Well, he played a show. It was quite intriguing, to me, for a few different
reasons.



1. He came out onstage and looked quite different! He was wearing a peach
Tommy Barbarella-style dress with matching shoes and pants. His hair was
BRAIDED in about 10 er so semi-long braids with a piece of peach cloth tied at
the end of each one. He was also sporting a full goatee. This is probably the
craziest look I've ever seen on him.



2. He wasn't wearing his wedding ring. I thought that was kinda weird.



3. He came out by himself, looking very pissed. It might have had something
to do with Mike Scott not being there. He kept making little references about
Mike. He continued to jam by himself as the rest of the band members trickeled
in. (Kirk, Estelle and RHONDA!)



Needless to say, he TORE IT UP on guitar. He NAILED several blistering solos
last night and was quite impressive. When he first came out, that's all he was
doing was just jamming on guitar. He was singing a refrain over and
over...about how "sometimes I feel like a motherless child". I'm not sure if
thats a new track or a cover. Then, he went into the first verse of "Anna
Stesia". I was getting excited cuz "Lovesexy" is MY favorite disc. But then
he stopped. The drum loop for "Love...They Will Be Done" kicked in. After he
jammed for a bit on guitar he performed the complete song. This was cool for
me since I haven't seen him do it live. He started in on the guitar again and
began, "Let's Go Crazy". Again, amazing guitar work was happening here. Then,
he went into, "She's Always In My Hair". This was another treat for me because
I've never heard it live, either.



Another thing seemed strange to me...



4. He NEVER turned on the stage lights. There was this VERY dim red light
that was on. Luckily, I was in front or esle I probably wouldnt have seen
much.



I made eye contact with him a couple times. And not to sound like a freaky
Prince fan but....he looked DEPRESSED! Especially when he was doing the hits.
It felt like he was just going through the motions for all the kids in the
audience who wanted to hear familiar tunes. The only times he looked really
into it were when he was jamming on the guitar and shaking those crazy braids
all around. Luckily, his guitar jamming was a little more frequent than usual.
I believe the next song was, "Get Funky". I'm not sure of the exact order,
here. This song might have been before the hits started. He ended up going
into a full version of "Kiss" at one point. He had the audience sing the
entire last verse. That was kinda fun, I guess. Also, "U Got the Look" was
played at some point, too. Then, he left for awhile as the loop for, "Sign O
the Times" was played. He came out, and performed the track, basically by
himself. The loop was playing and he had his guitar. Then, the finale was
basically him just jamming on guitar with the band. He threw in snatches of
"It's Alright" by GCS, "Talkin Loud and Saying Nothing" by James, while making
some short speeches. He said, "This goes on here everyday! This a musical
universe! Paisley Park! We're completely oblivious to the outside world.
Some people say I'm out of touch. But I AM the touch!" This started the
chant, "We are the touch!" over and over and over....
While this was going on, he did various jamming on keyboards, congas,
bongos....



At one point, he walked over to Kirk's set and started banging on the cymbals
with his hands! He snapped his finger at Kirk to give him his hand and
proceeded to grab it, forcing it down on the cymbal. As if he wasnt hearing
what he wanted to hear and was showing Kirk how to do it. But Kirk was
laughing during the whole thing, so I think it was just a joke. But if not,
how embarrasing! He started this cool guitar riff and kept that going for the
rest of the show. Everycouple of minutes, he would keep slowing down the
tempo. Slower and slower until everything finally STOPPED! It was strange but
intriguing. It was cool to see, but I wish he would have turned on the stage
lights so we could see him and his crazy new look a little better. Also, I was
kind of hoping to hear, "R U Ready", as well. No one has really given a really
good description of this song as of yet and I'd really like to hear it.
Anyway, I think that's all.