The show last night was a vast improvement from the JOTY
show I saw a couple of years ago. I remember Prince back
then saying that would be the last time he'd perform his
old stuff....his Warner bitterness was apparent and
reflected on his performances. Come to think of it, I think
most of his actions back then (web site banning shenanigans
etc) were due to his bitterness towards WB but turned out to
be most hurtful to his followers. Anyway, enough preachin'.
Though the format with the two shows was similar (medley
mania) his perfomance here suggested some form of rebirth
and personal freedom from his past. He was feeling
his old music immensely and having plenty of infectious fun
in the process. In fact, I'd say he was revelling in it and
many songs had their trade mark dance moves attached (i.e.
Darling Nicki, ICNTPYM, Beautiful One's).



Note: The report is only roughly chronological!
The show began with Najee in the crowd blowing his horn
and walking around showing us that he's mastered the breathing
while playing technique (Would have preferred playing rather
than a foghorn but oh well). Prince pops out and starts the
Uptown/Controversy medley and goes on from there to Wanna be
Your lover (i think). Housequake was a highlight and got the crowd
going but his Dorothy Parker rendition at the paino lacked the spunk
of the album version (t'was too squeaky clean on stage and doesn't go with
medley formats IMO). His piano playing was good but not as funky prob. becuz
it took a while for the sound to kick in. Little Red Corvette and the Beautiful One's
followed after a brief costume change (from a black/blue thingy to
a red one) and had some excellent energy. Prince really worked the crowd
and even made a point to interact with spectators behind the stage.



ICNTPYM included some nice Prince guitar work and throughout Geneva wiggled
her thang like people have said. When she interacts with Prince there's
a resemblance to the Cat/Prince combo...but when she was wigglng solo
she had a tendancy to disappear from the radar. Her dancing
is a visual version of background music- you notice it at first but then
it kinda just 'is there'. Too sinewy perhaps? This is made more apparent
by Prince's brilliant dance moves. He did a triple split at one point that
had the audience gaping and he did his James Brown inspired, microphone mambo.
The man is 40 years old....



The ballad portion of the show (Do me Baby/Scandalous) was very well done,
lots of feeling, great vocal work and choreography was on the ball.



Prince introduced most of his band I think but I noticed he
left out Rhonda. The hits kept streaming in....Cream, D&P, U got
the Look.
And I was surprised with Mr. Hayes' voice-it's not half bad!
Let's go Crazy was a brilliant guitar driven blast. Purple
Rain had the nostlagic one's swaying with cigarette lighters.
Again the guitar work was a highlight as Prince turned
Purple Rain into a testimonial of faith in God.



Najee was given the stage a few too many times for my liking.
I would have preferred an improv-ed duel between his horn/sax
and Prince's vocals or guitar. I think at one point Prince was
trying to get NAjee 'in the jamming groove' during a song but Najee
was lacking 'umph'. Later on his 'umph' would come in spades. First
with some excellent finger workin' improv on the sax( or horn can't remember?!)
with Prince cheering along on the side of the stage and showing visible
delight when Najee hit those high 'crazy notes'.



Geneva showed her limb flexibility at one point but my overall impression
is that she lacks stage presence.



Some speaking portions of interest:



Near the end of the show Prince (after third costume change into a Nude Tour
type white and black suit) held court with the audience. He started
talking about the election and showed some contempt for the whole thing. Then,
through the examples of Tiger Woods, Williams sisters and the sale of BET
to Viacom, he spoke about America's slavery past and began
Mavis Staples' When Will We Be Paid for the Work We've Done' after trying to
teach the audience the chorus so they could sing along.
The WB thing got him thinking about his AF-Am heritage but in a way it is sad
becuz Prince once represented a kaleidescope of cultural backgrounds which
brought a diversity to his music and audience.
Regarding a new album:
Prince asked the audience if they would all come see him again if he played at
a bigger venue (they affirmed of course) and he replied that he would come back
soon with some more people and some new music to party. This is of course
besides the fact that he referred to the show as a rehearsal.



Then the best part of the show began...a very funky Kiss hybrid had a bunch of
people on stage. They did their best to sing Kiss as Prince held out the microphone.
This guy with symbol guitar shaped cardboard came up and played some top notch(!?) air
guitar and actually 'jammed' with Prince. Prince
was having a riot with all of this and was playing a killer funk lick on
a white guitar. He also showed his funny side....when a girl dancing on stage came
too close -and perhaps hornily- for comfort he started moving away saying 'Girl u better
keep away before we find out more about you than we wanna know.'



The groove then switched to a very funky Get Off (some wacky, spot on musical groove
was added that had the audience dancing their butts off) with Prince playing the flute part
on the guitar and Najee tearing stuff up on the flute-magnificent playing from both here.
After that extended jam Prince thanked us like a gracious host who's had a great time
at a party to which he invited us and said goodnight.



Phew!