Montreux 18 July 2009

 Prince’s performance of Montreux in 2007 opened the door for several more performances over the next few years. These all differ wildly from each other, and while his final three appearances in 2013 touch firmly on his three bases of funk, pop, and rock, the shows of 2009 are a stripped-back and clinical presentation that while light in sound delivers some heavy-hitting classics, along with some guitar work that ranks with his very best. It is not fast and furious, but it is a mature performance that draws heavily from his fearsome guitar talent and genre-jumping vocals. While heavily guitar infused, it never tips over into a full-blown rock show and remains a suitable fit for Montreux as it titles itself a jazz festival. 

 

18th July 2009, Auditorium Stravinski, Montreux 

It is Renato Neto’s keyboard that first caresses the crowd as from the darkness emerges “When I lay My Hands On U.” This is merely setting the scene and it is Prince with his guitar that bends the song into shape. Prince dapples the music with his guitar work somewhat like a Monet painting, listening closely one can discern all his flourishes and nods, but it’s not until we sit back and take it as a whole do we begin to properly see the sonic picture that Prince is painting. It is a picture of textures, darkness, and light, powerful chords sharpened with howling notes, the song taking on a murderous tone as Prince warms to his work. It is a controlled fury, where previously I may have been drawn to Prince’s wild antics, especially in the early ’80s, here his intense Santanaesque tone speaks far more to the quiet rage I harbor as an adult. 

Prince reinvents “Little Red Corvette” in the performance that makes this bootleg essential. Prince slows the song, his guitar squall adding anguish and hurt to this previously familiar pop song. It becomes a lament that cries out as the guitar voices its haunting refrain, its notes tortured and bleeding through the song, the lyrics becoming realized in the music the band is brewing before our very eyes. This is the first appearance of this slow downed “Little Red Corvette,” in the next few years it will become his rendition of choice, but this bootleg always remains that cut above the rest in that this is the first time. 

 

A sultry “Somewhere Here On Earth” comes with its summer breeze sound to clear some of these dark clouds of the previous emotional intensity. Renato shines brightly as the music becomes a light jazz showcase. On the album the song sometimes slips through the gaps, one could argue the whole album slips through the gaps, but the live performance reinvigorates and resurrects the song to my ears, Prince’s silky vocals glistening in the darkness while the band moves smoothly beneath him. It’s not a song that grabs me, but the performance is slow seduction that gets serves the music and the show well. 

 

“When The Lights Go Down” is in a similar vein, only tempered by some guitar playing by Prince that adds a jagged edge. One can feel the energy lift, and it is Prince’s distinctive guitar tone that stands out most to the ear. One can again clearly hear the Santana influence, Prince’s guitar, again and again, drawing from the same well. It is no mere imitation, Prince takes his influence, adds his own flavor, and elevates the guitar work to new heights. Ably matched by the band, he again gives us a clinical performance that belies the inner intensity that this music carries. 

With a barely perceptible change, “Willing and Able” arrives and immediately becomes a call and response moment, the crowd finally pulled into the concert with their chants. It is perhaps a little short for my tastes, although to be honest, I am often the first to complain when these crowd moments go on too long. 

Renato draws tears with a divine “I Love U But I Don’t Trust U Anymore,” his piano bringing the hall to silence for Prince to deliver this showstopper. Prince’s vocals contain all the emotion ever needed for this song, no matter what the music it does, we always find ourselves back to the same place, hanging on Prince’s every word as he carves out his story of distrust and lost love. Renato softly color’s this tale with his nuanced and gently tailored contribution, his playing underpinning Prince’s silky vocals with a polished sheen that becomes the backbone of the song. I am completely enraptured by the moment and seeing one of my favorite songs breathed to life by Prince. 

 

I have already mentioned Santana several times and again Prince returns to this bedrock of his sound for a seventies soul smooth “She Spoke 2 Me” – a song that takes up the vibe, garnishes it with some of Prince’s guitar work, throws in an extended Renato solo and becomes an immediate highlight. It is an interesting diversion, but little did I realize the real fireworks are still to come. 

“Love Like Jazz” and “All This Love” picks up these strands of funk, soul, and jazz, and twist them together in a ten-minute highlights package that is the beating heart of the show. It is a slow burn, the initial “Love Like Jazz,” setting the tone, yet not quite combusting into the conflagration that Prince’s guitar solos hint at. It is only once all of the band adds their weighty contributions to “All This Love” that the song ignites, Renato’s piano solo giving way to a ferocious Rhonda bass solo comes that encourages the crowd to further ecstasy. It is perfectly placed, and paced, at this point in the concert, adding some impetus just when it needed it with a slippery funk feel underpinning it all and adding fluid energy to the song. 

“Empty Room,” is exceptional from the first note, its sense of drama permeating through the concert hall and recording. Prince paces this nicely, the song building slowly to a climax before he blows it through the stratosphere with an emotive guitar break that takes the lyrical narrative and turns it into a firestorm of guitar, Prince twisting and torturing the notes as they spew forth. This intensity burns through the recording, the song reaching new heights through Prince’s craft and surgical guitar work that cuts the song to ribbons on the back of his solo. There is no need to listen to anything beyond this point, this is Prince at his very best, taking the song far beyond what has previously been heard on the back of his fiery guitar playing. 

 

We have a chance to catch our collective breaths with a wispy “Elixir” next blowing through the bootleg. It becomes an intangible moment, the song remaining smoky and unreachable, and following “Empty Room” there is no comparison, the previous song demanded you listen with its forceful intensity, while “Elixir” blows away on the breeze, leaving almost no impression on the listener. 

There is a surprise with the appearance of “In A Large Room With No Light.” It had already debuted in March 2009, yet to hear it again in these circumstances still elicits that same sense of excitement and the feeling that we are privy to something special. It is not every day that Prince pulls something from so deep in the vault, and the biggest surprise is perhaps the way it fits so easily into the setlist and sits comfortably with the more contemporary songs. It is a song that has finally come of age after waiting in the vault for twenty-three years, and this is just the right band for such a moment, its jazz flavors enhanced by the playing of Prince and Renato in particular. This is a band that can take on anything Prince throws at them, and the way they take this buried gem and make it their own is impressive indeed. Prince adds a touch of weirdness and other-worldliness to the song with his final guitar break and makes its appearance all the more special and unusual. 

 

There are an instant warmth and alluring sound to “Insatiable” that invites me right in with its crushed velvet sound. Prince sings with a light touch, not overburdening the song before he gives way to Renato Neto and his luxurious piano work. It may not be the longest song of the evening, but it leaves an aftertaste and I can still feel its yearning long after it’s finished. 

With Morris Haynes joining the band, it transitions into a lush “Scandalous,” the band playing with criminal ease. Prince matches with them with a vocal delivery that carries a chocolate and champagne sound, gradually upping the performance as he goes. It is a fine match for the previous “Insatiable,” the two coming as a silky seduction one-two punch. 

I am not too surprised to see another ballad appear in the setlist – “The Beautiful Ones” rounding out this trio of what some might call “panty droppers”. It never blows into the storm that I hope for, Prince delivering the lyrics with a refinement that belies the emotion the words carry. It is only in the final minute that this raw bloodied emotion appears, Prince finally tearing down the wall between himself and the listener with the throaty howl we have all been waiting for. 

It is “Nothing Compares To U” that is chosen to close the show, and as much as I like the song, I feel that it is an unsatisfying conclusion to what has otherwise been a stellar concert. The song lacks any real punch, either sonically or emotionally, and even the contrasting styles of Morris Hayes and Renato Neto can’t quite rescue it for me, the song floating away from all that Prince has built up in the previous 90 minutes, leaving us to consider the earlier moments of passion and panache as the most fitting way to remember this show. 

This is an interesting concert, with its varied setlist, highly skilled band, and polished to the point of perfection performance by Prince and those around him. This concert has been circulating for ten years now, and I am sure that most people have seen it, yet that doesn’t lessen the impact of seeing it again with fresh eyes. This is not the young firebrand I fell in love with in the 1980s, this is a mature man with a mature and professional performance to match. As I have grown so too has Prince, and this show resonates with me just as much as a concert from 1981 did with the fifteen-year-old me. I know that I will be watching this one many more times over the years to come, this is a concert I could happily get old with.