Live Nation presents… Prince on the Welcome 2 Canada Tour in Winnipeg, MB on December 8, 2011.
Getting to my seat I knew this was going to be a one-of-a-kind show. With a stage in the shape of his infamous ‘Unpronounceable Symbol’. The stage was placed in the centre of the arena with seats around him in an 360º manner. The stage was a few feet of the ground, and when it was go time his band entered from one side of the arena and walked to under the stage. Following was a large box, which could only contain the one and only Prince. Just minutes later rising from underneath the stage, Prince took the stage to an arena of 10,500 of screaming fans.
Promising to give us a bit of everything tonight, and stated that he had a lot of hits, he did a quick preview of what was to come. About 10 minutes after the quick preview his band had risen from beneath and took their place. His band consisted of an organist at the back of the arena, with a seperate stage as well as 3 female back up singers, a female on the keys, someone on drums, a guitarist, and his main man Larry Graham on bass, and James Brown’s saxophonist, Maceo Parker. Prince played his piano and guitar throughout his set as well.
Prince played an hour and a half main set, which had ended with what in my opinion is his best, and probably most popular hit, ‘Purple Rain’. Prince has had 30 top 40 hits, as well as 10 platinum albums, however no song moves people like ‘Purple Rain’ does.
Entering for his first encore, just minutes after leaving the stage, Prince confirms that “[He] can go all night” as he stated many times throughout his show. His first encore consisted of hits, ‘Let’s Go Crazy’,'Delirious’, ’1999′, ‘Little Red Corvette’ and ‘Kiss’. He left to under the stage, and the lights turned on for guests to leave.
Fans still cheered, and few left at this point. It was about 5 minutes when the lights turned back off, and sure enough Prince entered again. Stating “I hope y’all ain’t teasing! I know you gotta get up for work tomorrow! But I got tomorrow off Winnipeg!”. Prince came and left a few more times before he finished his total of 5 separate encores, all consisting of at least one song.
Prince puts on a spectacular show, that very few artists can do. With an extravagant production, and his enthusiasm that he puts into each song of his two and a half hour set (both main set and encores), this show should be on everyones bucket list.
