Thirty years into his career, the Minnesota icon showed his faithful something new Saturday night at Paisley Park in Chanhassen: It was his smoothest (read most efficiently run) show there ever. The show advertised for 11 p.m. actually started at 11:10, unheard of at Paisley, where shows typically have started whenever Prince feels like it (read 1 a.m. at the earliest). For the first time, he even offered a free shuttle-bus service so people could leave their vehicles at a nearby park-and-ride and take a plush bus for a 8-minute drive to Paisley. How slick was that? Late-night shows were commonplace at Paisley in the late 1990s but Prince had not done any announced shows there since 2004 after his Musicology Tour concerts at Xcel Energy Center. Those soirees cost $50 whereas Saturday’s gig (which was announced late Friday afternoon) cost $31.21 for fan-club members and $40 for others. Many of the people at Paisley this time seemed to be first-timers for the late-night Purple experience. How was the show? Prince played 10 minutes short of three hours — without changing his outfit. That’s a first. My quickie review (a full review will be posted later) is that he showed more versatility and musicality in the first hour than Michael Jackson did in his entire career. Prince started with a bunch of tunes from this year’s “Lotusflow3r” collection and then he paraded through his hits, especially from the 1980s. In fact, I don’t recall one tune from the ’90s and only “Feel 4 U” from the ’70s. With his horn-less band, Prince has never sounded funkier at Paisley. He was talkative and humorous, loose and spontaneous, calling out songs and arrangements as well as an occasional “so-low” for himself on guitar. He saluted the Time, the Doobie Brothers and the Jackson 5 in song and verbally acknowledged his debt to James Brown, the Jacksons, Chaka Khan, Rufus, Stevie Wonder, Sly Stone, Joni Mitchell and Tower of Power. His pal Larry Graham sat in on bass for a series of Sly & the Family Stone tunes, and backup singer Shelby J stepped out front on a couple of selections, most notably “The Arms of an Angel.” But this show was about Prince and his love of funk and his guitar prowess. He even offered a little “country western” guitar passage, as he put it, and one of his more passionate versions of “Purple Rain” to close the evening.

Judging from the songs alluded to in this report, it sounds like the last night’s setlist was very similar to the ones he performance in France recently. I gotta tell you, if I had more time to plan I might’ve hopped a plane to Minneapolis to attend last night’s concert. I have always DREAMED of seeing a show at Paisley Park … Mecca for Prince fans. I’ve been extremely jealous of the fans who live close enough to attend these performances. I hope that I will, one day, be able to see one of these shows … here’s hoping last night’s performance wasn’t the last Paisley Park show ever.

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US rock star Prince has decided to give two concerts Sunday at a landmark Paris building he visited and liked this week, the glass-and-iron Grand Palais exhibition hall, producers said Wednesday. Prince, who was already mulling a concert in Paris, on Tuesday attended Karl Lagerfeld’s Chanel catwalk show at the exhibition hall on the banks of the Seine and “liked the venue”, officials at the Grand Palais told AFP. Titled “All Day/All Night” the concerts are to be held at 5 p.m. (1500 GMT) and 10 p.m. (2000 GMT) with prices and booking details to be announced later. The rock star return to visit the spectacular glass and cast iron vaults of the Grand Palais hall on Wednesday with a production team and “is very enthusiastic about the concerts,” the source added. The Grand Palais can seat up to 6,000 people but the number of tickets available will depend on the format of the performance.

As you may recall, I was able to see Prince play 3 concerts in one night back in March but it sounds like these performances at the Grand Palais last night were really fantastic. It’s no secret at all that Prince is a stunning live performer, I’m certain that the folks who were able to attend his shows last night had themselves an amazing time. Judging by the setlist, they also got their money’s worth. After the jump check out the setlists for both of Prince’s shows at the Grand Palais and watch a short snippet video of Prince performing 1999 in Paris, France last night …

5PM — First Show:

Purple Rain

Here is a short vid of Prince performing 1999:

“The Montreux Jazz Festival is going to be a little bit more funky this year as a musical genius is planning on taking the stage not once, but twice. The one and only Prince WILL be performing 2 shows at Montreux this year and he is bringing a musically talented band with him. Playing with Prince at the legendary festival will be Rhonda Smith, Renato Neto, and John Blackwell. In his 31 years in music, Prince has won every award imaginable from a Grammy to an Oscar to one of the youngest inductees ever into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. He performed at the 2007 Super Bowl in the rain no less and still gave off the performance of a lifetime. In 2007, Prince gave a legendary performance at The Montreux Jazz Festival where tickets sold out in record time. So when ticket information and tickets become available this time, make sure to reserve your spot if you plan to attend.” Source: www.prince.org

Ticket prices:
Main floor :CHF 195.-
(indicative price : US$ 177.-, € 130.-)
Seated balcony : CHF 480.-
(indicative price US$ 430.-, € 320.-)

Having been able to see Prince perform 3 Shows in 1 Nite earlier this year, I can assure those of you who might be interested in attending Montreux this year that you will have an amazing time. Be there or be … very sorry you missed out.

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The first show was the one that was filled with the most Prince hits, which I’m sure delighted the mass Prince fan population that likes to attend his shows. I took my friend Johnny with me to the first show and we had a blast. Johnny had never seen Prince perform live before so I knew he was in for a treat. The tix I purchased for the first show were got thru the LOTUSFLOW3R.com website — natch, we got great pit tickets right in front of the stage. It was so much fun, I can’t even tell you. Johnny and I were having a great time … and when Sheila E. came out for the encore? Man, we lost our minds. So much fun!! Here are some of the cameraphone pics that I managed to take last night. I got some pics from the first show and the third show but none from the second, more intimate show. I didn’t want to risk gettin’ into trubs so I took no pics at the Conga Room:

I got to hang out with my friend Daniel and his friend Staci at the Conga Room and then David came out for the very late third show.

I’ve read a few fan reviews of the shows this morning and they are deffo mixed. I, personally, had a blast … seeing all 3 shows added up to one helluva master setlist for the night. After the jump, check out the full setlists for all three shows and check out a short cameraphone video I manged to sneak of the end of Purple Rain …

Here are the setlists for all 3 shows:

Show #1: NOKIA Theater – 7:40pm

The Beautiful Ones
Nothing Compares 2 U

I mean, Wow! When you consider all the songs that Prince played last night … it was truly a concert experience to remember. The only drawback of the night was all of the tech problems that Prince encountered all night long at all 3 venues. The sound didn’t get right at the first show until about 40 minutes in. The second show had some probs but nothing too noticeable. The sound at Club Nokia was just horrid the entire time. Prince even mentioned from the stage that the sound sucked. He gave the names of the AEG owners of the clubs and told the audience to complain to them directly. He even told a story about how he saw Alicia Keys play a show at Club Nokia previously and that show featured “the worst sound” he’s ever heard at a concert. Why he decided to play there is beyond me. If I have any complaint about any of the shows, absent the tech problems on the part of the venues, was that the last show featured too much of the other players and not enough of Prince. Trust me, I know his band players are superb musicians … but when keyboardist Renato Neto is playing solo for about 40% of the show (no lie), it’s a bit much. The last show for me felt like one of his famous late-night after concert jam session performances … which was fine for me since I got to see the other 2 shows beforehand. But audience members who only attended that show might’ve felt a bit cheated … like David, for example. The final set was full of songs he’d never heard of and he was bummed he missed the other songs that were played earlier in the night.

That said, tho, I had a blast. I have to give a shout out to Pink readers Cassie and Raj who I got to meet last night — it was my pleasure meeting you both.

Prince has never disappointed me in concert and last night was no exception. If I had to choose one of the shows as my fave, I’d pick Show #2 at the Conga Room. That show featured Prince, Sonny T. on bass and Michael B. on drums — and that was it. The NPG 3 were just hot. Empty Room was, for me, the best song of the night (which was played at the Conga Room show). There were a lot of highlights but that single song was the moment for me. I would absolutely do it again if he chooses to play multiple shows in one night again. I’m pretty sure he’ll just launch a regular ol’ tour instead … and I’ll be there, too!

Here’s a little treat … a short vid of the end guitar solo of Prince performing Purple Rain at the first show. It’s a bit grainy (and the poor sound is due to the limitations of the phone) cuz it was taken on a cell phone but you get the gist, I think:

I opted out of going inside for the taping so that I could get a prime spot in front of the stage for the performance. Prince did not disappoint … her performed the song Feel Better, Feel Good, Feel Wonderful from his new album LOTUSFLOW3R on the show and then performed 2 more songs after the cameras finished rolling. We also got to see him perform Crimson & Clover and Play That Funky Music. For Funky Music, he brought a male fan on stage to sing the vocal … and then hand him his guitar to strum on stage. Truly, that Prince fan got the thrill of a lifetime.

After the performance, I was able to meet up with Pink reader Melissa and her friend Lindsay as well as Mark and his wife Kelly:

Mark and Melissa were the lucky readers whose emails I picked at random to win the tickets. They were both so nice as were their guests … I really enjoyed meeting them all and I was thrilled that they were able to attend yesterday’s taping.

After all of that fun was over, I had to jet home to change so that I could meet up with my friend Mike for our Friendaversary date. Mike and I are celebrating our 2 year anniversary as friends this month so last night we did dinner and a movie. We decided to see I Love You, Man in order to honor our own bromance:

I Love You, Man is a great film. It’s funny and sweet and really funny … and really sweet. I loved the whole thing. There is a gay undercurrent in the film (in addition to the fact that Andy Samberg’s character is gay) that was treated respectfully I think. It’s films like this that prove that you can have fun with sexuality and not be offensive to anyone. I wholly endorse this film … Paul Rudd and Jason Segal are so great together. I’m bummed that David didn’t get to see it … I might have to take him to see it later on :)

Tonight is gonna be a big night. I’m seeing Prince perform at the Nokia Theater at 7pm and then at the Conga Room at 9:30pm and then at Club Nokia at midnight. My friend Johnny is joining me for the first show, I’ll be hangin’ with my friend Daniel for the second show and David will be attending the midnight show. I am so excited … so much Prince all at once … I can’t wait. I’ll do my best to have all the deets for y’all tomorrow … here’s hoping I don’t die in the process. I’ve never attended 3 concerts in one night before … hopefully I can hang. We’ll see …

… and then the unbelievable happened. At the end of his performance, Prince took off his guitar walked right over to Daniel and me and handed us his guitar! We were shocked, Daniel just froze, then we screamed and the crowd went wild:

I’m telling you, the fact that it happened at all was incredible … that it happened on national television is just insane. Daniel posted about the experience HERE on TMZ and news outlets all over the place have been rerunning the footage. Everyone wants to know if we got to keep the guitar … no we did not, it was just an incredible honor to be able to hold and touch the instrument. I was able to strum some of the strings … it was just insane!! Truly, one of the coolest concert moments of my life. After the jump, check out video of Prince performing Dreamer on The Tonight Show and make sure you watch to the very end …

You should be 21 and must be able to get yourself to the studio on your own. Bring photo ID as your name will be on a list. Check in is at 2:45pm PT

I have 2 sets of 2 tickets to giveaway, courtesy of LOTUSFLOW3R.com … all you have to do to enter is send me an emale at pinkisthenewblog@gmail.com with the subject line: Prince Tickets and I will randomly select two names to each receive a pair of tickets :) Voila! Much love to the folks at LOTUSFLOW3R.com for this great giveaway. Send in your emails, I’ll pick the winners by 6pm PT tonight. Good Luck!

I was very pleased to learn that they treated the fan club folks very well … we were seated right in front of the performance stage so we had a great view of Prince’s performance of the song Ol’ Skool Company from his new album MPLSoUND. The taping was pretty straightforward, they filmed everything in the hour that the show airs and we had a blast. I’m not a huge fan of attending TV show tapings but this one was really fun. I remember when I was younger, living in Detroit, and I wondered what it would like to be a part of a live studio audience. It’s a pretty neat experience … living in SoCal has a lot of fun rewards like this. This afternoon, my friend Daniel invited me to go back to the second of Prince’s appearances on The Tonight Show so I’ll be making my way back to Burbank in a few hours for the taping. Cell phones are big no-no inside the studio so I’ll tweet what I can, when I can for those of you interested.

I do have to give a shout-out to Pink reader Wesley who I got to meet at NBC yesterday … it was my pleasure and a nice surprise to meet her :)

Also, I might be able to offer some tickets for YOU to attend tomorrow’s taping of The Tonight Show for Prince’s third and final appearance on the show. I don’t have the info yet but I’ll be updating THIS POST with the deets should tix become available for me to give away. Stay tuned!!

UPDATE! Okay, if YOU live in Southern California and YOU can get yourself to the NBC Studios at 3000 W. Alameda in Burbank, CA tomorrow afternoon by 2:45pm PT then you have a chance to attend the taping of The Tonight Show where Prince will perform the third of his 3 dates on the show. Tomorrow’s performance will be extra special as he will be performing on the outdoor stage. Here are the requirements to enter for the tickets:

You should be 21 and must be able to get yourself to the studio on your own. Bring photo ID as your name will be on a list. Check in is at 2:45pm PT

I have 2 sets of 2 tickets to giveaway, courtesy of LOTUSFLOW3R.com … all you have to do to enter is send me an email at pinkisthenewblog@gmail.com with the subject line: Prince Tickets and I will randomly select two names to each receive a pair of tickets :) Voila! Much love to the folks at LOTUSFLOW3R.com for this great giveaway. Send in your emails, I’ll pick the winners by 6pm PT tonight. Good Luck!

Trust me, I realize that paying $77 for access to a website is not easy for everyone but this is the way that Prince has been running his official websites for years now. It wasn’t that long ago that fans who paid a membership fee were given access to NPGmusicclub.com which was his last venture to disseminate music to his fans (and is no longer available online). In addition to all the music and video that is available on the site, members were also given the opportunity to purchase tickets for his three concerts this coming Saturday night and were also afforded free tickets to the Tonight Show tapings that he is doing all week long. That is how I got my tickets to attend tonight’s taping. While not everyone may be able or interested in participating with Prince’s site in this way, I am happy to do so. I’ve been a fan of the man’s work for far too long and I have learned that this sort of access to premium content and first dibs at concert tickets is well worth the price of admission. Should news or important information be released on the site, I’ll do my best to pass along the info. I’ve been jamming to the three albums all morning long as I plan for my 5 upcoming Prince shows this week … thus far, I’m very pleased with my membership.

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I posted tweet updates on my Twitter profile for every song on every album just to give y’all a taste. Overall, I really liked Bria Valente’s album … her songs reminded me a lot of Prince’s work with Nona Gaye in the late 90’s. Altho Prince’s religious conversion has hindered his ability to get too sexy with his collaborators, you can still hear the soul of Prince’s best work from the 80’s across all three albums. His guitar work is still in top form, these albums will sound amazing when performed live. Personally, if I had to pick a fave, I think MPLSoUND is my fave — there are a lot of funky tracks on that disc. I cannot wait for all y’all to hear the tracks for yourselves. Click HERE to read the tweet updates that I posted yesterday of my initial thoughts on the music. As some of you may know, Prince will be performing for 3 nights in a row on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno this week. My very good friend and fellow Prince fan Daniel has invited me to attend the Thursday taping with him. Additionally, I will be attending Prince’s 3 concerts in a row (at the Nokia Theatre, the Conga Room and Club Nokia) this coming Saturday night here in LA. I’m so excited :) I missed out on the ticket sales on Sunday (cuz I was preoccupied with travel) but I managed to get tix to all three shows on eBay. The tix were a bit more expensive than face value but having seen Prince in concert before, I know he is totally worth the money.

I have to give a big shout-out to my boy Zack from Michigan who I got to meet at SxSW this past weekend:

He works with the Javelins back home in Detroit and it was my pleasure to meet him :)

Tonight, David and I have a pretty cool thing to go to … but I don’t want to talk about it until it actually happens. Tho, I will prolly be updating my Twitter all night long ;)