“We’re still a band right?

Prince and The Revolution reunion review

Set List:

4 The Tears In Your Eyes

I Love You in Me

Irresistible Bitch

17 Days

Life Can Be So Nice

Are You My Baby

The Life

She’s Always In My Hair

Horny Toad

Baby

Power Fantastic

Sometimes It Snows In April

Power Fantastic

Mountains

It was crazed…He came out with just Wendy and Lisa and they began the opening strumming of 4 The Tears In Your Eyes with just he and Wendy in the single white spotlight…Lisa was at piano …folks raved. Then after that was finished he began a prolonged acoustic intro for about one minute and then he started singing the words to that b-side I Love U In Me…. some were a bit confused but you heard a few people clapping in recognition. It was cool to see the three of them just with voice acoustic and piano.

After I Luv U In Me ended the lights went up, the rest of the stage lit up, and the rest of the band entered. Fink, Bobby, Mark. Once the crowd stopped their roar they began Irresistible Bitch...the girls sang the chorus part and each time the phrase came up Prince would cover his ears like “lalalala I cant hear you” and then would wave his finger at them lol.

Then they went into 17 Days Life Can Be So Nice segued into each other. It was more rock sounding then on record…it seemed like they were really working out to these songs and Bobby was hittin them drums like nobody’s business. They then went into a scorching America with Prince taking over Mark’s bass for the ending. When they finished Prince left the stage and they played Wendy and Lisa’s “Are U My Baby” but only as an instrumental.

Wendy then came and sat in the middle of the stage and sang The Life with just an acoustic. Wendy added piano and Fink embellished with painful chords that added a sense of melancholy to the already mournful song.

Prince returned and they went into She’s Always In My Hair…Wendy and Prince were leaning against each other playing their perspective geetar parts and would kneel down against each others back during the solo…

Prince ‘dropped the geetar after the song and said something to Fink like “u better work this one” and went into Horny Toad rock-a-billy style. And Fink did work it with a synth break that was similar to the frenzy of the Baby I’m A Star solo coda…when Fink stopped his solo out came Eric Leeds to do a rave up battle with his horn against Finks synth. Prince was busy doing some funny dance moves and moving his hands like some swing-big band era band leader Everyone cheered when Leeds came out. Some guy acted like he was going to faint in mock exasperation. At the end Prince said “bet you didn’t hear or remember that one ha!” and many yelled back that they did etc.

Prince said “I’ve been having fun ..” and turned to the band and said “have you?”..and Lisa said “yes, of course.” Wendy appeared teary. Mark had his hand up with the peace sign. The lights again went soft and he sat on a stool center stage and started singing with his acoustic “baby what are we gonna do” ..Baby from the For You album. After the first chorus he said “Lisa” and the beginning strains to Power Fantastic began. Some folks were losing their mind. Eric came back out with muted horn. He went to a side mic and said Atlanta and Atlanta Bliss came out with his muted horn. Some folks on the side were jumping up and down making the we are not worthy arms sign to Leeds and Bliss.

The song ended and Prince said ..”ladies and gentlemen, Wendy” and she came to the center stage stool with him and Prince began singing “Tracy died…” with Wendy doing acoustic strumming to Sometimes It Snows In April. There was nary a dry eye in the house. When Prince finished singing he turned to Wendy and hugged her and she hugged him back. They both seemed to hang onto each other as if scared to let go. The crowd roared at this.

The lights went bright again and Bobby started pounding on the drums and then Eric and Atlanta came out and they began Mountains. Prince and Wendy stood together once again and sang the song to each other with their geetars facing each other. They thing of it was that they continued at the usual end of the song with the extended version. They didn’t sing it they let the instruments do it on the stop on a dime and begin again start up. At one point Prince stopped it on ht e one and said “got the funk pointing at your feet.. Dez get over here!” and Dez came out to add some licks but he just clapped along…Prince said “y’all don’t know him without the headband” lol but it seems everyone did and yelled when he came out. And just like that Prince said “uh!” and th e stage went black. A single spotlight shined on a lone mic stand in center stage. Prince went up to it and said “goodnight”. Each band member went up to the mic and said “goodnight”. The all had smiles and hugged each other as they walked offstage.

The set-list was odd yet cool. The thing about it was that they actually played as a band...I mean Prince had a different presence in letting everyone else shine and be recognized. He’s done it before but this time instead of them being part of his world he appeared to be part of a band that just included the Revolution. He wasn’t really acting as a leader but as a member who added to them and they adding to him. I cant help but remember in Purple Rain Bobby stating “we’re still a band right?”..in retrospect ..back then they weren’t. They were all seemingly separate and cold. So many years later they actually seemed a band more than before. They may not have went on the same bus or same destination, but I know that for that 90 minutes they were always going to be a band if not a family.