7 Minute Miles

The Revolution at First Avenue


When The Revolution announced the first two shows at First Avenue, I knew I wanted to be there (the third show was added later). The $65 ticket price ($78.54 with fees) was the highest I’ve ever paid at that venue, but it’s been a tough four months since Prince died and I was hoping for a bit of closure. After reading Andrea Swensson’s review of the first night on The Current Blog, it sounded like I needed to bring a large box of Kleenex with me. Turns out the second night was personally a much different experience for me: glad I went, but not at all what I was expecting emotionally.

It’s hard to be critical of a group of musicians that are also clearly in mourning, but this show was rough around the edges and at times was just plain hard to listen to. Part of that was obviously due to the missing key ingredient up front, but I just don’t like Wendy’s voice (nothing personal). It helped when AndrĂ© Cymone came out a few songs into the show and I thought Bilal did an amazing job on The Beautiful Ones, but I could barely listen to Sometimes It Snows In April (which is one of my top 7 Prince songs of all time). It was clearly heart-felt and personal, but wasn’t up to Prince standards.

My other primary criticism was the song selection. The Revolution officially played on four albums: 1999, Purple Rain, Around the World in a Day and Parade. You could argue that AndrĂ© Cymone and Dez Dickerson could maybe claim some of the older songs, but it didn’t seem right to me to have them play songs like Controversy, Uptown and Let’s Work. To me, those aren’t Revolution songs. But, hey, if this was what Wendy, Lisa, Brown Mark, Bobby Z. and Dr. Fink wanted as a tribute, so be it.

There are lots of stories with photos out there to read on these shows: Cecilia Johnson at The Current for night two, Ross Raihala and Chris Riemenschneider were also both there for night two, while Chad Werner at City Pages had a much higher impression of the first night than I did for my show. Apollonia looked great (as did Cymone) and I didn’t know about Brenda Bennett until I looked her up later. Celebrity super-fans Maya Rudolph and Questlove were clearly having a good time. Wish I would’ve saw Har Mar Superstar on the bike. Overheard that the sound guy (who looked like Mr. Bean) was the same one who mixes for Justin Timberlake.

Back there again tonight for Ms. Lauryn Hill.

  • Let’s Go Crazy
  • Computer Blue
  • America
  • Mountains
  • Do it All Night
  • Let’s Work
  • Uptown
  • Party Up
  • Little Red Corvette
  • 1999
  • Sometimes it Snows in April
  • Raspberry Beret
  • The Beautiful Ones
  • Private Joy
  • When Doves Cry
  • Controversy
  • ENCORE:
  • Kiss
  • Baby I’m a Star
  • Purple Rain

UPDATE: Jay Gabler writes about night three for The Current Blog, while Jon Bream covers the whole series for the Strib.

Originally published by DK on September 3, 2016 at 10:45 pm in Concerts, Longform, Music, Personal


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