I just got back from the Prince show in Dallas. I must say that this was certainly not the best show that I have ever seen from Prince. There was some really great guitar playing and he even played a few songs in the (almost) entirety... the only problem was Najee. I am not taking anything away from Najee. He is a great player and a wonderful musician, but I believe that he took a lot of the energy out of the show. There were even people behind me yelling things like "get off the stage" and "we didn't pay to see him, we paid to see Prince" and things like that. The two people directly beside me got angry and left the show after the second or third extended Najee horn feature. Personally, I think that Najee played very well and I could appreciate what he did, but I do not think that it worked well for Prince. Many of the songs took on an almost "smooth jazz" or "lounge" feel instead of a hard funk feel. Now that I think of it, there was a section of the show that had a very gospel feel to it and Najee played the melody to "God" on his saxophone and then soloed. I would much rather have seen Prince play the guitar on this number.


John Blackwell is a really talented drummer and I was impressed with his playing. I found that he made mistakes a couple of times, but nothing too noticeable. There were quite a few drum solos during the evening, including one where he did a solo with one hand while drinking bottled water with the other hand. All-in-all, he is a considerably better drummer than Kirk Johnson, although I did not think that the band took direction quite as well tonight. If there is anything that I have to say about Kirky J, it is that he could take direction on stage.
Rhonda Smith played very well although the bass mix was not as great as it could have been and it was sometimes quite difficult to hear the bass lines clearly. She played acoustic bass for a good number of songs.


There were very short showcases of Mr. Hayes and Kip Blackshire. Actually, Kip Blackshire got a little more time than Mr. Hayes did, as Kip did an extended gospel-sounding number where he sang (no real words, just expressions) and played the piano.


Geneva looks considerably better in person than she does on the website. I found her quite attractive , especially in the naughty little Catholic school girl outfit. Limber is a word that does not even start to describe her... Gumby? Anyway, she looked good and did not annoy me as most dancers do when they get on stage.


Now... on to Prince...


The outfits:


Prince changed outfits three times. He came out first in a black outfit with white shoes. The funny thing about the first outfit is that he did not appear to have very high heels on. He did not dance or run around as much in his first outfit. After a break, he came back dressed in red with red shoes. His shoes had what appeared to be higher heels this time and he started laying down some James Brown moves and doing a bit more dancing. The final outfit was all white with a white scarf or something on his head.


The guitars:


Prince came out with either a Fender Stratocaster or his trusty Hohner Stratocaster copy. He played this for a few numbers and then stopped playing guitar for a while.
The next guitar of the evening was the blue "Cloud" guitar. He played some really great solos on this guitar and it sounded really great. There seemed to be a slight problem with the high register, as the sound was somewhat less dynamic in the highest register. This could have been due to his sleeve rubbing against the strings too...
The third guitar was an acoustic guitar that he used for one song... you will have to excuse me, but I forgot what song it was. I think it might have been Raspberry Beret.
The next guitar was "Habibi" and it was put to good use.
The final instrument for the evening was the "One eye" bass. He really didn't even play it at all. He noodled around on it for a moment while the audience members were dancing around on stage, but did not solo or break out the funk. I was a bit disappointed by this, but you can't always get what you want.


Altogether, I thought that his guitar playing was really great tonight and I was glad to see that he did so much of it. The only problem was the lack of a second guitar player. This let the sound lag and fall into the "easy listening" mode. I feel that the energy of past shows that I have seen was sorely missing from this set and I was a bit disappointed. When was the last time that you were at a Prince show and you saw 60% of the audience sitting in their seats? Don't get me wrong, there was great audience response and the crowd loved Prince. Everyone sat down when the band was playing and Prince left stage, or when it was taken into "easy listening" mode.


By the way, Prince spent an extraordinary amount of time off of the stage tonight for one reason or another.


My final conclusion:


Although I don't feel that the show lived up to the standards set by the many shows that I have seen in the past, it was still better than any other touring band. I just expect much more from PRINCE.



The band should have another guitarist to keep the funk flowing. I truly feel that this was a big part of the problem tonight. Instead of a funky guitar, there was a horn playing mellow tones that made me want to pet a puppy or maybe have a smoothie or something equally benign. I cannot remember being moved to make the funk face one time tonight and that is a first at a Prince show.



Najee is great and all, but he needs to either be a sideman or stay home. Eric Leeds was much better for Prince's band and he will always be Prince's horn player in my mind.