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Got there 30 minutes before the doors open, there weren't many people there at the time. I thought that was kind of odd, there were slightly more people there than there was when tickets went on sale. Doors opened, and I get up to my level in the arena. The guy taking the tickets asked if I wanted to be moved to the lower level? I was like "What?" "I mean, it's a better deal. There are speakers up there and it's kind of at an odd angle..." I responded "Yes, thank you."
So basically, $20 seats I bought, then received seats that were 15 rows away from the stage. From the top of the arena, to very close. That, alone made it the best $20 I've ever spent.
Then the opener came one... as you'll find out later, there were issues with the mic, so I couldn't really make out what their name was. They were pretty decent, though; it was basically adult contemporary R&B with elements of jazz and hard rock here and there, so a good mix with Prince. They went into this (what I originally thought was) instrumental song that was just incredible, it seemed like something you'd see from The Roots. Then, the lead singer went to sing, his mic wouldn't work. He could obviously tell, as could the audience, but it wasn't too big of a deal. Someone would fix it in between the next song, right?
Wrong. This was halfway through the opening set and the mic cuts off. A few minutes later and another song, people start getting aggravated. Actually trying to communicate to the stage that the mic is dead, it was kind of comical to see. Next song, still not fixed... the boos start leaking in. Another song, nothing again. It's full on boos, I've seriously never been to a concert with so much booing, ever. It really, really sucks, because the band was pretty good and even though that happened, inevitably the band is subject to the heat of the crowd, when they could do nothing. Suffice to say, the mic never got fixed during their set.
Thankfully, some techs come out and fix the mic situation, and 20 minutes later, Prince's band takes stage. I can't remember the entire setlist and I know what I have is out of order, but this was without question the best concert I've seen in over a year.
D.M.S.R. Pop Life (always been one of my favorites, this was nice) Musicology 1999 Kiss If I Was Your Girlfriend Adore Let's Go Crazy Delirious Purple Rain Medley featuring When Doves Cry, Alphabet Street (!), Sign O' The Times (!), Hot Thing (! ! ! ! !), and some others I can't remember... Play That Funky Music Stratus (At the show, I freaked out. I thought that it was just a Jeff Beck song, but later found out that Jeff Beck actually covered Billy Cobham... this was probably the best of the night) Little Red Corvette
I'll edit, if I find a setlist soon, but that's all I can think off the top. The show was about 2 hours and 15 minutes and not a dull moment. He had the crowd in his hands at all times, getting us in unison for many "ooooooh Cacilaci" or "ooooooh Carolina"... cheap pops, but it was fun. Sing-a-longs were frequent, but not overwhelming, it was just a fun vibe in the arena. I'd say 75% people were dancing and not sitting, at one point Prince even brought 20 or so people on stage from the crowd to dance. This one guy was dressed up as Purple Rain Prince and got the moment of his life: Prince forced him to dance/hump the piano. Some overweight Prince imitator was getting jiggy (yes, jiggy) with the grand piano.
Prince was a riot. During one of his slow, love ballads, he stopped at the end of the stage while singing a verse, turns, looks at his back up singer closest to him and says a la Tracy Morgan "Somebody's gettin' pregnant." Another great one: "Y'all got jobs to go to tomorrow?... You guys need to talk to the president about that." "I have way too many hits", then he proceeds to do a very unique medley that was just amazing.
Great moments not comedy related: confetti shot out during Let's Go Crazy/Delirious was a great touch. At the start of Purple Rain, the crowd took over, haha... usually, Prince wants the crowd to do the falsetto ''ooh oohs" at the end of the song, but the crowd started as soon as the rhythm and background ambiance is introduced, before prince could establish the melody on guitar. Prince plays along, and does some minimalist improv to start the song. Very good performance of that. In the middle of Kiss, Prince busts into an amazing solo dance accompanied by drums only, and brings the house down.
All this I'm saying, and very little about the musical performance. Well, the fact of the matter is that this is a Prince concert, and that should really say enough. He's the consummate performer currently going as well as one of the most talented instrumentalists, writers, and singers in the biz. His performance was, I'd go as far as saying, flawless. His band is great too, as you'd imagine. His bassist was great, both key players were incredible, and the drummer was among the best I've seen in concert. Their playing was tight beyond belief.
Simply put, this was one of the best shows I've ever seen in my life, and the best $20 I've ever spent. If he spaces out this tour in months and comes back to, say, Atlanta later this year, I'd try my damnedest to go.
Oh Bishop, I am so incredibly jealous. It sounds like it was a fantastic show. He better get his sweet little ass to Tennessee soon.
I actually had a dream last night that Prince played in Nashville, and somehow I got a meet-and-greet with him, in a limo no less. There was a lot of, uh, tension between us the entire dream
Wow. Awesome Awesome review Bishop. Thats gonna keep me going over the next few days till the Greensboro show.
And congrats on the upgrade. Stuff like that makes it all worth it in the end. I'm keeping my eye on my emails. Usually I get a "wanna upgrade" email before high priced shows like this. Keeping my hopes high.
Post by rideincircles on Mar 22, 2011 9:55:02 GMT -5
I am going to mention this here since it is a Carolina based thread, if you like electroninic music in the slightest and are anywhere Asheville tonight, go see Trentemoller. By far the best show of sxsw and best electronic act I have ever seen. He plays at Ultra this week and is only doing a few showsin the USA. I posted a video under recent shows thread. It is phenomenal live, I liked it more than Massive Attack.
Diversion complete.
I would also love to see Prince someday, his Dallas super bowl no-show was a complete bust and had $1500+ tickets.
Post by A$AP Rosko on Mar 24, 2011 15:47:28 GMT -5
I went to the Raleigh show. Had an unbelievable time. Everything you said applied to the Raleigh show as well; setlist was in a different order, though. He came out with the piano medley. Pretty awesome to have the opening beat of "When Doves Cry" open the show. He was an amazing showman, the first words out of his mouth were "Y'all know how many hits I got?! We gon' be here ALL NIGHT!" He cracked me up several times.
We also bought $20 nosebleeds and were moved down to about 25 rows from the stage. I couldn't believe it...I guess because the show(s) was/were so short notice? The middle section, lower section, and floor ended up being totally full, but the top section (where we would've been) was totally empty. I wasn't complaining.
But, yeah, he was an unbelievable showman and worked the crowd like nobody I've ever seen. It was weird but awesome how "Play That Funky Music" was basically one of the centerpieces of the whole set. The highlight, for me, was "Purple Rain" the song. Just awesome.
EDIT: He also did the pregnant joke at the Raleigh show: "Nah, nah we can't play that song. Y'all don't understand! Somebody gonna get pregnant!" So, I guess he's recycling his jokes. That's totally cool with me, though.
Try to go to your seats, lol. Really, that's all I did. They stopped me at the entrance to my section and gave me two free tickets to the 15th row.
Also, Karosko, how was Chaka Kahn?
Sounds good. I figured it might not be too hard to sneak down if needed, but I would love to be given tickets for down there. So excited for this show.
Dear people seeing Prince this weekend: Please shout "J Ho loves you" at least once... preferably during Purple Rain. I'll be at home in my room, crying myself to sleep.
Full review tomorrow as I have to compose myself. It's been a hell of a weekend. And JHo ... I tried to take pictures. My seating sucked and the pics didn't turn out so great. I tried though.
D.M.S.R. Pop Life Extraordinary (could have been before Pop Life) Musicology ("Prince and the Band" played within) Don't Stop Till You Get Enough Cool Let's Work U Got the Look Misty Blue (Sung by Shelby, P went to change) Raspberry Beret Take Me With U She's Always In My Hair Controversy Housequake (just a snippet) The Cross (instrumental, used as intro to>) Let's Go Crazy Delirious 1999 Little Red Corvette (verses sung as a slow jam, chorus regular) Purple Rain
Piano/DJ set (Band break):
When Doves Cry Nasty Girl Darling Nikki Sign O'The Times Alphabet St. The Most Beautiful Girl in the World Black Sweat The Bird (band returns) Jungle Love Love Rollercoaster Play That Funky Music (big fruity brotha was HILARIOUS!!! P was like "WTF!?!")
Which Way Is Up? Kiss ("U don't have to watch...Real Housewives") If I Was Your Girlfriend Insatiable
Scandalous Adore
Here is the setlist. I'm working on the review as we speak. Oh and here you go. A few pictures that are not mine (I stole em from the prince.org forum). But awesome none the less.
It got the crowd moving for sure. I found myself dancing with a group of women I had never met before.
That setlist is a bit misleading. It was like he busted out into Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough. It was more like Musicology>Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough>Musicology.
Same with Darling Nikki & Nasty Girl. It was more of a tease than a song.
Also, probably the one part of the show that made me cheer loudest, was when he did the intro, first verse and chorus of Hot Thing.... good god, I love that song.
AEG (on facebook) has posted that they have a big announcement for Atlanta on Monday. I am hoping to Flying Spaghetti Monster that the announcement is Prince.
AEG (on facebook) has posted that they have a big announcement for Atlanta on Monday. I am hoping to Flying Spaghetti Monster that the announcement is Prince.