Bloomington 15 September 1988

 

I have listened to a lot of 1988 concerts for the European leg of the Lovesexy tour, and several after shows from the US leg of the same tour. What I haven’t listened to a lot are the main shows of the US tour. To right this wrong today I will be dipping my toe into the Minneapolis concert from September 15th 1988, a concert that is well worth visiting as it features guest appearances from George Clinton, Lisa Coleman, Susannah and Wendy Melvoin, as well as The Sounds Of Blackness. I can only hope it sounds as good as it looks on paper. I was wondering why I haven’t heard more of this, and it seems that as a poor audience recording it has sat neglected in my collection for some time, but in the last couple of years some new recordings have appeared, and although they too are audience recordings (and everything that comes with that) they are an improvement. Prince playing to his home crowd with one of his greatest concert tours, and some fantastic guests, there’s no way I could not like this.

15th September 1988, Met Centre, Bloomington, MN

The opening drum sound comes like a heartbeat through the audience noise, and although someone is clapping loudly near the microphone it matters little as the music comes loud and proud, rolling and crashing over the frenzied crowd sound in the opening minutes. The funk settles in early, the bass of “Erotic City” tying down the bottom end of the recording and temporarily overriding the cheers of excitement. For the rest of the song, there is a battle between the music and the crowd noise, each one taking a turn to dominate before Prince’s vocals emerge, one final scream from the crowd with his first line, before it subsides and the song can be heard. “Erotic City” delivers no surprises, but it doesn’t have to as we can safely consider it one of Prince’s untouchable classics, and the rest of the performance delivers all that I want to hear.

The concert begins to accelerate with the punchy beat of “Housequake” bringing further frenzy to the crowd. The song does sound as lean and mean as the previous “Erotic City,” but again Prince ticks all the boxes of what we would expect from the song as it sways back and forth like a boxer before landing its own heavy blows of funk and some dirty horn lines that suggest the song has a wayward past.

 

There is exotic reliability about “It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night,” and this is no exception as its pulsating beginning turns into a thrilling ride of spontaneity and revving thrusts. The “Holly rock” chant lifts the curtain on a series of changes from the band as they crunch through several 1980s hooks and lead lines before turning the stage into a churning inferno of sound. The song never settles from this injection of brimming pop, the rest of the song moving and twisting with its own energy and personality for the next few minutes. The horns add to this sense of constant irritability as they loom and clatter over the song before they finally drive it into the softer “Slow Love”

“Slow Love” is the Trojan horse that ushers in much shorter and sharper songs, Prince using it to springboard into a medley of tunes. The chorus of “Slow Love” evaporates into a plush sounding “Adore,” the band and Prince coming together to build an intimacy that belies the size of the venue. There is no time to dwell though as Prince puts his foot to the floor for a headlong rush through “Delirious,” “Jack U Off,” and “Sister,” each song trying to outdo the other as they accelerate faster and faster in a collision of sound and focused fury.

Things ease back with the coda of “Adore,” but this is merely a brief comedown before we wallow further in Prince’s back catalog with a slice of pure 1979 pop in the form of “I Wanna Be Your Lover,” a song that in this context only serves to highlight how far Prince had come in the nine years since it’s release and this concert, the complexity and scope of his current music light-years beyond the purity and innocence of the “I Wanna Be Your Lover” hook. It brims with vitality, the concert soaring on its wings and it sounds good on the recording, all things considered. The building blocks of the song lift us higher and higher, each slab of pop elevating us further until things come to a head and we drop into the abyss which is “Head.”

Prince scratches at the song, slowly scraping it back to reveal its pure funk heart, a revelation that makes all the more sense with the appearance of George Clinton who brings his own “Knee Deep” to the party after Dr. Finks solo, immediately marking this concert as something special. The band is a great match for this song, and it is colored by the sound that Prince was peddling at the time. It is all undercut by George Clinton himself who extols the crowd to “get off your ass” in his chocolate deep tones. It’s playful, and undeniably funky as George and Prince tear the roof off the sucker, dropping and swapping lines from Georges's own immeasurable catalog. It exceeds expectations, and even on the audience recording one can hear the funk crawling across the stage and through the sound system

 

Anything after this would be a letdown, and “Blues In C (If I Had A Harem)” starts brightly before slowing to a crawl that undoes the previous few minutes. It is likable and fun, but almost puppy-like in its need to be loved in comparison to the rabid fierceness of the previous song. Prince’s vocals drift easily, and it is the band and music that demand all the attention, the horns off-setting the lower sway of the band with their own airy tangles of freewheeling brass.

The sudden arrival of “When You Were Mine” propels the concert forward again, the sudden thrust and pull jerking throwing the song forward and face-first into a wall of synth and the welcoming breast of “Little Red Corvette.” There isn’t enough of “Little Red Corvette” to properly draw us into Prince’s story, a mere verse, chorus, and guitar solo hitting all the highlights of the song without the need for us to dig further.

There is a further rush with “Controversy” coming at the same breakneck speed of most of these earlier songs, and the quick segue into “Dirty Mind” There is enough to appreciate of the song, but those that want to see the back catalog treated with respect would be better off looking elsewhere.

“Superfunkycalifragisexy” serves as a great introduction to “Bob George,” it brings a sense of menace and drama to the concert before Prince tips us right over the edge with his vivid and expressive performance during “Bob George” It is again well presented on the recording, and I am constantly forgetting this is an audience recording as Prince snares me in his world.

 

The raw piano sound of “Anna Stesia,” sounds with mournful loneliness before Prince’s vocals start us on a journey towards redemption. The song ceases to exist as Prince channels it into his mood, atmospheres are created beneath the music the band is playing and a new world is revealed through music. In concert one could see how this would be an almost religious experience, something Prince makes clear in his final speech, and even on the recording, we can hear the spiritual mountain Prince is climbing.

“Cross The Line,” sounds like 1988 in a brief two-minute package, before the second half of the show kicks off with an urgent and energized “Eye Know.” The concert is reborn beneath its rhythms and shining horn lines, the darkness of the finals songs of the first half banished with its gleaming positivity. The horns are an integral part of everything that has gone on thus far, and here is no different as they continue to ribbon and stream out across the music.

The rhythms and collision of sounds continue through “Lovesexy,” music that defies genre and can be asserted uniquely, Prince. The song revolves around the colorful drum sound and an unending supply of horn lines, although later in the song the bass rises up – keeping the song on an even keel and moving forward, least it get caught up in its own web of musicality.

I have always been disappointed by “Glam Slam” in concert, a song that was deemed good enough to be released as a single, in concert it is short-changed and presented as an abridged version, most of the intricacy of the song stripped in favor of a chorus and a chance to leap forward.

 

The reverence with which “The Cross” is delivered is only heightened by the spiritual aspects of the Lovesexy concerts, the song now standing shoulder to shoulder with songs drawn from a similar spiritual palette. The crowd is present with us through the song, one can’t fault them for being part of the moment, but as the musical storm intensifies they are washed away by wave after wave of sermon and righteous guitar work. It is all delivered at a furious pace, there is no room to doubt the message Prince is delivering as the song and its message floods the headphones.

There is a simplicity to “I Wish U Heaven,” which endears it to me after the sonic assault of “The Cross.” However, it carries its sting as Prince is joined onstage by The Sounds Of Blackness, a fantastic moment as Prince introduces the choir for “I Wish U Heaven (part 2)” His guitar stabbing in the darkness punctures some of the depth of the moment, the choir temporarily stepping back on the sound of the bootleg while Prince carves his own space. A hoarse rasp from Prince brings “God Is Alive” into the arena, the concert becoming his pulpit to deliver his spiritual message. Anyone else and I would say it is all too much, but this is an integral part of the show, and indeed an integral part of Prince the man, and it is one of the most fascinating and scintillating parts of the concert. Along with “The Cross,” “I Wish U Heaven” is the bedrock upon which the concert is founded.

“Kiss” is the odd man out at this concert, it doesn’t fit with his Lovesexy material, and even against his older material, it sounds jarring in its uniqueness. There is no denying the intent of the delivery, or the quality of the song, but it does sound like nothing else that is heard at this concert.

 

Prince returns to his Lovesexy material one final time for a brief “Dance On,” a song that sounds far more stripped back than the previous “Kiss.” It is little more than an opportunity for Sheila E. to give us one of her famous solos, although listening to it on this bootleg I think I would rather see it than listen to it, and her wanderings around the drum kit leave me a little cold.

The concert comes back into focus with a pointed rendition of “Let’s Go Crazy.” The crowd obviously loves it, especially the person clapping near the microphone, and Prince does serve up some tasty guitar work later in the song that belies its otherwise overly simple call and response. I am never excited by “Let’s Go Crazy” through the Sign O The Times and Lovesexy tours, but there are enough enjoyable moments here for it to earn its place in the setlist.

Like so many other songs, “When Doves Cry” is stripped of most of its length, Prince giving us the hits package – the hook, a verse and chorus, and the singalong. As with the previous “Let’s Go Crazy,” I find there is just enough there for me to enjoy, and I am glad to see it on the setlist.

 

We have one final special moment in “Purple Rain,” as Prince is joined by Wendy, Susannah, and Lisa, a moment that is preempted by an audience member screaming “Wendy!” Prince is gracious with his introduction, and the song lingers in the opening as the audience adds their voice to the song. The song doesn’t need any extra emotional weight added, it carries enough of its own, but it does take on this history and sense of moment unfolding on stage and lifts it along with its own baggage. Prince’s guitar break releases some of this emotion, the guitar channeling all the thoughts and feelings of the crowd and spinning them into golden shafts of guitar work. It is a heady moment, and the bootleg is a great record of it, capturing all we need to hear from this brief concert reunion.

After such highs, “1999” can only disappoint. To its credit, it does punch above its weight, and the energy on stage continues to carry the audience through the song. However, my mind continues to drift back to “Purple Rain,” and even as the audience continues with their “party” chant I am still stuck in the previous moment. It does end the concert on a high and serves as a better finish than “Purple Rain” would have been, leaving us with a song on our lips and hope in our hearts.

 

As a bootleg this is good, but as a concert it is exceptional. The appearance of George Clinton adds to Prince’s funk credentials, and the appearance of Wendy, Susannah, and Lisa gives the concert a real human heart that is sometimes lost at other concerts with Prince’s heavy spirituality dominating. This concert is a gem and sadly overlooked in my collection. Today has been a revelation, and I will certainly include it in my pile of concerts to listen to regularly. Not a great bootleg for those that dislike audience recordings, but for anyone else it is a must-listen.