Prince proves he's for real
Artist puts on show full of funk, fervor

By WAYNE BLEDSOE, bledsoe@knews.com
April 23, 2004

Somewhere in the midst of Prince's funky two-hour set Thursday night at Thompson-Boling Arena he stopped to ask the audience if they watched MTV. When the crowd applauded, he gave a sneer.

"Better not let no lip-synching on this stage," said the Artist Once Again Known As Prince, "because I do NOT believe in lip-synching."

There's no doubt about it, Prince's music is real. Prince Nelson Rodgers spent the first half of his life soaking up the funk of James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, Parliament/Funkadelic and the psychedelia of Jimi Hendrix, along with healthy doses of blues, classic 1970s singer-songwriters and Motown.

Onstage, it all comes out. Prince dances, struts and shrieks with more aplomb than Brown in his prime (although certainly not with Brown's passion). And his band, which features Maceo Parker (an alumnus of Brown's classic band), is tight, versatile and entertaining on its own.

The tour both highlights songs from the artist's new album, "Musicology," and recaps why Prince was the most important pop musician of the 1980s and then some.

Thursday's show opened with the title track from the new album and quickly moved into a string of songs from "Purple Rain," the album that turned Prince into an international star.

An early highlight was an extra-funky version of "DMSR" from the album "1999" that had the audience dancing and shouting the lyrics. When much modern R&B is about sampling, it was wonderful to hear some real, live musicians kick out some organic grooves. It was also fine to hear Prince cut loose on the electric guitar. He's long been one of the most underappreciated players in popular music.

The show did present some of Prince's most popular songs in a different, and often, truncated form. "Little Red Corvette" was performed on acoustic guitar with Prince sitting in the center of the in-the-round stage. "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" (performed solo on electric guitar) was reduced to a mere snippet. However, it was also an opportunity to hear familiar songs in a new context. And, Thompson-Boling's acoustics are always a problem for a loud show.

The most heartening thing about Thursday's concert was the fact that it felt like a spectacle, when, in fact, the special effects were limited to little more than one blizzard of confetti.

In this case, the spectacle was great music and an artist with true charisma.

Prince Nelson Rodgers ??

Prince Nelson Rogers???? What????? You have got to be kidding me.....

Yes, Prince Nelson Rogers!!...Sheesh...It's the other names they got wrong. It should be Funkament/Parliadelic....Stone and the Family Sly...Brown James...

Yeah, I just wrote the paper guy a short email noting his mistake. That was the only thing he got wrong in the whole article...but it was a BIG thing.

And since I was at that show, I'll take this moment to post a few comments about it! First of all, I can't believe the man was RIGHT HERE ON MY CAMPUS (University of Knoxville)...just a six-minute walk from where I take classes!! However, this speaks to the low volume of his audience. The article was right in that Thompson-Boling Arena's acoustics DO suck. It's also not a very large arena (it's where our basketball teams play). What's worse is that so few people bought tickets, that many seats (such as mine) were reassigned to better ones. I was supposed to be in the nosebleed seats, but ended up being halfway to the stage. This was good for me, but not too good for Prince, and that's disappointing. The acoustics would've been better had there been more bodies in the place.

But the fans who showed up were all into it, of course. For starters: if anyone else on the org was there...did you hear Prince's drummer say "Hello NASHVILLE" before the first song?? I'm pretty sure that's what he said, because the second time he spoke to the crowd, he made a point to enunciate: "Knoxville." I bet he "wanted to get away" after that screw-up (I don't know how many of you have seen that commercial).

I don't know how much of this has been said before, because as I stated in another forum, it's too hard, and time-consuming, to sift through everything to see what's recently been covered. First of all, you can tell the man is much happier these days, exhibiting more humor and joy in his shows than before. Just shows what a positive change in your life can do for your outlook.

I also came away with a deeper appreciation for this man's talent. I'm amazed at the ease with which he performs the way he does...the way he has for over 25 years now! The things that man does with his voice, so effortlessly! I strain to hit an octave above middle C, but he goes well above the treble clef staff as if it's his natural voice! You don't see all the muscles in his neck tense up, and he doesn't even break a damn sweat!!! There are no words for how truly gifted that man is.

Then there are the song highlights:

"Joy in Repetition": You know how you can hear a song 16 million times, but for some reason on the 16,000,001th time you start to feel something different? For some reason, several of Prince's old songs have started feeling better to me in the past few years, and this is one of them. In fact, it's one of the few cuts from GB that I can say I really like.

"D.M.S.R.": One thing I laughed about was how I was singing the original lyrics, but he was singing more "tame" ones to fit his new life's direction. He did that with several songs, of course. It's cool...I just found it funny. This is also one of my new favorites of Prince's older songs.

"Controversy": I was actually surprised he did anything from this album...I didn't think he remembered that stuff. The real surprise was that he did the chant: does he still wish we all were nude?

"LET'S WORK": I was pleasantly shocked that he did this song...and did it with the original lyrics!! I thought, "Okay, you might as well do 'Head'!!" (and if he had, I would've torn the roof of that sucka with ONE HAND!!)

"God" (smooth jazz version): Nice touch.

"Purple Rain": Great, but not enough guitar. I was glad to see him pull the symbol out (no cloud on the show), but he barely did anything with it, after keeping us waiting about seven minutes for this encore. Rather anticlimactic. One thing I've noticed--and this has probably been talked about--is that when he plays the symbol, he really makes use of that whammy bar. It's as if he's saying, "I'm finally playing the guitar that lets me hit the whammy," and so he uses it to death. All through the 80s, I wished he'd finally get into the Floyd Rose/tremolo/whammy thing to update his sound and technique. It did add some long-awaited new colors to his playing, but I think he uses it too much. And though he barely used it on this show, I do like his use of the whammy pedal, as it makes him sound a lot like Steve Vai and Joe Satriani (two other guitarists I admire).

"Alphabet St.": No, he actually didn't play this song...and I'm MAD! Being in Tennessee, I thought SURE he was going to play this one!!

I was glad to hear Prince rock some serious axe, as it lets me know that he can still play (I wasn't impressed with his Hall of Fame performance). As for the other musicians, I know most of you are familiar with his band...but I wasn't until now. Confusing Knoxville with Nashville was the only thing that drummer did wrong all night; that man is NASTY!! I LOVE that guy! He more than made up for Sheila not being there! I like the keyboard player too. His well-honed jazz chops remind me of Sting's keyboard players from the 90s forward.

And then there's SISTER FUZZ (Rhonda Smith). Oh my goodness, I'm in love. She has to be the most complete bass player he's ever played with...and she's FINE AS HELL!! She didn't use much of the fuzz last night, but the funk was still there.

All that said, however, I still think the Lovesexy band was the tightest Prince ever had. Not as jazzy, but there was just so much more chemistry.

Lastly, I guess the occasional raps with Scotty the sound man are a part of the act, but that gets a little tiring. I got the impression that Prince wasn't happy with the guy. At one point during his solo guitar medley last night, Prince actually seemed irritated with Scotty because he wasn't bringing the guitar up enough. Vocal commands to band personnel during a show can convey a sense of control over your ensemble, but get excessive with it, and it starts to look more like a loss of control.

Okay, that's enough talk on what you've probably already heard...and sorry it was so long. Peace!

Zoot
"I'm gonna put her in the back seat, and drive her...to Tennessee."
[This message was edited Fri Apr 23 7:58:10 2004 by zootjames]

The last time I checked, Thompson Boling arena (the venue Prince played in Knoxville) was the LARGEST arena IN THE COUNTRY at an on campus site. It seats 25,000. It is huge. It is probably one of the largest venues he will play anytime this year. The upper level was curtained off, but there were still probably anywhere from at least 10,000 - 15,000 people in attendance. The crowd was a lot bigger than I expected and we did Prince right last night in Knoxville. It was the type of crowd that will make him definitely include K-town on the list the next time he makes tour plans.

Showtime was 7:30 (actually started @ 8:00) and at precisely 7:30 I looked around and saw 1,000s of empty seats on the lower level. So, the first point in the show that Prince called for the house lights I winced. The lights came on and the place was was packed tight. The curtain blocked out the upper level, so it looked like there were no empty seats in the place. Can't say enough about the crowd. Great job Knoxville.

Also, the dude said Knoxville, not Nashville, when the show opened.

That newspaper reviewer just messed up on the name. He has always written overly positive stuff about Prince (even when no one else was a few years back). Strikingly, he always seems to gush about Prince's guitar playing ability. Back in Jam of the Year tour, he reviewed that show and couldn't get over what an outstanding guitar player Prince was. He just got the name backwards in the review.

parade86 said:

That doesn't necessarily mean it was a typical size for a Prince concert. For basketball games, yeah...but this wasn't a basketball game. This was the concert event of the decade.



We'll just have to disagree on that. I think it was carefully enunciated the second time for a reason.

Zoot