Last week I listened to Prince playing in a trio and I enjoyed it so much I needed to hear more, so this week I am going with a recording of the so-called New Power Trio playing at the Conga room in 2009. There are similarities between this show and the one I listened to last week, although I know with Sonny T and Michael B this one is going to hit a lot harder. Looking at I’m Yours on the setlist immediately gets my attention and I see a couple of other songs there that I am very interested to hear. This recording has me enthused, so let us take a listen.
**Please note – the images here are from the performance on The Tonight Show, a couple of days earlier on the 26th March 2009.
28th March 2009 The Conga Room, Los Angeles
The recording opens in a very interesting way, the first five minutes is Prince setting up the sound and speaking. I love these little peeps behind the scenes, and it gives it a more intimate feel as if you are right there with the band. I particularly like that there is a real human element to it, and Prince is gently playful as he asks who is smoking the funny cigarettes before asking for a fan. He sounds light-hearted as he politely asks them not to smoke, he’s firm but you can hear the smile on his face. The tone is set, and he continues in this vein as he talks about Sonny T when he was a teenager. I could easily sit listening to this stage patter for longer, but when “I’m Yours” begins all this lightness is washed away and forgotten as they play a storming version of the song. I rate this opening song very highly, I don’t know the last time I listened to “I’m Yours,” it would have been many years ago, and if I hadn’t read the cover I would have struggled to recognize it. The band sounds great with a nice powerful sound to all of them, especially Prince’s vocals which are very strong and loud. The rocker inside of me loves this stuff, and the crunching guitar and drums hit all my sweet spots. In the last half of the song Prince solos, and what I like about this is he doesn’t take over the song, he sounds powerful, but the band matches him and creates a great old racket.
“Colonized Mind” is a song of the period, and it slots easily into the set. It’s much stronger than on the album, something that can be said about a great many of Prince’s songs, and its vocals that I am drawn to much more than the guitar. It’s not so much the lyrics that I like, it’s Prince’s passionate delivery. The guitar snakes in and out, and although Prince is playing furiously he is playing with a lot of emotion in the guitar. The recording is a good audience recording, but I do wonder if it’s a little unbalanced, as Prince's vocals sound a lot louder than everything else. Not that I’m complaining, the music is loud and strong and Prince needs to be loud to be heard. The song itself is slightly faster than on the album to my ears, but I find that is often the case in the live setting.
This band owns “Chaos And Disorder.” They tear into it with great gusto, and even with the music sounding energetic Prince still manages to sound relaxed, even when he is delivering his lines quickly. They make it sound too easy, which I guess is the trick, although it’s no trick –rather the result of hours upon hours of practice. The guitar break is suitable fierce, although I would have liked it to be louder and more in my face.
This was my first time hearing Prince cover “With A Little Help From My Friends.” I was very impressed at how he took it and changed the style to make it something different. He doesn’t give it a big vocal push like Joe Cocker, nor does he make it throw away like Ringo. Instead, he pitches it differently again, giving it a lighter feel and he sings it rather than belting it out. The guitars come up in the chorus, and they complement the singing well, filling in the gaps and giving it an extra push. The solos work very well in the context of the song, and I enjoy them a lot. This song was a great surprise, I am very happy that we have such a good recording of it.
There is a nice pause in the action as Prince takes time to tell a story about Michael B. For the first time in the show I notice how much audience chat there is, and it gets better as someone calls out for “I Like It There.” Prince asks him “What you wanna hear” as he calls out again. Prince obliges and begins to play and you can hear the guy shout “thank you, Prince, oh yeeeaaaah, oh my God!” I love that unbridled enthusiasm from that guy, I only wish I could have seen his face, I know I would react in the same way. The rest of the song is rocking with plenty of singing from the crowd and some tidy guitar work from Prince (OK, that’s a slight understatement) I was getting more and more excited and turning it up louder and louder, as Prince branches out further in his solos later in the song. Whoa, this concert is good, I don’t know why I don’t listen to it every day.
The band follows this with a rendition of “All Shook Up” which is played with a nice crunch. Prince calls that it’s time for audience participation, which is normally a sign that it’s not going to be a great listen here at home. I am pleasantly surprised earlier in the song when Prince strongly delivers his lines and matches them with some bold guitar work. Even as he starts the crowd clapping some raw guitar riffs demand that I listen to them. Even when the crowd starts to sing on Prince’s command, I still stick with it. Normally I skip over “I’m All Shook Up,” but this one is pretty good.
This is a great setlist and that is exemplified by the appearance of “Empty Room” next. It starts suitably slow and emotional, and when Michael B and Sonny T join the fray it kicks up a notch, in fact, several notches. The recording isn’t perfect by any means, and as I listen closely to this brilliant song I can hear its limitations. However, that doesn’t detract for an instant from the brilliance of the performance of this song. Prince delivers impassioned vocals and then matches them with equally emotive guitar. I think is the secret to Prince and what I listen for most – the soul and passion that he injects into his guitar. I have listened to a lot of playing over the years, but I have never heard anyone who was able to get as much emotion out of a guitar as Prince.
“Peach” is obligatory for a show like this, and the band plays it with great gusto. It is only a few minutes, but they sure do manage to cram a lot in there. Princes tears through his vocals the proceeds to tear it up on the guitar. I wouldn’t call it spectacular, but it is definitely rock n roll. They could have milked this one for much more, but there are still plenty more good things to come.
I’m not a great fan of Prince doing Jimi Hendrix covers. “Spanish Castle Magic” is very good, don’t get me wrong, maybe it’s just that Jimi did everything so well in his own way, that it’s hard for even someone of Prince's stature (figuratively) to match up. Hendrix is uniquely Hendrix and as much as I enjoy Princes playing, I would rather hear the Hendrix version. The band is ripping it up on the recording, Michael B and Prince make a glorious noise. They are on top of their game, and you can hear how much time they have spent playing together.
“When You Were Mine” has a fantastic raw sound, and Prince has me and the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand with an easy singalong. Prince (and me) sing our way enthusiastically through the vocals before the inevitable guitar break comes with the crowd chanting ‘hey’. It has that basic rock sound that sounds so pure and innocent, even if the lyrics aren’t so innocent. It’s a great throwback to a simpler sound and it works well.
With guitar featuring some prominently at this show, there is no surprise at all as the band next break into “Guitar.” The lyrics are empty and Prince plays his guitar well in compensation. The guitar early on is by the numbers, and it’s not until later in the song do I find myself finally hooked. The sound of the recording varies a little here and seems to come in and out. It’s no big deal, although it does take me out of the song for a minute.
Last song of the night and Morris Hayes and Frederic Yonnet join the band for a boisterous rendition of “Dreamer.” Frederic is very prominent with his harmonica, and his sound, although not loud, is easily heard over everyone else. It adds plenty of color to the sound, and he plays a break that cements his moment in the song. The song becomes a jam with Prince's guitar riffing against the harmonica while the crowd begins to clap. As you might expect it's Prince soloing on the guitar that takes us through the last couple of minutes of the song, and he is playing with a lot of freedom at this stage, and it takes off.
This recording is a must-have, there is no doubt about it. It’s not on the genius level of some other recordings, nor is it as historically interesting as others, but it is a great band of musicians doing what they do best. It’s by no means funky, it is very much a rock and guitar-driven show, and it is a good balance that shows another side to Prince's talents. I found the audience recording to be fine, although if a soundboard recording of this ever surfaces I will be a very happy man indeed. I might just have to play it a couple more times before I start considering what show to listen to next.
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