The house lights went down on the Savvis Center at 9:08.



Shortly thereafter Prince walked onstage and announced, "St. Louis, welcome to class". Class was indeed in session as he opened with 'Uptown'. Prince wore a black jump suit with his trademark Hohner guitar in tow. Rhonda Smith and Mr. Hayes were to his right, Kip Blackshire and John Blackwell to his left, Najee to the rear and Geneva was wherever her sexy ass wanted to be. The crowd was very energetic from the get go.



After the first chorus of 'Uptown', Prince quickly moved into 'Controversy'. The band was very tight with Prince ripping a few quick guitar licks throughout the song. From there he played 'Mutiny' to the delight of many in the audience. At this point Najee made his entrance although few in the audience knew who he was. Prince wandered over the keys during the song and did a quick piano solo.



Next on the list was 'Cream'. Geneva danced playfully around Prince during the song. How that man maintains any focus while she is around is beyond me. A guitar solo closed the song and from there he did 'Little Red Corvette'. At this point a sofa chair was brought onstage where Prince and Geneva made themselves comfortable during the first part of the song. After the chorus Prince sashayed across the stage just as in the video during what was Dez's old solo.



Next was 'I Wanna Be Your Lover' which he couldn't have played for more than 30 seconds before he moved onto 'Sexy Dancer'. Geneva took center stage at this point. She wore a red fake fur coat (U just know it was) and red hat and proceeded to shake what her mama gave her. Unreal. During this time Prince went back to the keys to rip the piano solo for the song. 'Housequake' followed and he actually stayed with this one for awhile. Prince danced while the band played and at one point played keys. John Blackwell had a mini solo prior to the song's finish.



Next came what I felt was a real treat. He did 'The Ballad of Dorothy Parker' which happens to be one of my favorite P songs. Prince was on keys during the song and asked the crowd if they "wanted to hear some real musicians?" Reply: affirmative! The song segued into Madhouse's '4' and Prince left the stage momentarily while the band continued to play. Mr Hayes, Rhonda and John Blackwell were each showcased during this time.



The lights slowly dimmed and there was a brief keyboard interlude before Prince returned to do 'I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man'. Once again Geneva diverted attention wearing a white sheer (and I DO mean sheer) dress while playing a tambourine. Prince had an excellent solo at the end of the song while sitting on a monitor near the front of the stage. And it looked effortless. Najee followed that with a short sax solo during which Prince left the stage.



He returned in a red jumpsuit and following a gorgeous keyboard intro went into 'Do Me Baby'. There was plenty of tease for the ladies during this one. At one point during the song he threw a red towel out into the audience which a girl upfront caught. He then invited the girl onstage while he did 'Scandalous'. The whole thing was total seduction. The girl lost her mind and the crowd loved it.



Next was 'Diamonds & Pearls' followed by 'The Beautiful Ones'. Prince played piano during the song and then moved to the front of the stage to work the end of the tune, complete with trademark screams. He then did a rather bland, I thought, version of 'Nothing Compares 2 U'. Afterwards Prince and the band left the stage for the first encore.



The next portion of the show was almost exclusively material from "Purple Rain" starting with 'Let's Go Crazy'. Prince changed into a white blousey shirt with black pants. He ended the song with the trademark solo and then did 'Take Me With U'. For this Rhonda and Prince had a duet at center mike. He moved away from the "Purple Rain" stuff momentarily to do 'Raspberry Beret' which turned into a big hokey crowd singalong. From there he did 'Darling Nikki' for which Geneva came onstage in a white and black schoolgirl outfit and pumped and grinded like she'd lost her mind during the chorus. Prince did a little humping of his own at the end and even included the backwards "Hello, how are you?; I'm fine . . . " from the album.



There was a snippet of the opening of 'When Doves Cry' which quickly segued into 'Computer Blue' during which Najee's horn took the place of Prince's guitar in the song. At the close of 'Computer Blue' there was this dreamlike music played during which Prince sang verses from 'I Would Die 4 U' and 'Baby I'm A Star'. This became the song 'God' which primarily featured Najee. I know there's been a few complaints about Najee's presence on this tour but his solo during this song was off the chain! It would be hard not to appreciate what he did up there.



Once Najee's solo ended, the stage was bathed in violet light as Prince did 'Purple Rain'. It was pretty much as it's always been. Lighters flickering everywhere, climatic solo and arms waving back and forth. Good stuff.



The band left the stage once again for the second encore. When they returned, they started off with 'Come On'. It got the crowd moving but Prince momentarily killed the flow by going into a veggie rant. "I don't eat anything with parents. I don't eat anything with eyes." Yeah, yeah. Play the song. He did and it was all good until . . . Doug E. Fresh. Just kidding, actually Doug's set was okay this time. They brought some folks up from the audience (including this one girl who kept hitting Prince in the ass) to dance on stage while Doug rapped. At one point the band switched into dancehall mode and then moved easily to 'La Di Da Di'. Prince then picked up the bass and played while Doug finished up.



Nearing the end of the show, Prince did 'Kiss' and finished with 'Gett Off'. It was exactly 11:00 when the house lights came up. 1 hour and 52 minutes long, it was the best show of his I'd seen in a while.



The afterset was at a club called Chaos.



[Editor's note: Afterparty or aftershow? I'm guessing the former... had there been an aftershow, someone probably would have sent in a report by now. - MWC]