Prince couldn’t have chosen a better day to visit Stockholm. Tonight was one of the most beautiful summernights and the place was packed on this outdoorstage by the waters at the Stockholm music and arts festival. And sure enough, anticipation was in the air. After all, it’s been 11 long years since his last visit. The show is one hour late when suddenly, purple confettia are thrown out on the audience as 3rdEyeGirl takes their place on stage. Right after, Prince walks out on the stage looking like a mixture of Sly Stone and Jimi Hendrix with a fringed jacket and a funky hat. « Let’s Go Crazy Reloaded », the opening song, sets the tone for the whole evening : It’s just Prince and his three ladies on stage performing a furious rock’n’roll show with such energy as if there was no tomorrow.
Prince doesn’t take it the easy way out all the time though : Many of the songs are not exactly the most well-known songs to the majority of the audience. For instance, the fourth song of the set is a loose version of Billy Cobham‘s « Stratus » and right after that, a new instrumental jam called « Spectrum electrum »
It’s not exactly the audience-friendly setlist as 2011 show at the Way Out West festival in Gothenburg. This time around, Prince is treating us with something different and he seems to love every minute of it. He seems genually happy to be on stage tonight and it’s pretty amazing how he still sounds hungry and so energetic after all these years. With no keyboards, horns of backing vocalists to lean against, Prince is also forced to be all the time under the spotlight, which brings out the greatest performance. His backing band featuring Donna Grantis on guitar, Ida Nielsen on bass and Hannah Ford on drums also proved themselves worthy as they interacted musically with a joy and passion equal to the purple master. After a couple of songs in the harder guitar-driven pace, the truly magical glimpse of his genious is shown as he sits down by the piano under the purple spotlight, belting down classics like « The Beautiful Ones », « Diamonds and Pearls » and a truly magical version of « Something in the Water ».
The rest of the night is one big party with Prince and his sampler as DJ Prince. The bass was so heavy that the speakers nearly broke down ! Encore after encore followed with hits like « U got the Look », « Take Me With U » and « Raspberry Beret ». « Oooh Stockholm !!! », shouted Prince out to his crowd as he bowed and said thank you. We thank you right back for a magical evening in the presence of one of the true musical geniuses of our time.
Magnus Goethe (www.theneonromeoz.com/)
Setlist :
- Let’s Go Crazy
- Endorphinemachine
- Screwdriver
- Stratus
- The Love We Make
- I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man
- Guitar
- Plectrum Electrum
- Fixurlifeup
- I like it There
- The Breakdown
- Piano medley: Diamonds & Pearls/ The Beautiful Ones/ Something in the Water (Does Not Compute)
- Purple Rain
- She’s Always in my Hair
- Bambi
- Cause & effect
- Nothing Compares 2 U
- The Max
- Sampler Set: When Doves Cry/ Hot Thing/ Housequake/ I Would die 4 U/Alphabet St/Sign o’ the Times
- Take Me With U
- Raspberry Beret
- U Got the Look
- Dreamer
