Sorry this is so long but I never write reviews and I just had to get my thoughts down. Oh yeah, and I am still running on limited sleep. Hope you enjoy it.

Like many of you here, I have been what my family calls “obsessed” with Prince since 1984. I don’t have a P license plate or tattoo and my collection is limited to primarily official releases, but Prince’s music has dominated my ear waves since he first blew me away in Purple Rain and then live in the Greensboro Coliseum in Nov 1984.

Prior to yesterday, I had seen Prince perform 9 times, including one after show in Raleigh in 1997 and his most recent NC show at the RBC. I had always thought it would be cool to see Prince in Minn. and maybe at Paisley, but when I was unable to attend any of the Celebrations, I figured it just wasn’t meant to be. Well, I was wrong…my brother moved to the Minn. area last year.

He has never been a Prince fan but always knew the man must be something special if his little bro was so into him. When the Excel shows were announced, he called me to see how to get a fan club membership so he could get good seats for him and his girlfriend. This surprised me a bit, b/c like I said he isn’t really a Prince fan. Also, his girlfriend, a Minn. native, has always thought my liking Prince was a little comical. Next thing I know I’m making plans to join him for the Friday night show.

I bought tickets for Friday and made my flight arrangements to arrive on Thursday in hopes of an aftershow Thursday night. I was of course, thrilled when they were announced and immediately purchased my member tickets for Thurs and Fri aftershows.

Thursday

I got to St. Paul on Thursday around noon. My brother and I drove out to Paisley to take the tour and check out the merchandise. Due to getting lunch and some crazy traffic delays we got there some time just after 3pm. We knew when we saw the line at the door that we might not get in that day. Unfortunately, we had to be back in St. Paul to meet his girlfriend to go to the concert and we just could not wait in the hour long line for the 20 min tour. I thought, no big deal, I will just go tomorrow. We checked out the merch. booth (loaded with shirts and misc. associated artist discs), grabbed our Aftershow Tix and headed back to town.

Well, on to the show. I bought a lower level ticket in the parking lot for $30.00. I walked into the arena to hear Morris Day singing “C O O L, What that’s Spell?” and was pretty much in heaven. As I was dancing to the Time, I could not stop thinking that this was just the start of a beautiful night. I would have liked to have seen The Walk instead of The Bird or Jungle Love, but Morris and Jerome worked these songs well to excite the crowd. Personal highlights of the Time set were Gigolo’s Get Lonely Too and 777-9311.

My seat was about 30yrd line, mid-way up the first level to the right of the stage facing Rhonda. This provided me with a much better view of the stage than my 2nd row tickets in Raleigh (which were awesome but somewhat obscured by Mr. Blackwell). The set-list was almost identical to the show in Raleigh, with the addition of Love Bizarre (actually played the song in addition to using it as segue to I feel for you) and substitution of 12:01 in place of Telemarketer Blues. The highlight of this show for me was really just the different vantage point. I easily spotted my brother and his girlfriend between sets and enjoyed watching them having a great time in their 3rd row seats. When we met back at the car, they were both pumped for the aftershow and ready for the next night.

We arrived at Paisley around 1:00 a.m. I was grinning ear to ear as we walked through the warehouse doors. I wandered back and forth between the stage room and DVD screening area anxiously awaiting the start of the show. I saw Chance out talking to the crowd in the foyer and finally started to relax a little and just enjoy the moment.

My brother, his girlfriend and I were watching the DVD in the corner of the screening room closest to the stage room. I looked back over my shoulder to once again see how the stage room was filling up and Prince was standing right behind me. Just like in PR when he is standing behind Apollonia with those big shades on, no not really. He was watching the screen talking to a kid that had been dancing with him on stage at the Excel Center (same kid showed up Fri night in a suit possibly made by Prince’s tailor. He had on the half tail jacket and was dressed to impress). I honestly did not even see him standing there at first or it just did not register for a minute. I know I stared for a second before someone else walked up and said hello to him, breaking my trance and allowing me the opportunity to step up, shake his hand and thank him for a great show and for opening Paisley for the aftershows. He smiled and said thanks and I backed away to allow him privacy.

I turned back to my brother and his girlfriend and they were like…”hey, are you okay, what took you so long to say something to him?” Apparently, they saw him before I did and were trying to tell me he was standing there while I was in a catatonic state looking right at him. I can only imagine that I looked somewhat like my two year old son when he met Elmo at a church carnival. “Uh, uh, uh…Daddy…Elmo!!” I never had a strong desire to meet Prince (you know, the whole man behind the curtain syndrome), but in a split second my night went from beautiful to absolutely amazing.

The first part of the aftershow performance was marred by Prince allowing way too many people on stage to dance while the band ran through a string of covers. Even though he was on stage leading the jams and working the bass/guitar, you could not see him through all of the dancers. Fun for those on stage but a lot of the crowd was left wondering why they paid for a dance party. I actually enjoyed just being there and hearing the loose groove that the band was putting down. The “Footprints” opener reminded me of how truly hot Prince’s horn section is and forced me to appreciate them as more than just accompaniment to Prince. The show picked up when Prince cleared the stage of dancers and rewarded those still there with DMSR, Sexy Dancer and scorching versions of Peach and Beautiful Strange.

We left the Park at about ten 'til four.

Friday

My brother had to work part of the day on Friday. We got to Paisley with what we thought would be plenty of time to take the tour to find out they stopped selling tickets early (3pm). I was disappointed that I would not be seeing the inside of the studio, but it turned out for the best. It took two hours to get back to St. Paul (did I say the traffic in Minn is crazy!!) and we had just enough time for my brother to get a few hours sleep before the concert.

I was on the floor for Friday night. Our seats were in front of Mike and Renato with a great view of one catwalk and center stage and decent views of two other catwalks. The great seats and set list changes made this show better than Prince’s Thursday set for me. There were no changes to the opening set as I recall. Motherless Child, Telemarketer Blues, and especially ICNTTPOYM and On the Couch were welcome additions to the acoustic set. On the Couch was silky smooth on acoustic and P worked the syrupy vocals for all they were worth.

The rest of the show was pretty much the same with the funky hot version of Sign ’o the Times, complete with Prince guitar solo. Prince added Dear Mr. Man, Whole Lotta Love and Prince and the Band rap and dropped The Question of U/The One/Fallen from the set. Prince’s blistering guitar work on Whole Lotta Love seemed to take the energy up a few notches and it stayed there through Life O’ the Party (sounds SOO good live), Soul Man, Kiss, and Take me With U.

The encore was standard with Prince playing Purple Rain with more energy and emotion than the song has seen in years. Reviews of other shows have also noted the renewed verve to Purple Rain and it seemed even more apparent in this finale to a 3 night home town run.

We arrived at Paisley at about 1am to see a line of cars turning left on Audubon. It was a lot more crowded than it had been on Thursday night. We walked in just in time to see Larry Graham take the stage with Kip Blackshire’s band. I was paying so much attention to Larry, that I did not even see P playing keys as noted in someone else’s review. It was cool to see LG playing Every Day People.

After about a 30 min break, Prince set the bar high by kicking off the aftershow with Call My Name, my favorite off the new album. Joy in Repetition followed with P allowing a fan to get on stage and sing a bit. The guy did a great job of letting go and enjoying the moment and Prince hammed it up by imitating him kneeling to sing to the females in the front row. P jumped back on lead vocal and strapped on his light blue guitar to give us the solo that the song commands.

Girls & Boy’s was laid back with Rhonda & Blackwell putting down the groove and making room for the horns to hit all the right spots. Prince threw a little Ride Sallie Ride over the jam towards the end. I enjoyed “Knock on Wood” and was really impressed with “What is Hip?”. I had seen the title but do not recall ever hearing the song before.
At one point Prince asked “Where my hand claps at? It’s only 3 in the afternoon, don’t be tripp’n ya’ll!!” There was no doubt that I was on Prince’s time.

Something in the Water was a funky spacey computer jam that started with Prince (still on guitar) and Rhonda trading riffs and floated out over the crowd. Blackwell’s drum solo brought us all back down to reality and the Speechless instrumental let us cool down from the opening run. Maceo brought everything back up to speed in no time leading the band through Shake Everything You Got, giving solos to Renato, all members of the horn section and I think Blackwell got another one.

The band then broke into one of my all time favorite songs to hear covered, “Superstition”. I have actually bought two albums, Stevie Ray Vauhn Double Trouble Live and Widespread Panic with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band Live, just to have their live versions of this song. It was a real treat to hear P supplying the fuzzy low end while Kip provided vocals.

The rest of the show was just as funky as the set-list indicates. I don’t remember exactly when, but at one lull between songs the crown began the “we want the funk!” chant. Prince responded by saying something to the effect of, “be careful what you wish for” and proceeded to fill our cup. 777-9311 bass jam, followed by Brick House and No Diggity was an awesome run that had true funk soldiers begging for more at 4:30am. Prince obliged with one more funk send-off by bringing LG on stage for the Jam. Prince gave Larry the spotlight as he played the most intense bass jam of the night.

A soft ambient arrangement of PR (no solo) and Adore closed the show. We filed out of the warehouse to greet the morning light at 5:00a.m. Anyone for pancakes?

I know it is a long review, but I wrote it to preserve the memory for myself and to hopefully give those who could not attend a taste of what it was like. Trust me, I left stuff out…it could have been a lot longer. Feel free to ask questions. I will try to answer any that I can.

B/c both nights had such great individual and collective moments I cannot not say I would trade one for the other. Seeing the Time, watching two people become Prince fans right before my eyes, & shaking Prince’s hand make Thursday night an experience I will never forget. However, Friday’s concert and aftershow take the cake for pure musical enjoyment. Two beautiful nights. Thanks Prince!!!

Excellent review. I am glad you had a good time. I will see the purple man tomorrow and Monday. I can't wait.

I have always been a Prince fan but never had the opportunity to attend any of his concerts until . . . coming up, next Monday night, June 28th at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont. I am more than excited about it!! I just graduated from DePaul with my MS in Computer Science and so I bought the tickets as a gift to myself. Anyway, thanks for writing such an awesome review. It seems that despite having seen several shows there is still the excitement and anticipation in you for seeing him again and again, not to mention a real appreciation for the music as well. I enjoyed reading your post.

Can you tell me a bit more about these aftershows? How could I get an opportunity like that?

Lisa

I'm glad you had such a positive experience! Thanks for sharing!