As a long time Prince big time fan, I've been to several live gigs throughout the years and listened to maybe 95% of his music including bootlegs. I was at the Reno concert, 3rd row from the stage (Thanks, NPGMusicClub) and here's my impression of the Reno concert...

THE CONCERT:

The concert was fantastic! The place was packed, the crowd loved it, and the man and the band are in top form.
The man did as he promised: played the hits. Of couse, he couldn't play all the hits (that would have taken 5 hours instead of 2 1/2!), but he stuck to the game plan. Played fantastic guitar on Let's go crazy (as usual), The Question of U (a real highlight of the show), Shhh! (just like in Hong Kong Rocks), Sign of the Times, and of course, Purple Rain. Other highlights included a beautiful acoustic rendition of Little Red Corvette, an awesome performance of The beautiful ones (still screaming his head off like the kid used to do!), When Doves Cry (yes, he did that one(!), but without much guitar), and beautiful singing on The One. He even threw in a little Outkast, doing The Way U Move lol.

The band was tight, not too many horns, and John Blackwell drumming like a true mofo. A few tech glitches like a brief mike outtage, a few moments of feedback, and a funny sequence when he started doing his acoustic session. Prince was sitting on a rotating chair with a mike atteched to the chaie, but for some reason, the mike and the chair weren't exactly in sinc so Prince found himself pushing off trying to spin the chair faster to chase the mike down so he could keep singing into it. Hilarious! but Prince is such a pro and was unfazed.

They pulled lots of people up to the stage to dance at one point, including some self-obsessed freak dude dressed in a zebra striped suit with zebra high heeled pumps. Prince goes: u come up on the stage, and bring your cute boyfriend up with cha! Then Prince made sure everyone caught a glimpse of the guy's pumps lol. Another funny moment was when he had this dialogue about waking up with some girl and noticing a funky smell. Then he goes, "is that u or me, cuz I know what kind of chips I had, but u had that other funky kind..." He also talked about waking up with some twins in his bed and not knowing what the hell their name was. I kind of got the feeling that a little badness is starting to creep back into the man!

I was 3 rows from the stage and they were great seats about 50% of the time when he was on my side, but I often found myself rubbernecking trying to see thru the drumset or the keyboards, plus I couldn't see the screen directly on top of me. A couple of friends of mine were seated up on the second level in the lower dome and had an eyelevel view of the stage. When I went up to see from there I had the distinct feeling that those were much better seats than mine overall, since they could see the video screen and had a consistent view of the entire stage, not to mention that it was only maybe 100 feet from the stage. But I'm not complaining!

Thanks, I'm glad you had a good time!

UNBE-FREAKING-LIEVABLE!!!! RENO!!! What a show! I finally was able to get my wife to a Prince show and knew that she'd be converted, but man, oh man, she had no idea she'd be converted from the stage...Seems my sister-in-law had some nose bleed seats (not bad with the great sound and huge screens showing all the band action, but not as good as out floor seats right near a catwalk) and my wife wanted her sister to see some of the show from a good vantage point. They exchanged tix, my sister-in-law was totally blown away to be so close and then went back to get my wife. As my wife was coming back to her seat, she was asked to come on stage and dance. The dude next to me grabbed me and said, "Ain't that your wife????" I just about split my gut...She had the time of her life up there and managed to be in Prince's way at one point. He touched her arm as he walked to the other end of the stage and I thought she was gonna faint. Oh yeah, she's converted in a big way...

The coolest thing is that I was able to get onstage at the Fillmore show, Sunday, February 15th and sing a bit (yeah, yeah, I needed the lyrics-just a little nervous) during Take Me With You and now the wife knows kinda how it feels. We'd recommend it to anyone and everyone. What kinda odds are thay taking for that?

Of course, she's bragging that she was on stage in front of 12,000 (rather than the Fillmore's 1200) and that he'd been inducted to the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame after I sang with him, but, hey, whatever.

I truly believe this will be Prince's year. The new CD is great, the show was unbelievably tight, he works himself and his band's asses off on a stage with great sound and sightlines. MY highlight was the acoustic section with Prince alone with an acoustic guitar singing like we were at his personal campfire. In essence, we were.

Once this show hits LA and people really start to talk this tour's going to be the hottest ticket in town this year or any year. Get your tix, get 'em early and make yourself seen, because you will see the show of your life. It's really that good.

Thanks, Prince and the NPG. Nice to hang with you guys for a bit...

Keep up the fine work.

THe reno concert Rawked. He was so sexy and funny and happy again. I never thought that I would hear DMSR or controversy in Concert as I was too young to go when he sang them the first time. Te only complaint that I have is that he actually started the concert on time. I was coming from the bay area and hit traffic and got there like 15 minutes late. I missed the first 2 songs. The whole trip there I was telling my friends not to worry casue P NEVER starts his concerts on time. Now he wants to go and get punctual and stuff.

By the way, there was a looooong will call line after 8. Boy was I glad that I already had my tickets.

If i hear Prince play Shhh! live in Phoenix on Wednesday i will lose my sh*t and ball like a 10year old girl.

It is going to be very embarassing.

2funkE said:

I will offer you console... How are you? See you there!!!

I always carry wipes...

BigMFCheez said:

This is a belated response (I just got back from two weeks vacation; I kicked it off by going to the Reno show)...I had a seat in row 10 of floor section E. It was perfect: I was basically within eye contact distance when he was on that side of the stage, and when he wasn't, I could look up at the big screen. It was a great show, one of the most memorable moments was Prince's reaction to the crowd response during the acoustic set.