Klavs.net - Prince - Forum, Copenhagen - Denmark - Live - 2010-10-20 [concert review] [Rating: 5/6]

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Prince - Forum, Copenhagen - Denmark - Live - 2010-10-20

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2010-10-26 20:35:37

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concert review

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Prince - Forum, Copenhagen - Denmark - Live - 2010-10-20 (concert review)

We have certainly had our fair share of Prince concerts in Denmark this year. First we had the pleasure of Prince closing the Roskilde Festival 2010 in July and then he came back to play both Copenhagen and Herning's MCH in October. Needless to say I had to get tickets for both gigs and after quite some struggle we managed to get inner-circle tickets for both gigs.

It was with great joy I learned that Sheila E. was joining again on percussion and John Blackwell certainly is a major force behind the drums as well. But that was not all, Prince had even added a new danish bassplayer known as Ida Funkhouser so we were more than a little bit excited to hear what it all would sound like.

It turned out the NPG sounded funky as hell which was hardly a surprise. Prince was on fire and he was in a fantastic mood and very much determined to have a kick ass party. We have to admit that our minds were more than a little bit focused on the rumoured aftershow later. Where had it been planned and would it even happen? Shortly into the gig we learned that it was going to take place at Amager Bio (a smaller venue in Copenhagen).

A highlight was when Prince started funking his bass and then called Ida to the front of the rightside of the stage and they started a slapping bass duel. It was awesome. He even threw his bass into the crowd (it was later collected again by a technician) and he jokingly pretended to try to throw Ida into the crowd as well. Ida got a very warm and deserved welcome by the Copenhagen crowd, she is funky! During the Forum gig Sheila E. got to sing The Glamorous Life and also A Love Bizarre with Prince. At Forum they had even turned on her microphone, something they hadn't quite managed at Roskilde.

Other great stuff was the Future Soul Song from the 2010 album 20TEN. Great to hear that he still plays new stuff even if most of the audience don't even know it. The old The Time song Cool worked excellent with a great crowd interaction. The choir medley that was way too long and way too gospel-like at Roskilde was better at Forum and Love ... Thy Will Be Done is a nice song and sounded great. Shhh was awesome due to John Blackwells fantastic drumming and If I Was Your Girlfriend was a very welcome song in the setlist.

When they finally turned on the houselights after the main set and several encores and even started to tear down the stage we ran like hell to the car to get to Amager Bio and freeze our asses off in a queue for 2.5 hours. We wouldn't risk missing the aftershow for anything in the world. We later learned that Prince was not in a mood to stop at Forum. He came out again and played a final encore with all the lights on when half of the audience had already left the building. He is a little joker! Good thing is that we got all the songs from that last encore at Herning 2 days later, so technically we didn't entirely miss it...

All in all it was a really great gig. I will however only award it a 5/6 rating due to Forum's awful sound. It sounds like a concrete bunker, and even if Prince and the NPG did everything they possibly could, it can't be denied that a lot of the time the sound was not particularly good. It's a big shame we don't have a large quality rock venue in Copenhagen.

My photos

Line-up:
Prince - whatever
Sheila E. - percussion
John Blackwell - drums
Renato Neto - keyboards
Morris Hayes - keyboards
Cassandra O'Neal - keyboards
Ida Nielsen - bass
Shelby J. - vox
Liv Warfield - vox
Elisa Deane Fiorillo - vox

Setlist:
Intro (Renato), Future Soul Song, Uptown, Raspberry Beret, Cream, Cool [The Time], Let’s Work, U Got The Look, Bridge Over Troubled Water / Pearls B4 Swine / Love ... Thy Will Be Done (medley), Purple Rain, Controversy, Housequake, Let’s Go Crazy, Delirious, 1999, Shhh, A Love Bizarre [Sheila E], Bass duel (Prince vs. Ida), Sexy Dancer vs Le Freak [Chic], If I Was Your Girlfriend, Kiss, Sometimes It Snows In April, The Glamorous Life [Sheila E], Peach, Dreamer (aborted), Dance (Disco Heat), Baby, I’m A Star.