Had the pleasure of seeing Prince last night at Ruby Skye. Here are my thoughts.



PRINCE - RUBY SKYE SHOW

San Francisco - 12/3/00



Still reeling from the onslaught of hits at this show. I was a radio station winner (if you read prince.org last Friday, you'll have an idea of how I won them so I waited in a different line from the crowd. But their line was pumped up! People who had waited up all nite to get the tix earlier that day were buzzing from excitement and NO sleep.



Anyway, while waiting in line, Prince appeared at the back of the sound truck out front. He looked right at me and my friend. I waved - he waved back. I made contact! Very cool! Anyway, on to the show.



Morris Hayes was milling around outside as always, and we saw Rhonda and Najee leave the club before we were all let in. Seemed that we couldn't all go in until Prince had left the building, which he did around 7:15. When I got in, I went up to the balcony since the crowd was already 7-8 deep from the stage - mostly with tall men up front (why does that always happen?!?!?!). Grabbed a spot right of center against the railing. Completely unobstructed view - reminded me of the perspective from the "Come On" video. The crew that was taping the show were up there - so yes, the show was taped but they didn't know what it would be for. Prince's main engineer, Hans Buff?, was up there alot, so maybe this has a future on a CD or DVD (PLEASEEEEE!) The stage was simple - a riser in the back with drummer on the right (my right), Morris on the left. Kip Blackshire on keyboards/vocals was down front, right side. Najee would stand on the upper riser, left side next to Morris. And Rhonda played lower stage left. Geneva, well, she was all over the place. The club pumped out dance music until 9:30, when a Prince remix came on from the stage speakers. Kick ass remix - face down, pop life... He should offer it as a download from the site.



I'm terrible with setlists so I'll stick with some highlites. He played all the ringers - Little Red Corvette, Pop Life, ICNTLPYM, Let's Go Crazy, When Doves Cry, Do, Me Baby, Scandalous, Housequake, Dorothy Parker... And contrary to what I had read in other reviews, he didn't jump all over the place too quickly. I felt like he gave each song a good amount of time, but not so much that you always wondering what was coming up next. The crowd was great - very pumped up and into every moment.



Let's Go Crazy tore the roof off the place and sent everyone, including me, back to 1984. Even had the guitar on with the leopard spots. The ballad medley was also awesome - Do Me, Baby, Scandalous - dressed in a sexy red outfit that he lowered the zipper on at one point to get us in a frenzy. Darling Nikki was hilarious - Geneva in a Britney Spears schoolgirl outfit. She then pretends to take her underwear off and Prince proceeds to grind on the underwear on the riser after she leaves the stage. Hilarious! Take Me With U was also a fun one with the crowd insisting that he take us with him. Before Raspberry Beret, he asked how many had never seen him in concert before - a LOT of people raised their hands. Then he asked how many had seen him before and he said for the "old people" to sing along to the next one and the new people could take notes.



There were also stepped risers on the side corners of each stage which he climbed throughout the nite, sometimes sitting down with his legs over the front, playing the guitar. Other times lying on his back, playing guitar and grinding, or just singing and getting the audience going. Vintage Prince. He did some splits too throughout the show and showed us all how the Housequake dance is supposed to be done. After all these years, I don't think I've really ever seen him do it that often.



Najee got a lot of props throughout the nite, Rhonda pitched in some backing vocals, and Kip Blackshire also did some vocals. Prince would boot Kip off the stage at times to take over on keyboards. The drummer, John Blackwell, simply kicked ass. Reminded me of the Michael Bland days. Just raw live drumming, but also some cool sampling going on (Linn Drum loops too!).



Prince tortured us with 3 encores (I say tortured because u never know for sure if he's coming back), including one where the boys and girls went on stage to dance. It was funny - they were all grooving on stage, facing the crowd, strutting their stuff, and Prince comes back on stage from the back and just stands there, shaking his head at them. Of course they're clueless and have no idea he's behind them. He finally came down and went into the song - everyone kept a respectful distance. One fan was keeping up with Geneva really well - but then he feigned like he was too tired to keep up. It was funny. All in all, he played for 2 hours.



Well, I could bore you all to tears with my memories, but suffice to say, it was a memorable show and he and the band were TIGHT. If they made any mistakes, I didn't catch them. We'll probably see the same show on Friday but that's cool. I just can't get enough!



Sbacon1999