I just got back from the concert at Life in Greenwich Village and wanted to
give you my comments. Doors opened at around 9.45pm and although I hadn't
been to the club before, it turned out to be a pleasant surprise. The club
is small - holds 1000 people maximum - and the staff are very friendly. The
DJ played a mix of 80'd funk and Prince classics. There was alot of room to
move around - I estimate that there were around 700 people in the club.



At 1.00am people began to get anxious for the concert to start, and when it
still hadn't started at 3.00am, people began to slow clap and boo in the best
New York tradition. It looked like the crew were having difficulty ironing
out technical problems. Finally, at around 3.20am, Prince took to the stage
with no fanfare and said that he would tune up his guitar on stage. I was
sorry to see that he had brought His Holiness, Larry Graham along. Larry
looked the same as always - dressed up like Will Smith in Wild Wild West,
with giant white cowboy hat. Prince of course was sporting beard and long
hair and was wearing a black Indian style kaftan with silver borcade down the
center.


After warming up for a couple of minutes and teasing the corwd with calls of
'is my guitar loud enough?', Prince kicked off with a new song called 'Mother
and Child' I think - the chorus was 'sometimes I want to be a mother and
child'. What made the song stand apart was Prince's guitar playing - it was
fluid and agressive and really something. I was looking forward to a great
concert, but unfortunately this turned out to be the best moment of the show.



{MWC}

My guess is that he was playing the old traditional, "Motherless Child."

{MWC}



The next song was the first of one of many many Sly and the Family Stone
songs. Prince seems to want to pay tribute to Graham in every damn concert,
and this was no exception. The whole band jammed and Maceo Parker joined the
band on-stage. However, the song seemed old and tired. Things went from bad
to worse when Doug E. Fresh turned up to lead us through his raps - "Who
rocks the hardest?.." etc. From there on in, for the next 75 minutes, His
Holiness, Graham basically led the show with Prince taking a back seat as
guitarist/ keyboard player. The show was reminiscent of late '70's Elvis in
Vegas, as Graham brought out the other members of GCS 2000 to help exhume
songs like 'Everyday People' and then turn them into 15 minute jams.



In order to throw the fans a bone at the end, Prince finished the concert
with Purple Rain. As an introduction, he talked about how Graham convinced
him to give up cursing during his concerts, and said that 'a friend always
tells the truth'.



I'm a huge fan of the man, but here's some helpful advice:



1. No-one goes to a 90 minute Prince show to listen to 75 minutes of Larry
Graham telling us that we are everyday people.



2. Get rid of Graham and that revivalist show of his - it may have been
interesting 20 years ago but popular music has evolved since then - Graham
obviously hasn't.



3. If the new music we're all looking forward to is to stand a chance, I'm
hoping that Graham will not show up on 'Rave'. As I said, the opening song
was awesome so here's hoping.....