Sun, Apr. 18, 2004

Music icon Prince rides wave of success to Gund

http://www.ohio.com/mld/o...864.htm?1c

Singer/musician keeps diverse crowd on its feet with 25 years of hits

Prince Rogers Nelson is having one heck of a 2004.

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, where he opened the ceremony with a powerful medley of his past hits. He teamed up with R&B ``it'' girl Beyonce Knowles to open the Grammy telecast with another fine medley. His Musicology Tour, which stopped at The Gund on Saturday, has been selling out two- and three-night runs at arenas around the country. And, he's been giving away copies of his latest collection, Musicology, guaranteeing that tens of thousands more people will at least hear his new music and consider purchasing the real deal when it's released on Tuesday.

Yes, it's good to be Prince right now, and his performance revealed a musician and pop music icon who appears to be very comfortable with his place in pop culture.

The diverse crowd embodied the utopian mix of race, age and class that the singer presented in his star vehicle Purple Rain. Everyone was grooving as Prince and his flawless eight-piece New Power Generation band, including a three-piece horn section, reached back into his 25 years of music-making, keeping the crowd on its feet for much of the 2 ½-hour show.

Opening with Alicia Keys' rapturous speech from the Rock Hall ceremony and heading straight into the midtempo funk of the James Brown-influenced Musicology, Prince started on a funky note and never let up. He immediately went into a lengthy medley of tunes from Purple Rain that encompassed Let's Go Crazy, I Would Die 4 U and Baby, I'mA Star worked together seamlessly, balancing spontaneity and plenty of rehearsal.

The lesser-known ballad Shhh came next with an extended midsong breakdown that allowed Prince to coo salaciously at the ladies in the audience who screamed their approval to every suggestion.

The band showed its mettle on DMSR,extending the already long 1999 tune into a 20-minute funk jam with plenty of solo room and traces of Beyonce's Crazy In Love, where Prince playfully remarked, ``I can't do it, I don't have any booty!''

In the middle of the intermissionless show, Prince appeared alone on a rotating stool with an acoustic guitar and turned Little Red Corvette, Raspberry Beret, Cream and 7 into massive sing-alongs.

Obviously ecstatic to be filling arenas again, Prince had a constant smile on his face, and throughout the night he repeatedly worked the crowd into a frenzy with dramatic pauses, suggestive questions and a string of hits that stretched from his debut, I Feel For You, to the present, adroitly skipping the clunkers.

Using the same gambit David Bowie used on his 1990 Sound and Vision tour, Prince has said that he will stop performing his old hits after this already wildly successful jaunt. Whether that claim will come to fruition remains to be seen, but if it is the last time for his back catalog, he sent them out with a bang.

That MUST be a mistake.

yes that is true that he was on a stool i just got back from the concert and i had a ball i never in my 30 years have been to a concert my bro forgot his ticket at home and i was not going to go if he was not allowed in my bro comes first but we ended gettin a ticket anyway so i was estatic that was my first concert they showed clips of him on the screen and then they showed the hall of fame part with alicia keys talkin and outkast with him and then they was bringin him out well he appear on stage and i just got really emotional and my bro was worried about me i cant believe i saw prince and i thought about the prince.org family i liked when the fans lit their candles almost close to the end of the show and prince has a sense of humor i tell u that much im just so glad that i got the chance to see him and i know i dont post on here at all i just read on here but i want everyone to know on here that i was thinking of u guys and i was telling my bro that i wanted to tell u guys right now im just too estatic right now and to the prince.org family one love from me to u.....peace out and all of u take care

My voice is STILL gone!! I just woke up from last night amazing show!!

I have to say I am just amazed by Prince, I dont know how at any age a person could do such a high energy show for over 2 hours! The crowd was GOING NUTS for about 20 hours of that show! sooooo much so that being in the upper deck, WE couldn't hear some of the singing or guitar solos! (no lie) It was amazing!!

What scares me is Prince played this show it was his last!! He did in perfect tune now SCREAMS which sounded like something you would hear on the record! He held one for atleaat 15 seconds maybe even longer. I can't believe he was doing this ALL through the show, MY voice is shot for yelling..HOW can Prince's voice sound perfect/exactly like you hear on his albums?? You would assume the guy would hold back because he has to go to another city in a couple days!??

Blackwell is clearly the best drummer Prince has ever had! The guy is just amazing!!!! He did stuff that just made my jaw drop!

* I have a ton of Prince's concerts on tape & I have to say last nights concert was as good as the ONA Concert (New York) & Lovesexy Concert (Germany).

I HOPE he is running tape on these Concerts and later on this year put out a DVD! I can't see any show being better then the Cleveland,Ohio show.

Damn,when the crowd was chanting " WE WANT PRINCE!! WE WANT PRINCE!!" for a Encore wow that was loud


But then I can:) I bet every City can write basically the samething I just did.

Prince is CLEARLY without a doubt the BEST MUSICIAN & Performer EVER!
[This message was edited Sun Apr 18 5:27:13 2004 by ElectricBlue]

yes he is he has talent and that is god given talent he can compose and write his music and i always have so much respect for people to write their own music that is just real deep to me because i always wanted a degree in music hey by the way did u get the free musicolgy cd at the gund arena im listening to it right now

excuse my errors in this im just to tired that i cant sleep im still shocked that i saw this man for the first time wheww

My post too... I just woke up like 20 minutes ago Yeah I was listening to it last night on the way home

But to be honest we were talking to much about how amazing the show was.. I gotta listent to it again this morning

Did you see HOW how SEXY our Cleveland Women were that were on stage dancing EVERY Women up there was HOT!! not like that Vegas DVD NOPE know women with Airbrushed Sweaters hoggin the spotlight with Prince

Did you guys see that one women with the "Symbol" Outfit on
[This message was edited Sun Apr 18 3:58:32 2004 by ElectricBlue]