Last Friday morning, a friend and I kicked around the idea of driving up to Minneapolis from my home in Enid, OK. That is roughly a 12 hour drive. For a weekend trip, that is an intimidating amount of driving — but we weren’t just going on a trip — we were going to see none other than Prince, live at his Paisley Park complex.

People who know me know that I am quite literally obsessed with Prince. This report will probably show more “fanboyisms” than should be allowed, but I am writing this more as a huge, huge fan than a critic. Regardless, here is my weekend story, complete with a concert review:

Starting on Friday morning, I called my friend and asked if she’d be interested in going to Minneapolis to see Prince. The sentence itself sounds ridiculous… just a few days before we had decided to watch one of his music video DVDs Friday night and here we were deciding to drive 14 hours to see him live.  Eventually, I bought two tickets at the magical “Prince” price, $31.21.  No fees, no nothing — just cheap tickets for what we were hoping was going to be an amazing show.

I’ll spare you the details of the ludicrous drive to Minneapolis, but roughly 800 miles later, we arrived in the city around 1:00PM Saturday afternoon. We quickly made our way to Paisley Park, we wanted to drive by and see what it looked like — and as we did we saw a few other Prince fans taking pictures. We went to our hotel and decided to crash for a bit — the show was rumored to start around 11:00PM so we wanted to get a few hours of sleep before making our way to Paisley Park.

Eventually we began to get ready and make our way to the SW Metro Transit station — we had been directed to park here and told that there would be shuttles to take us to Paisley Park. The idea worked amazingly well — Prince paid the shuttle bus companies to take us there and back the whole idea moved way smoother than most had anticipated. We sat on the bus and waited for it to slowly fill up before the driver started on the several mile-long journey to the Paisley Park complex.

It is hard to explain what Paisley Park is — it used to be Prince’s residence, it also contains a huge soundstage (where our concert would eventually take place), recording studios and more. We arrived via the shuttle bus and began making our way to the gates at Paisley Park. We had been instructed not to bring ANY recording devices, so my friend and I left both our cameras and our cell phones in my car. We were going to have to take thousands of mental pictures — and eventually we would, but when we first got there we went to the “VIP” line, which was for members of Prince’s “LotusFlow3r” fanclub, and got our bright orange wristbands. We arrived at roughly 8:00PM and word in the several hundred deep line mentioned that the show should actually start on time, although apparently Prince is notorious for never making it on stage on time.

We didn’t care… this entire weekend was so ridiculous that we were more than willing to wait for however long it took in the 40-degree, slightly drizzle-y Minneapolis weather. We met several other huge Prince fans while waiting in the separate LotusFlow3r entrance, and after a few hours the doors opened and the fanclub members were let in first. We checked my friend’s coat and I bought a “3121” tamborine from the incredibly subdued “merch” table and then we finally made our way into the soundstage area — three rows back from the front. Essentially, even though just two days before I had been planning on watching a Prince DVD, I was now standing in the third row, slightly right of center, at a Prince concert; A concert at Paisley Park, no less.

We waited for another hour or so before the room had really filled itself up, and after the DJ spun quite a few Prince tracks, the lights finally dimmed and the band walked out one by one. Tonight, Prince’s band consisted of husband and wife Josh Dunham on bass and Cora “CC” Dunham on drums, keyboardist Morris Hayes, and three backup singers, including Shelby J and Elisa.

And then it happened. The man himself, Prince — walked out onto the stage, awash in purple lighting and his instantly-recognizable yellow Hohner guitar. He was wearing a black silk tunic with fringe on the back, a giant gold necklace and black leggings. Over the leggings were the items that kept me laughing all night — essentially he was wearing fuzzy Ugg boots with light up heels. It looked like the man was wearing LA Gear sneakers from the 90s — but regardless, before I could make too much fun of him — the band quickly busted into a searing version of a track from one of Prince’s latest albums, called “No More Candy 4 U.” The track sounds so much more fierce live than it does on the studio version, but Prince actually used the track as a bit of a soundcheck, stopping and starting the song twice before finally settling in on the audio adjustments and delivering a blistering solo towards the end of the track.

He teased the crowd next, playing the first few chords to “Purple Rain” and then busting out another track from “MPLSOUND,” a disc off of his “LotusFlow3r” project — called “Ol’ Skool Company.” Another track which translated amazingly well live — all too soon Prince was calling out the crowd and stating how excited he was to be back in Minneapolis.

A fairly standard cover of “Stand!” by Sly & The Family Stone was next, a taste of things that would come later in the night. “Turn Me Loose” was next, but one of the most memorable moments, a touching cover of the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” came after. Prince has finally been mentioning Michael Jackson and would eventually list the Jackson 5, along with Larry Graham, Rufus, Chaka Khan, Santana, Joni Mitchell, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Miles Davis and Tower of Power; stating that without the aforementioned, he would not be who he was today. It was nice to hear him list his influences and the fans ate it up.

As things progressed, Prince asked the crowd if they wanted to hear new or old stuff — my section of the crowd yelled old, the other side yelled new, not that it mattered — when Prince busted out “Dance 4 Me,” also from “MPLSOUND,” the crowd went crazy. The track sounds so “funky” live that it is quickly becoming one of my favorite tracks. Prince played the hell out of it and all too soon it was over.

Then some of the most recognizable words in a Prince song rang out from the speakers — “Don’t worry… I won’t hurt U, I only want U 2 have some fun” — and just like that, Prince was knee-deep in the best version of “1999” I’ve ever heard. It was about “1999” when I finally realized what the hell was going on and where I was — third row at a fucking Prince concert!!

The setlist went on, hit after hit. “Controversy” was one of the top performances of the night — it is one of my favorite Prince tracks and always sounds amazing live. Prince played a string of 80s material, a few from the 70s, nothing from the 90s, and quite a few post-2000 tracks.

Other highlights included the searing version of “Guitar” that melded perfectly with “Anotherloverholeinyohead” from 1986’s “Parade”. “Anotherlover” was blended in with a solo that borrowed heavily from The B-52’s “Rock Lobster” and then Prince busted into a largely unexpected rock version of “Raspberry Beret”. After this he walked off stage and let his backup singer Shelby J. show off her pipes with a cover of Sarah McLachlan’s “Angel”.

After this the loop from “Forever In Your Life” began. It ran for several minutes before Prince finally took back to the stage, telling the house crew to turn up the loop and turn down the lights. Prince issued commands from the stage all night, effectively directing the sound and producing his own live show. Regardless, “Forever In Your Life” quickly turned into a 10-minute long country-tinged track that had everyone in the crowd in awe. After a ridiculous solo, the drum sample from “Mountains” began and the crowd went crazy.

“Mountains” seamlessly blended with The Jacksons’ “Shake Your Body,” which also had the crowd going nuts. It was at this point that Prince called out Sly & The Family Stone member Larry Graham and welcomed him to the stage.

Prince fans know that this means a medley of Sly & The Family Stone tracks is coming — and Larry and Prince powered through a 30-minute segment full of ridiculous funk bass playing and Prince playing with someone who has genuinely shaped not only his career but his life. (Larry Graham helped introduce Prince to the Jehovah’s Witnesses.) I didn’t go crazy for the segment but some in the crowd did — regardless, Prince seemed incredibly happy to be playing with Mr. Graham.

I did enjoy some parts of the segment, namely “Everyday People” and “Thank You (Falentinmebemiceelfagin)”. Larry is great as a bass player but rather odd as a vocalist; him and Prince traded off lines during the set and every time Larry sang he got a super-intense look in his eyes… it was actually pretty creepy. At some point during the set though, Prince exclaimed that he was “too funky to sleep with himself,” which will go down on my list of favorite Prince one-liners.

Regardless, eventually it was time for Larry to leave the stage but not before playing background bass for an intense cover of Wild Cherry’s “Play That Funky Music”. Prince called out people to come dance on stage during the track — including two clueless white girls who Prince kept making fun of. One of them looked possessed but it was easy to see that Prince enjoyed the dancers and I’m sure they enjoyed being up on the stage as well. Prince’s facial expressions, directed at the two white girls, made this one of the funniest moments of the night.

Prince and the band left the stage in preparations for an encore — leading off with a short version of “Uptown”. Prince stated that he didn’t want to play the track anymore and then announced that he was ready to “work.” Just like that, “Let’s Work” started and set the crowd on fire. And as if an attempt to cool them down, his take on The Time’s “Cool” (which Prince actually wrote) did nothing but fire up the crowd even more.

As if things couldn’t get any more hectic, Prince broke out into a ridiculously funky version of “Kiss,” announcing every time he was going to break into a solo. This version was much better than the “funky” version he’s been playing live lately…this was a particularly well-done version of the old “Extended” mix of “Kiss”. Truly amazing.

What happened next, however, was one of the best moments of the weekend for me — Prince came out on the stage alone, and performed a solo version of “Sometimes It Snows In April” from the Parade album. Prince played the track with more soul and emotion than I have ever heard and it really was a spectacular moment in an already outstanding concert.

Prince then playfully announced that the band was going to play another ballad, and busted into “The Bird”, another track he wrote for The Time back in the 80s. It was amazingly well done and blended in great with another track by The Time, “Jungle Love”. This little Time medley was one of my favorite moments of the evening, especially with Prince’s backing singers dancing along with the two tracks.

Continuing with his run of covering songs he wrote for other artists, to end his first encore he played a rousing version of “The Glamorous Life,” a track he wrote for Sheila E. back in 1984. While I love the Sheila E. version, hearing Prince truly took the song back and made it is own.

The band once again walked off stage, leaving the crowd yelling for more. And more is what they got — with a blistering version of “Purple Rain” to end the night. While its never been my favorite song, it is so uniquely Prince that the show couldn’t have been closed with anything else. The solo was so amazingly well played that the crowd remained silent, staring in awe. By the time the song was over, no one left the soundstage area unsatisfied.

And just like that, Prince was gone. We were ushered back to the shuttles and taken back to our cars. That was that, my Prince concert experience was over. It was my first Prince show and it will be the bar that all future concert experiences are judged by. It was a perfect show, truly amazing. This may have been “the last jam of 2009,” but if I were you — I’d be sure to be at the first one of 2010!

Setlist:

Intro
No More Candy 4 U
Purple Rain intro / Old Skool Company / Also Sprach Zarathustra
Stand !
Turn Me Loose
I Want You Back
Dance 4 Me
1999
I Feel For You
Controversy
Sexy Dancer – Le Freak
Northside
Housequake
Controversy
Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad ?
Take Me With U
Anotherloverholenyohead / Rock Lobster
Guitar
Raspberry Beret
Angel
Forever In My Life
Everyday People / I Want To Take You Higher
Sing A Simple Song
Dancing Machine
Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again)
Mountains
Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground)
Long Train Runnin’
Play That Funky Music
Uptown
Let’s Work
Cool
Kiss
Sometimes It Snows In April
The Bird
Jungle Love
The Glamorous Life
Purple Rain

While we don’t have any pictures from the show, here are some pictures of our trip to the Hard Rock Minneapolis and the legendary First Avenue.