Prince

PRINCE
Allphones Arena
Friday, May 11, 2012

It's very rare when a tour hits Australia with as much hype surrounding it as Prince's current east coast tour. Sure, Radiohead and Coldplay are coming later in the year, but are they going to rounding up whoever's in town to jam with them on stage at early morning club shows demanding that everyone parties until the sun comes up? You can be sure that they won't.

Seemingly on a whim, the man known to his mother as Prince Rogers Nelson booked his third ever Australian tour, and first in nine years, and he kicked it off less than a month after tickets went on sale, at the mighty Allphones Arena at Olympic Park in Sydney. With fans flying in from all over the country, the Purple One did not in any whatsoever disappoint.

Eschewing all rumours of support acts, the 20,000 capacity sold out venue descended into darkness early as thunder and lightning engulfed the inside of the arena and fans cheered in anticipation for the living legend. Finally, after an intro featuring a few notes from Purple Rain played repeatedly on an acoustic guitar, Prince emerged on the massive stage shaped like his famous Love Symbol and played tracks from all over his career kicking off with Gold from The Gold Experience. Undergoing many costume changes throughout the night, his best outfit involved heels and gold sequined pants, but as good as his threads were, his tunes were better. Little Red Corvette, Nothing Compares 2U, and Take Me With You were all played in quick succession before a blink and you miss it version of Raspberry Beret came out to play.

The finest moment of the night was when the band and singers left the stage to leave alone behind his futuristic light-up grand piano, but it was no piano. The hotted up synth contained all the tools Prince needed to belt out When Doves Cry on his lonesome. "This is old school meeting the new school here tonight," he told the crowd. "Old school tell the new school how many hits Prince got... Heck, I don't even know how many hits Prince got," he boasted as he teased into The Most Beautiful Girl In The World before bringing the house down with Sign O' The Times.

Harking back to the opening moments of the night, it was about to pour Purple Rain, and what a lengthy storm it was! Lasting well over half-an-hour, the classic track from the questionable movie of the same name was split into different sections with the flamenco man leading us into the track, and Prince playing an epic solo on one of the several Telecasters he used, but perhaps the most mind-blowing part of the night was when the entire arena started moaning the trademark harmony that closes out the song well before the man himself was ready to do so.

After almost three hours and Prince had finally left the building. He's still tearing up massive arenas across the east coast and making surprise appearances in nightclubs between the hours of 2-5am, so if you're able and willing, do it, baby.

_MATTHEW HOGAN

Photo supplied by NPG Records