Wonderful show and as always, it's about the music. While waiting in the
lobby for tickets, I caught a glimpse of Prince running across Broad Street
toward the venue. They let us in and we waited in the lobby. The sounds of
Uptown creeped through the doors. We were even able to get a glimpse of the
band during soundcheck. I chatted a bit with Billy Sparks prior to the show
and asked him if the energy was high. He said, Oh Yeah. It's going good.




Highlights of the show: Opening sequence of Uptown, Controversy, and Mutiny.
Energy, funk and steps. Prince's openers are always stunning. Other gold
stars were Scandalous (Going down for the split and the mic dropping into his
hands on the floor on cue), I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man (Six
string heaven), the group participation during Kiss and Gett Off ( Prince
really has shown his sense of humor in interacting with those people who make
it on stage. His bass thump-off with the Philly rumpshaker was great!!!). The
speech prefacing When Will We Get Paid For The Work We've Done? really hit
home. I loved Prince's comments on radio playlists. Don't worry bro, we are
still playing you on our station in Connecticut.




The band is very talented. Rhonda kept the bottom going and as she mentioned
to me a few weeks ago, she is using the upright bass very often.I saw a lot
of fans buying her CD, Intellipop in the lobby too. Nice change of style for
Prince bands. Mr. Blackwell is a cool addition to the band. Flamboyant and
talented. Najee surprised me. Not by his talent. He certainly is a fine
musician. However, for sax playing, I usually go for a funkier sound, Maceo,
James Carter etc. However, Najee fit right in and shined during his solos.
Prince was generous in giving Najee the spotlight and rightly so.




Overall, a highly enjoyable concert. Thanks Prince and band for the funk.
It's a so-called hits tour. So, the folks should enjoy it. Just remember to
hit us back with a 2/3 new material, 1/3 hits tour next year sometime.