Finding fault with Prince and 3rdeyegirl’s one-off performance Saturday night at Oakland's The Fox Theater is difficult.
Whatever The Purple One and his all-female backing band attempted, they executed with effortless cool.
Singing in dreamy falsetto? Check.
Unleashing a torrent of meaty guitar riffage? Indeed.
Showing off tasty dance moves while wearing pink bell-bottom jeans? Game, blouses.
Those are a few reasons why, after two hours had melted from the clock, a plethora of fans stayed long after the house lights came on, hoping there might be more.
That owes, too, to Prince’s reputation for being mysterious and unpredictable. However, days after a marathon gig at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles that approached four hours, there was the sense that there would — or should — be more.
It was hard to blame concertgoers for wanting all they could get.
What they did get was a command appearance by Prince and his band, emerging from behind a curtain with the singer’s back to the audience. The Artist turned around to an ocean of cheers and started the night by launching into a blistering, blues reworking of “Let’s Go Crazy."
The charismatic, afro-coiffed frontman dazzled on “She’s Always in My Hair,” shredding a solo before ditching his ax to spin and dance just steps away from his mic stand, which sported his famous love symbol.
He was eager to display his fretwork early, including on the U2-ish “Guitar” and “Plectrum Electrum,” a new song, which found guitarist Donna Grantis getting in some licks, too.
The end of the set showed Prince’s penchant for live performance, sampling and mixing bevy of hits, including a reworked “Something in the Water (Does Not Compute)” from 1999 as well as “When Doves Cry,” “Sign ‘O’ the Times,” “I Would Die 4 U” and “Purple Rain.”
“Oakland, you know how many hits I got?” Prince boasted during this stretch.
On the set closing "Purple Rain," Prince shouted out Oakland native Sheila E. and Vallejo's birthday boy Sly Stone, encouraging the crowd to sing the fadeout to a song he "could sing every night."
The two encores were drastically different in tone. The first featured the entire band as well as opening act Liv Warfield on “U Got the Look.” The New Power Generation horns spiced up “Musiciology” and a mostly instrumental, hard-rocking rendition of Wild Cherry’s “Play That Funky Music,” with several of the NPG members padding to the love symbol mic to show their chops in the spotlight.
The latter and final encore was primarily The Purple One at the keyboard alone, sampling and mixing — a tender “How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore” mingled with parts of “Diamonds and Pearls,” “Do Me, Baby” and “I Wanna Be Your Lover.” The ladies of 3rdEyeGirl rejoined him in the final minutes and numerous members of the audience were pulled on stage to dance to the likes of “Raspberry Beret” and “Cool.”
What Prince and 3rdeyegirl did Saturday night, they did so well as to make it look easy.
But with 35 years of hits and highlights to draw on for a show that went on sale three days before it happened, that’s part of the magic, the power and the allure of Prince.
Setlist, with help from Prince Vault
Let’s Go Crazy
Funknroll
She’s Always in My Hair
I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man
Guitar >
Plectrum Electrum >
FixUrLifeUp
Something in the Water (Does Not Compute) >
When Doves Cry [partial] >
Nasty Girl [sample] >
Sign ‘O’ the Times [partial] >
777-9311 [sample] >
Forever in My Life >
Pop Life [partial] >
Love [sample] >
If I Was Your Girlfriend [partial] >
The Screams of Passion [sample] >
Housequake [partial] >
I Would Die 4 U [partial] >
Purple Rain
Encore 1
U Got the Look
Musicology >
Play That Funky Music
Encore 2
How Come U Don’t Call me Anymore
Diamonds and Pearls
The Beautiful Ones
Strange Relationship
Starfish and Coffee
Do Me, Baby
I Wanna Be Your Lover
Hot Thing [partial] >
A Love Bizarre [partial] >
Mr. Goodnight [sample]
Raspberry Beret
Cool
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