My wife & I attended the Sydney sound check and concert last night. Prince casually strolled to the stage dressed in black with his white beanie. The band started a groove that ended up being a great version of "17 days". Next Prince segued (courtesy of his guitar) in to a blistering rendition of "Beautiful Strange". His solo was breath taking. During the next few jams, he walked off stage in to the seating area and walked around us. He commented 'nice seats'. Before the check was over, we had also been treated to "Rainbow Children". "See y'all in about an hour". He left us with.
The show itself was amazing. The capacity crowd erupted when Prince wlaked on stage to begin the concert with "Let's go Crazy". The intro was fantastic and different from all versions I have heard previous;y. "Sydney...I'm here to tell ya, there's somethin' else..- THE TRUTH!" The set list was wonderful and contained fantastic versions of songs unlike any others he has worked before. Songs like "When Doves Cry", "Sign o the times", were captivating. "The One' would have been unrecognisable save for the lyrics due to the dirty guitar work on it. He made it a rock song. We were treated to a truly awesome encore portion at the keys culminating in bringing down the house with "Alphabet St". When "Purple Rain" started, Prince commented on how he loves the song and never get's tired of playing it. It went forever, and time after time he relaunched it with the 1-2,1-2-3-4 finale. He played the purple 'habibi' for it. I had excellent seats very close the centre stage, and was blown away by the show. I actually got interviewed on camera outside the entertainment centre. i still don;t know what it was for, but i can only hope it's for an upcoming release DVD as there were plenty of camera's filming. It looked as though he was filming for more than just his collection. I tell you all, if it comes out...buy it for sure! You'll never see a better set list worked so well live.