Seattle Times review of 4/29 concert at The Paramount:

Prince fills the Paramount with joy

By Melanie McFarland

"If y'all came to hear 'Purple Rain,' you're in the wrong building," Prince declared after taking the stage Monday night. With that, The Artist Formerly Known as That Unpronounceable Glyph set the tone for the evening: It was his way or no way at all.

He's still Prince, and he's still funky. And despite this first statement, Seattle didn't see an arrogant artist with a steely façade, born from years of fighting to get out of his contract.

{{{For a full two hours and 45 minutes, Prince filled the Paramount with joy, performing crowd favorites with a good sense of humor, and an arsenal of attitude and style, everyone, style. }}}

Still a showstopper


Would you expect anything else of the man, particularly when he's brought sax player Maceo Parker to back him up? You'd better not. Even when we were in full rapture mode, Prince still had to stop the show a couple of times, like during the funk-fest "1+1+1 is 3."

"Y'all ain't with me Seattle!" he cried, bringing the music abruptly to a halt. "You got to be ready to get deep. I'm talking about needing scuba gear up in here!"

We danced a little more, shouted a little more, and he kept playing. It wouldn't be a Prince show, after all, without a little tease.

This isn't the Prince of years past, the man who constructed an unapproachable barrier of icy coolness. He wasn't even the artist who mooned fans with those strange buttless pants; Prince wore a dapper suit for the evening, tailored to move silkily with his sylvan figure. Nor was he the preachy, newly minted Jehovah's Witness Prince, although he did plug a little religion at the very end of the show before breaking into "Anna Stesia," from "Lovesexy."

No, this was Prince as soul man, the smiling bandleader conjuring up visions of Duke Ellington and James Brown. A man who invites those watching him to get comfortable (i.e., sit down) as frequently as he incites them to shake their pants, sexing things up in a playful way on new tunes like "Mellow" or the rocky but sensual "Take Me With U."

Or, leading the fans through sing-alongs of covers like the Ohio Players' "Love Rollercoaster" or The Delfonics' "La La Means I Love You," along with songs from his hit albums "Diamonds & Pearls," "Graffiti Bridge" and, yes, tunes off of "Purple Rain."

For the most part, this was an evening dedicated to forwarding the cause of "The Rainbow Children," both his album and his vision for the latest incarnation of the New Power Generation.

Prince called for his people to reject the stranglehold corporate radio has over America's airwaves (in favor of his mythical WNPG, of course) and sang about Abraham Lincoln being a racist (for being segregationist) as a precursor to performing "Family Name."

A playful evening

These were hard blips in a playful evening that started with a full band before a 10-minute pause, after which Prince came back to play a medley of favorites a cappella, accompanied on his keyboard only by a candle and single spotlight. This was the part where we got to be alone with him, as the name of his tour promised.

After more than a decade of seeing him filtered through award-show cameras and binoculars at stadiums, this is the guise the New Power Generation has been waiting for. Warm, touchable, devout but still sexy. Still our Prince.

Melanie McFarland can be reached at
mmcfarland@seattletimes.com

Not bad, and pretty accurate. Our papers here in Seattle have been doing a rather decent job with Prince this time around. Good to see that. Thanks for posting this