone scream! From the opening song ‘Let’s go Crazy’ it was one non-stop party. I’ve never seen Rod Laver Arena like that before. At the age of 46, he has still got it. He had all the moves just like he did 20 years ago (only seen videos to compare to though)
The set list was as follows:

Let's Go Crazy
I Would Die 4 U
When Doves Cry
Baby I'm A Star
Shhh
Dmsr
I Feel 4 U
Controversy
The Beautiful Ones
Nothing Compares 2 U
Insatiable
Sign O' The Times
The ? Of U
The One
Let's Work
U Got The Look
Hot Pants/Life O' The Party
Soul Man
Kiss
Take Me With U
Everlasting Now

Encore:
Purple Rain

7, mountains and Elephants & Flowers were cut from the set list also. Maybe because he started a little late? The man has so many great songs both commercially and non-commercially that he could have played till about 5 in the morning and still have people begging to play more. Classics like 1999, raspberry beret, erotic city and little red corvette didn’t even get a run, but I’m not one to complain! The whole crowd on the floor knew the details of every song that it didn’t matter. When Prince sang, we sang along. When Prince put his hands up, we did! When he told us to jump, we jumped. When he clapped, we clapped. When Prince started a guitar solo, hands went in the air in praise. The vibe on the floor was just as electrifying as the energy coming of the stage. Sign of the times sounded amazing live and his soul/funked up version of kiss bought the house down! He got the crowd into a lot of songs by turning the microphone around and letting them sing, especially in ‘Take me with you’ which got the floor jumping.
The last 40 minutes of the show, was non-stop music. The band bridged between songs with funk jams and solos which kept the crowd hyped. After 40 minutes of non-stop playing you would expect a bit of fatigue, but not in this band. Every member was just as energetic as when they came on stage, if not more so.
The encore of purple rain was simply stunning. A huge cheer came on as he put on his symbol guitar. From where I was, the crowd was almost louder than him in the chorus and as I turned around, I saw many lighters on in the crowd, just like the movie. We were all waiting for one thing on the floor; the Purple rain solo and when it came all arms went up in praise once again.
It really is just too hard to explain how good the show was. Unless you were there, no words can describe it. The man is a legend!

After the show had finished, our wristbands let us in to the Prince of Wales for the after party, although Prince did not play. Groove Terminator was DJ’ing once again. Prince did make an appearance though, and he stayed for around 20 minutes. He was on stage walking around, dancing, and joking with the crowd. Most of the time though, he was choosing songs for Groove Terminator to play and as expected they mainly consisted of James Brown and Parliament! Seeing George Clinton last year at the Metro, and now seeing Prince live it’s not hard to see where his influences came from. I thought nothing would top the George Clinton show, but that has now been bumped to 3rd of my all time favorite gigs. 1st being the secret Prince show at Bennett’s Lane, and 2nd the Prince Rod Laver Arena concert.
The fun isn’t over yet though; I’ve still got tonight and the Sydney show to go.

AWESOME!

It will be interesting 2 see what the setlist is by the time it hits the states!

thanks alot for the review man !