The Prince concert was great. Four hours of great music and special guests. The show opened with Mint Condition. The 1990’s R&B/Funk band famous for the ballad “Breakin’ My Hart (Pretty Brown Eyes)”. They weren’t bad, their bass player was incredible.
Therein lies my only problem with the show. It would probably have sounded better if the bass and drums were
cranked down a bit. The heavy bass and drums stepped all over the vocals muddying the sound too much, even in Prince’s set.
That said, the show was awesome. It was a pleasant surprise that the show touted as “real music, by real musicians” was just that. It was also a return to his rock/funk roots for Prince. Gone were the jazz heavy riffs and horns, back were the heavy guitar, bass, and drums from the Prince of the past. I was exhilarating to hear the songs from yesteryear performed as they were when we the fans, first heard them.
The set included, new stuff, old school 80’s, and song the Glam Slam 90’s. The new stuff was a new guitar rock song called “Lay Down” and another “Future Soul” which had a great guitar intro reminiscent of Prince’s 1980’s gems. Then there was the 90’s club hit “Endorphinmachine” and my 80’s favorite B-side “17 Days” a song I’ve heard live on bootlegs, but never seen live.
The highlights included an instrumental version on “Let’s Work” done in the dark with a bouncing bass line sine wave on the stage floor. Next was a set of Purple Rain, Sign O’ The Times, and Diamonds and Pearls classics. As Prince said during the show “Just too many songs!” Anybody else might have been bragging, but in Prince’s case I think he was just stating the truth.
Other performers who should get a shout out are Shelby J. a fantastic backup singer with a great voice, and the truly fantastically lovely Alicia Keyes who joined Prince on stage to duet on his 80’s classic and her wonderful cover “How Come You Don’t Call Me Anymore?”.
Some people complained the his self-proclaimed “Friday Night Special” performance was too short. But 4 hours of great music and meeting great people was worth the $25 ticket price that most of them paid. Although, the merchandise was way overpriced, I didn’t end up buy anything.