a review from the guy licking his fingers after he touched prince's guitar

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Thread started 02/23/09 4:37pm

PEJ

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a review from the guy licking his fingers after he touched prince's guitar

2 reviews rd's and getwild's

http://blogs.myspace.com/...=472570963

and the purple academy award goes to..Prince (Oscar bash concert)
All I can say is after all the luck Ive had is that I finally got to touch the hohner controversy guitar. And yes I have its dna inside of me (some know why and how tee hee lol). Thanks ot my babygirl for making us go. Prince was his usual badass self. Oh...he reworked "Shhh" like he reworked "It" from in the movie Sign Of The Times. Required viewing/hearing in the near future. The Crimson n Clover cover is just amazing live. He tears up the guitar so much with it at the coda its worthy of any of his own written classic such as Joy In Repetition. He did the purple church hymm Controversy and "took us way back" with the rude nude chant and interlaced Housequake into it. Everybody was jumpin up and down on the one on his commnad as the song states to do. Awesome experience. Come Together had everyone actually joined together like a civil rights movement, but a movement of it being a funked up version. Incredible to see. A funny highlight aside is when he did '7', at the part where he says "6 others will curse me!" he said instead "I know 'yall tryin to curse me" with a smirk as a knowing wink to them damn naysayers lmao. Another quick highlight is he came entered the stage like an animal finally uncaged to sing his upcoming Old School Company prancin' and prowling with his studded cane pointing it and jabbing it at the audience and stage. Then they also did India Aries' Brownskin for Shelby to highlight and When Will We Be Paid but sung to the tune of People Get Ready for Lynn W to shine. And one rock song that is so unexpected that he covered was Jimmy Eat Worlds 'Take Some Time' in which he displayed his overtaking of anothers song and displayed his purple guitar skills...again!.His final words as he threw down his blessed Hohner was "Hollywood, dont mess with me! Ive got too many hits!" and walked off stage floating on a cool breeze. He was on his j.o.b. tonight as was the band and Shelby and Lynn. Hello to Pej and Amorbella again and Darklotus, Getwild, Kurt, his wife, Cheryl. Gila (oh my), the band, Eric, and the rest of the purple freaks I may have foolheartedly forgot. Good sanging Darlklotus smile

Phew!

Avalon Club, Hollywood

Wow…it's been almost 2 years since I've seen a proper Prince concert, and though it wasn't the best one I've seen him do, it was sure a lot of fun.

Since fans pretty much haven't been "invited" (i.e., able to either get in at all, or buy tickets that were less than $150 each) for the past 2 years, with the exception of Coachella last year (which I skipped because I didn't want to have to deal with all of the people and the heat), I nearly passed on this show. But I decided to go down to the Avalon, with its capacity of 800, and hope for the best. I knew Prince was going on around midnight or later, so I went down to the club in the early afternoon, camped out and was able to get in and pay the $100 admission (and be at center, right next to the stage). With no confidence that fans were going to be able to get in, plus the tough economic times, many people were scared away and the line was actually pretty short for most of the day. In fact, I'd estimate that the club was only about half full when Prince took the stage, which was at 1:40am.

I brought a friend with me who was a "Prince virgin," having never seen him in concert before, and I warned him about all of the waiting that goes into seeing Prince when he plays, and the show didn't disappoint. The nearly 100-minute set consisted of a lot of really random cover versions of songs, proving that Prince really does know how to play just about every song ever recorded. I really wish though that with all of the songs in Prince's library that I've never heard him play (When I Lay My Hands on U, Let's Pretend We're Married, International Lover, Why U Wanna Treat Me So Bad, Va-Voom, Supercute, Love, etc.), the opportunity cost of hearing him do covers instead of songs like those is a bit frustrating. But, to his credit, he pretty much took ownership and made all of those songs his own in playing them.

Here was the setlist for the show:

Purple Rain intro (he didn't play the song though)

Old School Company (new song)

Yes We Can (Shelby song)

Let's Go (the cars)

Crimson and Clover

7/Come Together/Shhh (fast version)

Shhhh (regular version)

Baby Love (one verse)/Brown Skin - sung by Shelby

Xenophobia-like instrumental (the setlist on the floor by the guitar stand said it was called **** is free…I couldn't read the first word)

Miss You (Prince really didn't know the lyrics to the first verse, but he sang 2 verses, in the vain that he did on the Prince of Paisley Park special)/Gypsy Woman (La da de, la da da - Crystal Waters song) chorus

Cream

Honkytonk Woman (Shelby on vocals)

When Will We Be Paid (Prince, SHelby and Liv Waterfirst (I think that is her name) on vocals---sounded really cool

The Middle (Jimmy Eat World cover)...you know the song (It just takes some time, little girl everything will be alright (alright)…

The Bird (first verse only, Prince on vocals)

Jungle Love (Prince on vocals, first verse and end part)…Prince asked, who wrote that before he sang it

The Glamorous Life (Prince and audience on vocals)

Play that Funky Music White Boy (Cody on vocals)

Hollywood Swingers

Encore:

I Feel 4 U

Controversy and a little bit of Housequake

The show opened with a recorded intro of a storm, and a teaser of the first chord to Purple Rain, but changed into the new song "Old School Company," Prince came out in a black outfit, with a long shirt with the center cut out (a la the Jam of the Year tour), a sequined pimp cane, sunglasses and high-heeled tennis shoes that lit up when he walked on them. He threw the cane down on the ground and started singing the lyrics. The rest of the band consisted of Morris Hayes, Frederic Yonnet on harmonica, Shelby J on background vocals, Liv Warfield (I think that's her name) on background. The song was a rocker with a loud drum track that had lyrics about the bad economy and featured several extended jams by Prince and the band. The song morphed into Yes We Can Can, with backup singer Shelby J on vocals and Prince backing her up.

Next was a cover of the Cars' "Let's Go", which I'd never heard him perform before. The song actually sounded good by him, and he seemed to enjoy playing it. I'm not sure if I had the song on my brain or not, but every song he started, I was thinking it could be "I Like it There", since they all started on guitar as that track does on the album, though he never played it.

Next was Prince's take at Tommy James and the Shondell's (among others) Crimson and Clover, which absolutely rocks live. The guitar solos were first-rate, and he just absolutely reinvented the song and made it his own. The song incorporated a couple of lines from The Troggs' "Wild Thing" and straight up kicked butt.

A one-verse version of 7 followed, which morphed into the Beatles' classic "Come Together", which actually was the complete song with all three verses for the first time that I've seen him do it. At the end of the song, over the fast-ish beats from 7/Come Together, he had the audience chant the first few lines from Shhh, "Break it Down", "I Don't Want Nobody Else to Hear the Sound" as a sort of battle between the right side of the audience and the left side of the audience. He did pretty much the rest of the first verse of the song that way, before stopping and going into an abbreviated "regular" version of Shhh that missed a couple of the verses but did capture the drum solo guitar solos perfectly.

Next was a one-verse version of "Baby Love" (sung by Shelby again) which ran into her cover of India Arie's "Brown Skin".

A 10-minute, Xenophobia-like instrumental (the setlist on the floor by the guitar stand said it was called **** is free…I couldn't read the first word) which featured instrumentals by everyone in the band including some awesome guitar work from Prince, followed, and then Prince surprised the audience with the Rolling Stones' "Miss You", to which Prince really didn't know the lyrics to the first verse, but he sang 2 verses, in the vain that he did on the Prince of Paisley Park special. He was even trying to do his best Mick Jagger facial expressions. He added in the chorus to Crystal Waters' "Gypsy Woman" (La da de, la da da) to get the audience, many of whom didn't appear to recognize that Stones classic, to participate.

A rocking version of "Cream," far better than what he played at 3121 in Las Vegas, was next, and morphed into another Stones song, Honkytonk Woman (which actually began like ACDC's "You Shook Me All Night Long"), featuring Shelby on vocals again.

Prince then called for the rest of the band to take a break while he played guitar, and Shelby and other background singer Liv Warfield took lead on a soulful (and complete) version of the Staples Singers' "When Will We Be Paid".

Prince asked the audience what it wanted to hear next, rock, funk, etc., and he decided on rock…and then broke into the most random song of the night, Jimmy Eat World's "The Middle"...you know the song (It just takes some time, little girl everything will be alright (alright))…a song that I would have never guessed Prince would have listened to (maybe he is so disillusioned with current popular music that he's looking to alt-rock from the 1990s for inspiration?), sung complete and the audience loving it.

To keep with the covers theme, Prince did a few covers of his own songs…first, The Bird (with him singing the first verse only, Jungle Love (where he asked at the beginning "who wrote that", (Prince on vocals, first verse and end part)…Prince asked, who wrote that before he sang it. During the song, Shelby brought up audience members to dance on the stage, and to provide possible karaoke support for the next song, The Glamorous Life, with Prince and audience on vocals. What was cool for me was to see Prince singing, not miked, in falsetto, to try to guide audience…kinda felt like it would have been like being in his studio recording a demo. The overused "Play that Funky Music White Boy", featuring audience member Cody on vocals, which changed into Kool and the Gang's "Hollywood Swingers" closed out the set.

A couple of minutes later, Prince came back out for a short encore of I Feel 4 U and Controversy, with him asking if anyone "knew about the quake" before ending the show around 3:30.

After the show, I realized that Prince was on his game, and that I had a heck of a time dancing and singing along. This is why I keep coming back.

A few notes:

- In about 20 shows that I've heard this backing band do, I thought it sounded the tightest and best. Cora's drumming particularly was much better than I remember previously.

- For the first time in awhile, Prince was not using a lyric book to remember the lyrics to the songs he was playing (or maybe he was and I didn't see it?)

- The new harmonica player Frederic Yonnet added a lot to the band, just as Renato Neto adds to the band when they play together.

- Surprisingly, there was no sign of the "apparently leaked" track $.

Celebs spotted at the show were Taraji P. Henson, Esmeralda Spaulding and Penelope Cruz, who Prince thanked for attending, plus Renato Neto, Eliza Dushku, Meghan Good and basketball player Baron Davis.

I left the club around 3:30, and can't believe I made it into work today…and it was worth it!

P.S., my Prince virgin friend loved it and will be back again....even after all of the waiting.

[Edited 2/24/09 9:53am]

To Sir, with Love

wildgoldenhone y
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Sdldawn	prince didn't sell out.
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