Dance, Music, Sex, Romance

[carynb]

Wow.

What a fabulous concert. It easily made my all-time top 5, and maybe even my top three. Prince is unbelievably charismatic in person, even if your seats are in the upper bowl. For someone who seems so misanthropic, he sure knows how to work a crowd. And, he was funny!

He played more than 30 songs, over almost 3 hours. 6 of these I didn't know - I think one was improv, and I've identified 2 more as definitely being on Musicology. I'll have to listen to the CD and see if I can identify the others, as well.

Some Snapshots:

• Little Red Corvette, acoustic version. Absolutely breathtaking. Just him and an acoustic guitar, and 20,000 screaming fans.
  
• At one point, he was a little disappointed that we weren't supplying the words to DMSR, made a comment about "This side of the audience not being old skool" and broke into a brief clip of Beyonce's Crazy in Love - complete with all her booty-shakin' dance moves.
  
• The entire song I'll call Telemarketer Blues. I've never heard it before, but him doing a sample of how he answers the phone in a Canadian accent and pretends he's not him - absolutely hilarious.
  

Since whynotsteve asked, I managed to write down a set list. There were random jams inserted between some songs, and occasionally hooks from others just thrown in, without the song actually being played, but here goes: (The asterisked songs are me just guessing at the names)

• Musicology
  
• Let's go Crazy
  
• I Would Die 4 U
  
• When Doves Cry
  
• Baby, I'm a Star
  
• Break it all Down*
  
• DMSR
  
• I Feel 4 U
  
• Controversy
  
• Little Red Corvette (Acoustic)
  
• Peach (Acoustic)
  
• Alphabet St. (Acoustic)
  
• Telemarketer Blues* (Acoustic)
  
• I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man
  
• Prisoner Band* (Acoustic)
  
• On the Couch (Acoustic)
  
• Raspberry Beret (Acoustic)
  
• Cream (Started acoustic, but the rest of the band started joining in)
  
• 7
  
• Sign o' the Times
  
• The Question of U
  
• The One/Fallin' *
  
• Pop Life
  
• Turn U On
  
• U Got the Look
  
• Life o' the Party
  
• Soul Man
  
• Kiss
  
• Take Me with U
  

The encore was

• Beautiful Ones
  
• Nothing Compares 2 U
  
• Purple Rain

The energy levels from the crowd were fantastic. I spent most of the night on my feet, dancing and singing. So much fun. The only song I was expecting to hear and didn't was 1999.

Definitely worth the $80. If you can manage to see him, go.

Comments

[whynotsteve.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you had a great time. Thanks for the setlist; he certainly got the Purple Rain stuff in pretty early.

I suspect I would probably have enjoyed the show, even though I would have been disappointed at the absence of "1999" (one of my 3 favourite songs along with "Little Red Corvette" and "When Doves Cry").

[carynb.livejournal.com]

Actually, he pretty much bracketed the concert with stuff from Purple Rain - 4 of the first 5 songs, and 3 of the last 4. The version of When Doves Cry was pretty short though - I'm pretty sure he actually dropped a verse.

Some stuff I can understand him not doing - he's said that the songs with explicit sexuality and/or "bad" language wouldn't be on the playlist, but I don't think 1999 qualified on either count.

Oh well, it was definitely a great show, even if a few songs were missing. *g*

[mycrazyhair.livejournal.com]

I'm glad it was such a great show. I love it when I look forward to a show and then it's everything I was hoping for.

[carynb.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was just really good. The whole way home last night, Mike just kept repeating that it was the best concert he'd ever seen. Granted, he hasn't got a huge basis for comparison, but still. He's never been the kind of fan that I was, more of a "his music's cool, it might be good to see" type than the OHMYGOD!!!PRINCEe!!! type that I am(was), and he had as good an impression of the concert as I did.

The only problem I had? The tickets said 7:30, and the concert didn't actually start until 8:40. Other than that, it was magic.