Sun, Apr. 18, 2004

Music icon Prince rides wave of success to Gund Arena

http://www.ohio.com/mld/o...864.htm?1c

Singer/musician keeps diverse crowd on its feet with 25 years of hits

Prince Rogers Nelson is having one heck of a 2004.

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, where he opened the ceremony with a powerful medley of his past hits. He teamed up with R&B ``it'' girl Beyonce Knowles to open the Grammy telecast with another fine medley. His Musicology Tour, which stopped at The Gund on Saturday, has been selling out two- and three-night runs at arenas around the country. And, he's been giving away copies of his latest collection, Musicology, guaranteeing that tens of thousands more people will at least hear his new music and consider purchasing the real deal when it's released on Tuesday.

Yes, it's good to be Prince right now, and his performance revealed a musician and pop music icon who appears to be very comfortable with his place in pop culture.

The diverse crowd embodied the utopian mix of race, age and class that the singer presented in his star vehicle Purple Rain. Everyone was grooving as Prince and his flawless eight-piece New Power Generation band, including a three-piece horn section, reached back into his 25 years of music-making, keeping the crowd on its feet for much of the 2 ½-hour show.

Opening with Alicia Keys' rapturous speech from the Rock Hall ceremony and heading straight into the midtempo funk of the James Brown-influenced Musicology, Prince started on a funky note and never let up. He immediately went into a lengthy medley of tunes from Purple Rain that encompassed Let's Go Crazy, I Would Die 4 U and Baby, I'mA Star worked together seamlessly, balancing spontaneity and plenty of rehearsal.

The lesser-known ballad Shhh came next with an extended midsong breakdown that allowed Prince to coo salaciously at the ladies in the audience who screamed their approval to every suggestion.

The band showed its mettle on DMSR,extending the already long 1999 tune into a 20-minute funk jam with plenty of solo room and traces of Beyonce's Crazy In Love, where Prince playfully remarked, ``I can't do it, I don't have any booty!''

In the middle of the intermissionless show, Prince appeared alone on a rotating stool with an acoustic guitar and turned Little Red Corvette, Raspberry Beret, Cream and 7 into massive sing-alongs.

Obviously ecstatic to be filling arenas again, Prince had a constant smile on his face, and throughout the night he repeatedly worked the crowd into a frenzy with dramatic pauses, suggestive questions and a string of hits that stretched from his debut, I Feel For You, to the present, adroitly skipping the clunkers.

Using the same gambit David Bowie used on his 1990 Sound and Vision tour, Prince has said that he will stop performing his old hits after this already wildly successful jaunt. Whether that claim will come to fruition remains to be seen, but if it is the last time for his back catalog, he sent them out with a bang.

My voice is STILL gone!! I just woke up from last night amazing show!!

I have to say I am just amazed by Prince, I dont know how at any age a person could do such a high energy show for over 2 hours! The crowd was GOING NUTS for about 20 hours of that show! sooooo much so that being in the upper deck, WE couldn't hear some of the singing or guitar solos! (no lie) It was amazing!!

What scares me is Prince played this show it was his last!! He did in perfect tune now SCREAMS which sounded like something you would hear on the record! He held one for atleaat 15 seconds maybe even longer. I can't believe he was doing this ALL through the show, MY voice is shot for yelling..HOW can Prince's voice sound perfect/exactly like you hear on his albums?? You would assume the guy would hold back because he has to go to another city in a couple days!??

Blackwell is clearly the best drummer Prince has ever had! The guy is just amazing!!!! He did stuff that just made my jaw drop!

* I have a ton of Prince's concerts on tape & I have to say last nights concert was as good as the ONA Concert (New York) & Lovesexy Concert (Germany).

I HOPE he is running tape on these Concerts and later on this year put out a DVD! I can't see any show being better then the Cleveland,Ohio show.

But then I can:) I bet every City can write basically the samething I just did.

Prince is CLEARLY without a doubt the BEST MUSICIAN & Performer EVER!
[This message was edited Sun Apr 18 3:37:06 2004 by ElectricBlue]

ElectricBlue said:

He did in perfect tune now SCREAMS which sounded like something you would hear on the record! ... ... HOW can Prince's voice sound perfect/exactly like you hear on his albums??

Given that this tour has a fairly rigid set-list, with any change only really during the spoken-word improvs and acoustic set: Is it possible P has "recorded" a vocal track and just plays it each night?





PorterUk

Yea, how original is the same stage patter every night? This aint a play Prince.

2Freaky, I hope you don't think I'm harping on you or anything...I love yer avatar, I dig lots of your posts, and I'm from Ohio...so you know I got mad love for you.

However, I have always been totally mystified by the criticism you're levelling at Prince re: his supposed lack of spontaneity...after seeing 4 concerts in a week, I feel qualified to say that while of COURSE he does have a SHOW to perform, and while that's not a PLAY, it's certainly not a random jam session either (and if it was a random jam session there would be plenty of complaining about that!).

How much improvisational ad-libbing was there in the Purple Rain tour? Or the Parade tour? Or Lovesexy? Or Act I/II?

Seriously, I don't understand what you want him to do. He's not a fucking comedian - and hey, even if he was a touring comedian, he'd STILL tell the same jokes, because they would be part of his act!!

Methinks you're just wishing you had done more than sit at the back door at the Cincinnati show.

theblueangel said:

However, I have always been totally mystified by the criticism you're levelling at Prince re: his supposed lack of spontaneity...after seeing 4 concerts in a week, I feel qualified to say that while of COURSE he does have a SHOW to perform, and while that's not a PLAY, it's certainly not a random jam session either (and if it was a random jam session there would be plenty of complaining about that!).

How much improvisational ad-libbing was there in the Purple Rain tour? Or the Parade tour? Or Lovesexy? Or Act I/II?

Seriously, I don't understand what you want him to do. He's not a fucking comedian - and hey, even if he was a touring comedian, he'd STILL tell the same jokes, because they would be part of his act!!

Methinks you're just wishing you had done more than sit at the back door at the Cincinnati show.

Dude, you were slapped DOWN!!





PorterUk.

The Cleveland show was electric! The humor was great! They did a good job last night picking sexy babes for "U Got the Look." That woman in the outfit was priceless. The only thing that didn't happen was the pearls did not descend from the sky for a single tune... what's with that?

My Voice is still gone and getting worse!!! I DON'T CARE THOUGH, IT WAS SOOO WORTH IT!!! Amazing show!!!! I'm ready to lose my voice again in Chicago in JUNE!!! Go 'head P!!!!

PorterUK said:

Nope. The man is simply an amazing vocalist. It's not just at the concerts either, the vocals on the new album are incredible. Especially on Call My Name and The Couch.

MadeUpName said:

Yea - that outfit took some creativity to create and a lot of guts to wear. The whole outfit was just the symbol. The circle went around her head, the horn covered part of her breasts, the arrow barely covered her crotch, the back was just the rest of the horn warping around and another bottom of an arrow barely covering her butt or not when she was dancing (g-string). Other than the extra arrow in the back, the only fabric in the whole outfit was a cutout of the symbol. It's too bad cameras weren't allowed - someone needs to post a picture of that outfit.

OH MAYN! The show was SOOO much better live than on screen theater! And he per4med more songs (I COuld Never Take The Place & Raspberry Beret .. but leaving out Insatiable).

But man! This was my FIRST CONCERT and it was THEE best. Even my partner said he gotta see it again in Minneapolis (already got the tickets)!

PorterUK said:

No they were clearly live... not that perfect perfect, But for live they sounded as close to the CD as anyone could get without 100 takes

ElectricBlue said:

No they were clearly live... not that perfect perfect, But for live they sounded as close to the CD as anyone could get without 100 takes

Fair enough - you guys are the witnesses.

I too noticed that the vocals over the last 2 years or so have been superior to anything he's done before. Is he taking lessons? Or does a voice mature beautifully as his has if you stay off crack and booze when you're middle-aged and rich?


PorterUk.