First, Richmond has GOT to get it's act together. I can tell that Richmond's
Landmark Theater is not used to getting big names; they acted like they had
never done a show before. They only let 1 person from the party come inside
to get the will-call tickets and then they quickly ushered you out.



Finally they let people inside but only into the lobby. We still heard them
working on the sound. It stopped and started a few times. Then it was quite
for a while. Suddenly, the door into the theater opened up and everyone
started screaming. It was Prince. He opened the door to take a look at the
crowd. It was already warm. Needless to say, it got hot after that. During
this time, we saw his head of security (tall, bald white guy, I can't
remember his name but I remember him from Paisley Park) making the rounds
repeatedly. He also circled during the show.



Finally they let people in checking all jackets, bags and purses for cameras
and tape machines. After we got in we waited and waited. Morris went to the
sound guy and started talking. When he came by us (we were row 10, facing
the left side of the stage on the aisle), my wife got up to say hi and ask
about a reported after-party. He confirmed this and was as nice as he always
is. I shook his hand and thanked him for letting me into ladies night in
MPLS in '96 at Paisley Park (my now wife asked him to come get me and he
told security to let me in. That was the night Eric Leeds played). He said
that there was a party and that they would be there. It was cute as he tried
to remember the name of the place. About 10 minutes before
the show started (about 1hr 15 min late), we noticed that they were changing
some guitar monitors. We imagined that the amp was blown. Sound would be a
problem for Prince all night.



Suddenly, the lights went down and people went crazy! The spotlight spanned
to the side into the seats and there was a man playing soprano sax. He ended
by playing a never ending note and walked onto the stage. Rhonda came out
and bowed an electric upright bass (very cool with no body). It was mood
music and the backdrop played various scenes (like a screen saver). Then Morris began to play as the others dropped out. Then Morris began playing
samples of various Prince songs (similar to DC in '98). Then Prince walked out
from the side. He looks great! He has long hair again and was wearing a long
flowing black coat with a high collar. He grabbed his guitar, counted off
the band and ripped into Uptown. My wife and I stared at each other in
disbelief. Opening with Uptown. Needless to say people went crazy. He did
most of the song and then tore into Controversy. Next we went into Mutiny
complete with the dance moves of old (I am getting chills just writing
this).



Several times he made the comment "Thanks for coming to our rehearsal."
Later he added, "I'm sorry about the price. These things aren't normally
this expensive" (best seats were $65 compare to $85 in D.C.) The set turned
out to be mostly old stuff and no new stuff (exact for a jam at the end).
He uses the sax player a lot in this show. At one point he had so many
problems with the sound that he told the sax player to play and he went off
stage with his guitar wrangler.



Prince sang hard, danced hard, played hard. Preened, pranced, posed, made faces, rolled on the floor... all of the things that you expect from Prince.
I think that we take that for granted sometimes. Someone I worked with who
goes to A LOT of concerts big and small was still beaming when he came to
work today. He asked me "Does Prince normally perform that well or was last
night something more?" The truth is, he's a great performer. I told him that
my wife has seen him in huge 100,000 + stadiums and we've seen him at
Paisley Park with 150 people. He performs like it's the last time no matter
what.



He made no real commentary about the election (I expected that he would but
he only referenced it in passing). He mentioned record companies and
corporations in general in passing. He then spoke about the origin of names
and that the fact is black people, white people, Asians, Indians, all at one
time have been abused by others. He said that the only way to take care of
the past is to take care of the present because the present is the only
thing we can change and it is the future past. He said that we can make
history. He mentioned that he goes to a number of concerts in MPLS and that
he normally sees either all black people or all white people "but look
around you y'all. I guess the rumor ain't true, we can get along." Before Purple Rain, he said something like "This next song was written a while back
when I was going through a tough time personally and this song helped me get
through it. I want to thank all of you being there for me and being here
now."



Songs... let's see what I can remember.... In no particular order unless
stated:
Uptown (opening song), Mutiny, Controversy, I Wanna Be Your Lover, Baby I'm
a Star (spoken), Take Me With You, When Doves Cry (played with samples),
Let's Go Crazy, Darling Nikki, Purple Rain (putting extra emphasis on 'You
say you want a leader/ But y'all can't seem to make up your minds!'), God
(Instrumental), She's Always in My Hair, Nothing Compares 2 You, Cream,
Voodoo Child (Slight Return) - just snippets during a guitar jam solo (no
other players), Summertime (from Porgy and Bess - Instrumental), When Will
We Be Paid For the Work We've Done (a Mavis Staples song), Kiss (where
brought people on stage to dance and gave the mic to one lady. She sang the
HELL out of the chorus. Prince doubled over as if in pain and stumbled away.
When he took the mike back, she got a big hug. The crowd went CRAZY),
Beautiful Ones (He did the whole song. When he got to "Do want him or do you want me...." he brought someone from the
front up. He got RIGHT IN HER FACE and sang that part making these great
faces. He had his hand in the small of her back I guess to hold her up),
Raspberry Beret (he talked about Cedric the Entertainer from Kings of
Comedy), The Ballad of Dorothy Parker, I Could Never Take the Place of Your
Man (complete with psychedelic guitar ending from album), Scandalous
blending into Insatiable, Do Me Baby, U Got the Look,
Housequake (complete with getting the house to do the dance), Gett Off,
Father's Song (sax), Diamond's and Pearls, U Got The Look, Little Red
Corvette (including the dance from the video!!!!), I Would Die 4 U (spoken),
Sexy Dancer, Come On (the jam that ended the show "Come On, Baby/ Come on
shake it down")



Outfits:


The black overcoat and black pants mentioned above (reminiscent of Dirty
Mind-Controversy period)

Red outfit with a long shirt cut at angles.

Loose white shirt and black pants and a white cap (reminded me of some middle eastern headdress)



Guitars:


A new acoustic with built in pickups

Blue Angel - Cloud Guitar

Controversy Guitar

Purple Symbol Guitar

One-Eyed Bass



Instruments Played By Prince:


Bass

Acoustic Guitar

Electric Guitar

Keyboard

Synthesizer



Instruments in Band:



1) Bass player

2) Keyboard player

3) Synthesizer player

4) Soprano/Tenor Sax and Flute player

5) Drummer