{{{Wow...all I can say about the 12+ hours of live Prince I saw the last 2 days. Musically, the first 4/19/02 regular show was by far the best I've ever seen him perform. After the hit n run tour medley that he's been playing for the past few years, he's back, and this show really showcases the musician instead of the hitmaker. Though he did a bunch of hits too (most in a nearly 1 1/4 hour encore), the highlights for me were the rarely played songs such as Joy in Repitition and a complete, different version of Adore on piano.

Through the NPG Music Club, I was able to sit closer than I ever had before at one of his concerts...I was in the second row, and could see everything really well. }}}

Anyways, we got in to the soundcheck and could hear an instrumental version of She Loves me 4 me before they let us in. As we got in, Prince was at the keyboards playing a song that sounded like The Glam Slam Boogie from the Gold Experience tour. The band went into She Loves me 4 Me, which sounded almost exactly like the album track, followed by Peach. During the part where he said "she was pure, when her titties bounced" on the cd, he said "thangiez" (I read that in Prince's "Beautiful Strange" lyric book). Next off was an instrumental version of 777-9311, with Blackwell on drums. After that, Prince came out in the audience and was watching the band from the back of the first section, he sat in a seat and sang Extraordinary from behind all of us. At that point he excused himself and said the band would be out shortly.

At 8pm (this is the first Prince concert that I've ever been to that started on time), Candy Dulfer came out and played her sax while walking through the audience to a closed curtain and the band playing Rainbow Children behind her. From behind the curtain, Prince, in the demonic voice, did the intro to Rainbow Children, followed by the song.

Highlights of the first part of the show:

-Both this and the Sat. show started exactly on time. That never happens at a Prince show.

- During Xenophobia, which was almost 15 minutes long, Prince asked the girl at front row center (who is my friend Karrie from Canada), is it better to give or receive. She said give, and Prince said, why don't u give that brother a few rows back your front row seat. She gave it to him and Prince looked shocked. He told her, let me give you something, called her up on stage and gave her a guitar solo. She stayed on stage for about 4 songs....realy cool.

-During Xenophobia, he said "this ain't 1984, it's 2002" and told people that "if they were coming to get their Purple Rain on, they were at the wrong party." He later played Purple Rain on piano.

-On Muse 2 the Pharoah, the lyric said the "opposite of NATO was monotheism"

- On A Case of U, Renato Neto was playing keyboards/piano, not Prince. Version sounded exactly like the NPGMC version of the song.

- Before Strange Relationship, Prince was commenting on how most of the LA radio stations are owned by corporations, and talked about the music that he would play if he owned a radio station.

- During Sing A Simple Song, Larry Graham came out and played air guitar. To me, the amazing thing is he was wearing a khaki-colored suit. I didn't know he owned more than the one white suit.

-Maceo Parker wasn't there...Prince told us he'd missed his flight and might be there for the next night's aftershow. Because of this, they didn't play Pass the Peas.

-Throughout the show, the NPG Music Club people (who were in the front 15 rows like me) stood through most of the show while the rest of the audience did not seem to do that, especially through most of the new stuff.

-Rhonda Smith's vocals were good during Erykah Badu's Didn't Cha Know, with Prince on background vocals.

-Everlasting now, which I think is the best of the Rainbow Children songs live, had the second verse cut out. He had been playing it earlier in this tour. Everlasting Now was the last song of the first set.

-During the encore, he played another 75 minutes!!

-Prince came out on keyboards (by himself, without a backing band) and did a long piano medley that began with the complete Adore, sounding amazing. During the part where he says "you can smash up my ride" he went into a long monologue about his girlfriend smashing up his ride. People were crying during this song.

-He did an ad lib during the piano medley where he was playing sad music and saying "I used to be famous, poor me. I used to be on the radio, poor me. I used to be rich. Poor me" It was really pretty funny.

-One verse of I wanna be your lover, do me baby, diamonds and pearls, girls and boys followed, then most of the beautiful ones as the band came back on stage.

-As we thought the show was gonna end, he breaks out with "We like 2 frequent this club..." He changed the lyric at the beginning of the song to "there won't be any four-letter words on this stage tonight" and then went into his usual "I'm not gonna preach this evening" and proceeded to preach about his separatism and racism, and churches, and differences between people. I didn't seem to mind this much, especially when he came back into the song and did the rest of JOY IN REPITITION!!!!! One of my favorite songs he's ever played!!!!

-On Purple Rain, he never picked up his guitar, and did the whole song on piano. NPG Music Club this time didn't go crazy, but the rest of the audience did.

-As we thought the show would be over after that, Prince did a long "How Come u Don't Call me" and Anna Stesia to end the show. The show was just under 3 hours long!

Here is the setlist for the show:
-Rainbow Children
-Muse 2 the Pharoah
-Xenophobia
-A Case of U
-Mellow
-1+1+1=3/Love Rollercoaster
-The Other Side of the Pillow
-Strange Relationship
-Sing a Simple Song
-La La La Means I Love U
-Didn't Cha Know
-When U Were Mine
-Avalanche
-Family Name
-Take Me With U (Complete)
-Raspberry Beret (Complete)
-Everlasting Now

Encore

-Adore
-I Wanna Be Your Lover
-Do Me Baby
-Diamonds and Pearls
-Girls and Boys
-The Beautiful Ones
-Joy in Repitition
-Purple Rain
-How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore
-Anna Stesia/Rise Up

This regular show was probably musically the best show I've seen him do, and the band is absolutely awesome! Even if u didn't know or like the songs, you had to admire his musicianship.
After the show was over, Prince told the NPGMC that the afterparty was at the Highland Club, which was in the same complex as the Kodak Theater. We figured that there would be no aftershow, as he would have had to tear down all of the equipment to set it up again the next day, but we were wrong. He played for more than 2 hours, and I was right in front.

Before the show, as the club was pretty full, Paula Abdul (the former celebrity turned Prince groupie) pushed her way to the very front of the crowd with a friend. She was obviously wasted and on something, and went to the front of the crowd and passed out on the stage for a little bit. I didn't care that she stood in front of me because she is so short, but she had an obnoxious friend with her who nearly got into a fight with one of my friends....oh well.

Prince was chewing gum and smiling throughout the entire aftershow, and anyways, here is the setlist for the aftershow:

-Bambi
-The Ride (with new lyrics)
Larry Graham comes on stage
-Talking Loud and Saying Nothing/2 Nigs United 4 West Compton (!!!)
-Alphabet St.
-The Jam
Larry Graham exits
-Peach
-Extraordinary
-Paisley Park (entire song!)

Encore
Sheila E. comes on stage
-Santana Medley
-Oye Como Va
-A Love Bizarre (Sheila E vocals)
-The Glamorous Life (short instrumental) on guitar
-Girls and Boys
-The Everlasting Now (one verse)

This show was also amazing. The guitar solos on Bambi just rocked! Peach sounded more jazzy than before. Something interesting is that his "Beautiful Strange" songbook that he has opened to the song he's playing so he can refer to the lyrics was opened to Empty Room (!!!!) but he didn't play it. Prince was playing the rhythm guitar and broke into A Love Bizarre...not sure if the rest of the band (esp. Candy) knew the song, but they improvised nicely, and Sheila sang the whole song. Prince started on Glamorous Life but Sheila didn't wanna do that one. Girls and boys was a really loose 10-min.+ jam.

After the show, and 6+ hours of Prince music, I was pretty drained.

Celebs spotted at the show: Woody Harrelson, Sheila E., Jerome Benton, Paula Abdul , Gloria Reuben, Robert Horry (Lakers). I'm sure there were many more, but I didn't see them.

Saturday, 4/20/02

Very happy to be sitting in the 5th row, center. More room in the aisles to move around.

Setlist:

Soundcheck:
-4 the Tears in Your Eyes (spoken)
-Can't Stop this Feelin' I got (!!!!!) complete!!!!
-Ballad of Dorothy Parker/4
-A few snippets from The Ladder
-Do U Lie (short instrumental)
-Money Don't Matter 2Night (he told us that it was the first time he's played that song)
-Lean on Me
-Rhonda Smith song
-Blues in C (not the same one from Lovesexy tour)/Asswoop

This lasted about 45 minutes.

Here is the setlist for the second show:
-Rainbow Children
-Muse 2 the Pharoah
-Xenophobia (during Blackwell's drum solo, Jerome Benton came out on stage and brought Blackwell a comb and a mirror..it was funny!)
-A Case of U
-Mellow
-1+1+1=3/Love Rollercoaster
-The Other Side of the Pillow
-Strange Relationship
-Sing a Simple Song
-La La La Means I Love U
-Didn't Cha Know
-When U Were Mine
-Avalanche
-Family Name
-Take Me With U (Complete)
-Raspberry Beret (Complete)
-Everlasting Now

Encore

-Adore
-I Wanna Be Your Lover
-A Love Bizarre (Sheila E. came on stage and sang this one)
-Blues in C ("some people call me crazy, some people don't call me at all")
-Diamonds and Pearls
-The Beautiful Ones
-Condition of the Heart
-Do U Lie (short instrumental teaser)
-Do Me Baby (short instrumental teaser)
-Free (with full band)
-Starfish and Coffee
-Sometimes it Snows in April
-I Love u But I Don't Trust U Anymore
-Nothing Compares 2 U
-Prince Preaches
-How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore
-Anna Stesia/Greatest Romance/Rise Up

The regular show lasted about 2 hours, 40 min.

Before the show, it was announced that tickets were going on sale for the House of Blues aftershow performance that morning. Tickets sold out in a few minutes, but through NPG Music Club, we were able to get in to the aftershow for free and before everyone else.

As we got there and the band was setting up the instruments, we noticed that Sheila E's drums were set up, and she played with the band throughout the whole show. Maceo Parker and Larry Graham played with the band at the aftershow.

Aftershow Setlist (House of Blues)

-Jazzy version of The Work
-1+1+1=3
-Pass the Peas
-Fast groove with an "I Like Funky Music" chant
-Beautiful Strange (!!!!!)
-Ballad of Dorothy Parker/4
-Instrumental jam from Xenophobia cd
-Holly Rock (mostly a chant led by Sheila E)
-777-9311 (Prince sang the first verse)
-Calhoun Sq. (!!!!!)
-Paisley Park (2 verses only)
-The Jam

Encore
-Santana Medley

A few observations:

-Beautiful Strange sounded awesome live. But Calhoun Sq., which is a song I don't really like all that much, sounded so much better live. They were jamming on both songs for about 10 minutes each.

The show lasted about 90 min.

After nearly 12 hours of Prince music over 2 days, I'm in heaven, and it's obvious that he likes to jam!

If anyone has anything else to add, go for it!

Anyways, until the Celebration in June...

-A

WOW!!! :YAY:

....
[This message was edited Thu Oct 10 8:44:07 PDT 2002 by katt]

Best report so far!!! Thank you for the detail!

Damn, what did you do?? Take notes?? That's a great recap.
I was there for it all as well. All I can say is in the 18 years that I've been groovin' with Prince, This was the best experience yet. The concerts' were the shows I've been waiting for. 2 sounchecks,2 concerts,2 aftershows in 2 days. Ever since I heard the Madhouse albums, I've been waiting for him to really kick a jazz/funk/fusion concert. It was definitely mixed styles. I'll never forget this one. Great seats for the concerts and the aftershows.

To add to the celeb list. I saw Stevie Vai and Chris Rock at the HOB as well as Jerome Benton.

The NPGMC really took care of it's members this weekend. All the tofu I put on this man's plate over the years, all the funky guitars I bought him. I feel like I've been paid back big time. I think he picked up some new members this weekend.

Great to meet Ben and JSeven. That cab ride was a bitch to the HOB with Ben, Val, and Sam. Never try 5 people in a cab with a Hollywood cab driver. OW!

About 24 hours total time on my feet for this one, between lines and shows.

Money aside, I would do it again next weekend.

Did someone say Las Vegas!
.

OMG, GREAT REPORT!! And if this is who i think it is, thanks for taking me in after HOB! U are the best!

Now i'm sad I missed friday tho... esp. the aftershow!

great review bro... i just wish i woulda been there for most of it! LOL!

Fantastic report.

Many thanks!!!!!

Were any of these shows filmed?

bkw said:

Excelent (and accurate) review! All six performances were amazing to behold. I had to pick my jaw up off the floor of the House of Blues after that INCERDIBLE rendition of Beautiful Strange!
WOW!

Ok your report was the "HellaGood-est" one so far....way more HellaGooder than the others.

WHEW!!! That was a mouthful!! Thanks 4 the report my brothah!! I always enjoy reading ur reviews...chop one up 4 clubkid's next of kin!!

I just wanna say, this weekend was one of the best Prince concert weekends I have ever had!! I owe it all 2 Prince and his crew AND 2 the Bay Area people AND the LA BumpSquad posse.....I LOVE PARTYING with all ya'll!!!!

I'm already saving my pennies 4 the celebration....hehehe

Well, darlin'...leave it to you to have the best review out there! And I'm so glad I was right there next to ya (for saturday, anyway)...
Thank you so much AGAIN...for everything...You ROCK (there4 U R)...
Hope to share the next Xperience with you...and uh, next time, you're driving!!!

stay Wyld!
k

My God I'm jealous...Prince come 2 Europe!
Great report like I want it 2 read every time,congratulation Gettwild.
I can't wait no more 2 hear and see "calhoun square","paisley park","beautiful strange" and "the everlasting now".

I think I need some sleep after that one...lol

Nice report!

LaV

The order of replies is so reminiscent of the line on Sat. Sam, Richard... u wanna add your 2 cents? lol

Great report, again Bro!!!!

Printing your report to show to all of my friends!!! Eye was in the THIRD balcony on Fri 4/19 and stood (danced, shouted, cried, sang along, knew the words) the ENTIRE time (even when he said to sit cuz it was gonna be a long nite). Eye didn't make any friends! What eye learned-- membership has it's privileges.

Japan is waiting Mister P !!!
you know how much money you can make here !!!!

what are you waiting for !?!?!