Prince

[Carl]

I don't like concerts in the Hartford Civic Center. The sound is terrible and they still have Hartford Whalers banners hanging from the rafters. I especially don't like paying $75 to see a show at the Hartfor Civic Center, but I make exceptions for Prince. For bringing Funk to Top 40 radio and connecting the dots between George Clinton and Outkast, he gets a free pass that allows him to change his name to an unpronounceable symbol, change it back, then ask $75 for a ticket.

I went out of my way to learn as little as possible about the tour. I didn't want to know the set list, the stage design, or anything else that could close my mind.

Prince has a lot of hits and was faced with the challenge of playing all these hits while still moving forward. If you're CSN&Y, The Eagles, or Simon and Garfunkel, you can play your hits and go home happy, but Prince is the most innovative musician of the last 3 decades, so that would not be acceptable. He solved the problem by bringing the Funk.

The first song was "Musicology," which set the stage for the theme of the next hour - a music history lesson taught by the purple professor. He did James Brown. Songs like "I Would Die 4 U" and "When Doves Cry" were used as the basis for a continuous stream of riffs. You got a verse here, a chorus there, and a lot of horns. He had 2 of the greatest sax players on the planet with him that night - Maceo Parker and Candy Dulfer. He also brought the Funky Drummer - I have no idea who he was, but he brought it strong. At a P-Funk show, this would be more a huge jam, but Prince kept it very tight. It was all choreographed, but it worked because the music was so good. I love spontanaity, but listening to these great musicians hit their marks at such a high level was a new and wonderful sound.

After the hour of power, he let Maceo play some sax and came back with an acoustic guitar. He had some fun with acoustic versions of "Little Red Corvette," "Cream," "Raspberry Beret," and a few Blues songs. I didn't think he should have left the band on the bench that long, but it went over well with the crowd. He moved into a guitar bit where he wailed away on "Whole Lotta Love." I'm not a big fan of Prince as a guitarist (too high-pitched), so this didn't do much for me. He pieced together some more hits, pulled out an old P-Funk trick where he let ladies in the audience dance on stage, then left and came back for "Purple Rain." The first and last songs were the only ones he played in their entirety the way they sound on the albums.

[Tenacious_Peaches]

...connecting the dots between George Clinton and Outkast...

Carl, that is a great description of His Royal Purpleness.

I saw Prince at the highly esteemed (!) Hartford Civic Center back in the 80s and he put on an awesome show. He can be a little off the wall, but he is a consummate entertainer.