Okay I've thought about writing my own report of this show, but I'm at work and dont really have time to. So just some quick thoughts and details on the evening...I arrived around 7pm, too late to make it into the soundcheck, but early enough to catch Mr. John Blackwell behind the counter of the NPGMC stand where they were passing out the laminates for the afterparty. He was just standing there talking with the workers. Nobody seemed to notice him except me as I was getting my laminate. I, being the starstruck fan that I was, didnt know what to do so I just hollered to him,"Blackwell"! He looked up at me and smiled and gave me a big thumbs up which pretty much made my night. I couldnt get to my seat yet so I came back to him and got his autograph a little later. Once again no one seemed to notice him but me. He seems like one helluva nice guy talkin with folks and hanging out in the crowd.
I got to my seat in the balcony shortly afterwards. Now, as some have said, there were no bad seats in this place and I had an excellent view of the stage even though I was in the nosebleeds, however, considering that I am a club memeber and I got my tickets about 15 minutes after they went on sale they were pretty disappointing. I really expected to be up closer.
Now the performance. Overall it was a great show. Blackwell was amazing. Renato is a cool addition. I would describe his playing as a mix between Lisa Coleman and matt Fink. Like Lisa he seemed to be very emotive in his playing style, working with colors and such. Like Fink he used some far out funky fat sounds on his boards that really sounded cool in context with the Rainbow Children tracks. Speaking of Funky Fat sounds, the keyboard that Prince Played on most of the evening sounded great! Kinda like a Rhodes with a little distortion added. Horn section was composed of Maceo and some other brother on trombone (my apologies to the man for not remembering his name) the horns sounded tight. Although during 1+1+1=3 Prince stopped the song towards the begining and asked Maceo "Maceo, what key you in brother"? then gave him some sorta signal and they started back up again virgin tight.(Funny!)
I really liked the stage design. Nothing too flashy, but still exciting with different backdrops, film clips and laser effects projected on the screens, and incence burning on either side of the stage. Prince played 3 diffrent guitars and spent a good portion of the evening on his pianos.
I am surprised that none of the reports so far have mentioned anything about how little Prince danced. He did in fact seem to me to be a little down. He did very little dancing walked off stage several times and even sat with his head bowed at one point during the performance. He talked alot about losing someone you love and the troubled times in which we live. My guess is he still suffers some from his Mothers passing, and who could blame him after all.
Still, though his performance wasnt as kinetic as usual he played and sang passionatly throughout, especially, it seemed when he was playing on the keys. Certain songs off TRC really shine live. "Muse 2 the Pharoah" in particular really did it for me. When they switched over to the funky part of the song they really made it sound dark and scary, funky as hell. Certain intimate moments were wondrous. "I love U but I dont Trust U Anymore" was beautiful. Its a shame some of Princes songs dont come through as amazing on album as they do live when hes singing the hell out of them. "HCUDCMA" also brought down the house with Prince teasing the crownd by only playing the first chords then walking away when the crowd went wild with recogniton.
The only dissapointments (if you culd call em that)"Family Name" I love this song but live with Rhonda playing the bass it just doesnt jive. Rhonda is cool but she really doesnt strike me as being too funky. Prince should definatly take over the bass on that song. "Annastasia" was cool and he really seemed to get into it but it was the last song he played for the night and it seemed to end the evening on a subdued anticlimactic note.
Overall it was a great show. The new band and new sound Prince has created is, indeed, fierce. Im sure that this tour is going to get better and better as the musicians play together more. The show features alot of free form jamming and instrumental numbers, balanced with some very intimate moments and mellow songs with just a few hits "sprinkled" on top. Like he said early into the evening "if you came to get your Purple Rain on you might be disappointed..it aint that kinda party" Prince, I love you. thanks for a fantastic show. Keep it up brother..."dont let nobody...bring U down".....

2 most common Prince mistakes: "Prince Roger Nelson" (4getting the s and the end of Rogers), and not knowing the name of one of his best songs "Anna Stesia," as it is stunningly referred 2 by fans here as "annastasia" Eye think Annastasia is some old Disney movie, where "Anna Stesia" is a Prince song.

Now 2 the show...Eye didn't attned, but it is nice 2 NO that he's singing all of "Raspberry beret," but still putting it in a medley with "Take Me With U," is weak. Split them up, and play Take Me like u did on the Purple Rain tour, or add something new. NO MORE MEDLEYS!

To the above post.

There were no mistakes in this review, I understood what songs were referenced immediately and go spell check somewhere else.

StevenPaul

Thanks.
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Prince stopped the song towards the begining and asked Maceo "Maceo, what key you in brother"? then gave him some sorta signal and they started back up again virgin tight.(Funny!)
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"Virgin tight" is some funny shit, can I use that?