Here is my attempt at a brief review/experience of the Tampa show this past Monday evening. I'm from Rochester, NY and also attended the Cleveland show a week ago and was vacationing down in Tampa and took a couple of friends to the show.

The first point I want to make is that I don't think the Tampa crowd was nearly as lively as Cleveland....but that's more a testament to how loud Cleveland was. Probably the coolest thing about this tour is seeing the masses interested in Prince again. Anytime...and I mean ANYTIME, Prince tells the crowd to do certain gestures or responses the crowds are almost in unison in their response. It's pretty cool to look around the whole stadium and see almost everybody vibing off Prince. The most electric moment has to be before the encore...the crowds are just in a frenzy!!! Both Cleveland and Tampa were deafening, with the Cleveland faithful chanting "We want Prince".

The Tampa show was similar to most other setlists. Maceo was in the band...and I don't recall him being at any other tour dates. Notable differences were the exclusion of The Beautiful Ones at the encore and On the Couch during the acoustic set. It seemed that Prince took more liberty to extend out certain guitar solos. The highlight of the setlist for me is the medley of The Question of U & The One. Prince rips it up on guitar and is literally screaming the lyrics for the One (ala Beautiful Ones). I'm imagining most of the crowd is unfamiliar with the songs...but they were definately listening to the lyrics as evidenced by the responses!

Prince continues to repeat some of the same humor...like his comments about how he writes songs while looking in the mirror during the acoustic version of Cream. I never really cared for Cream...but the acoustic set version he's doing is awesome! In Tampa he added" Some people go see a pychiatrist...I just look in the mirror and write dope jams!" Shit was pretty funny...

All in all, I think this tour is the best I've seen as far as commercial appeal (better than Hit N Run for sure and Jam of the Year). I'll take the ONA tour anyday...but it sure is fun to tell everybody your a Prince fan again and see people interested in him once again!

Great review...I can't wait to see P in June.