Publication: Honolulu Star-Bulletin [US]
Date: February 17, 1997
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Title: "The Former Prince Dusts Off Old Favorites For Adoring Fans"
Reviewed By: John Berger

Call him Prince. The Artist Formerly Known As Prince. Unpronounceable Hieroglyph. The Mega-millionaire "Slave." Call him The Guy Who Started Last Night's Concert 45 Minutes Late. A rose by any name still smells. Prince Rogers Nelson by any nom de guerre, alias or epithet still jams.

Jamming was what it was all about last night. That and the music of his current album, Emancipation. He opened with the album's lead track, Jam Of The Year. It set the theme perfectly and got the crowd up. Extended arrangements of other Emancipation cuts - Slave, Face Down, Sleep Around - provided the bulk of the 1-hour, 40-minute main set.

Despite apparent problems with on-stage equipment and concert sound, The Artist and his New Power Generation band slammed, jammed, and rocked the house.

Posing, posturing, and working the crowd with wry wit and self-depreciating humor, The Artist proved himself every bit as versatile on stage as he is in the studio.

"This is live - not Memorex" he announced early in the show, then asked the audience to get involved: "Just the funky people!"

The Artist controlled the crowd from the moment he appeared on stage in a fashion statement consisting of a black and gray pin-stripe duster with matching trousers and high-heeled boots.

The crowd became an additional element in the musical arrangements as he used it's responses with the assurance of a world-class conductor directing an orchestra. The fans clapped on cue and chanted key phrases like "Play that (characterization deleted) bass" with lusty enthusiasm.

He also employed his unique ability to simultaneously project blatant carnality and emotional vulnerability. That blend was used brilliantly 14 years ago in his definitive version of Little Red Corvette, that song one of just about all the classics that he failed to do last night. Remember When You Were Mine, Head, "Sister," When Doves Cry, Let's Go Crazy, Kiss, U Got The Look, or the great songs off the Batman soundtrack? They weren't there either.