Hotter Than July 2CD
Fearless/Casino Royale/Free Boot Generation
Catalog # N/A
Release Year  2007
2CD Length 62:25 / 57:50
Date/Venue Target Center, Minneapolis 7th July 2007
Source Audience Recordings
Quality VG+
Rating 3.75/5.0

Track Listing
Disc 1
Target Center, Minneapolis 7th July 2007

1. Intro 2. Purple Rain 3. Take Me With U 4. Guitar 5. Shhh 6. Musicology 7. Prince And The Band 8. Play That Funky Music 9. Let's Go 10. Satisfied 11. What A Wonderful World (instrumental) 12. Little Red Corvette 13. Raspberry Beret 14. The One U Wanna C 15. Sometimes It Snows In April

Disc 2
1. 7 2. Come Together 3. Do Me, Baby 4. I Wanna Be Your Lover 5. How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore 6. Diamonds And Pearls 7. Cream 8. U Got The Look 9. If I Was Your Girlfriend 10. Black Sweat 11. Kiss 12. Let's Go Crazy 13. A Love Bizarre 14. Crazy (including One Nation Under A Groove) 15. Nothing Compares 2 U 16. The Glamorous Life

Comments
Fink's Comments (rates this release 3.75/5.0)
First up, as always, the rating I have given. This may very well pass as an EX- audience recording to the majority but simply due to the high quality of the recent Las Vegas recordings appearing, I have had to slightly change my grading scale - hence this getting a VG+. It's a superb VG+, and a cruel VG+, but I'm sticking with it. The Target Center in Minneapolis is known for it's horrendous acoustics (check any review of this show and you'll see for yourself), and the recording does reflect this. It is hollow, slightly dull for the opening half of disc 1, and lacks the clarity of all other Fearless releases. The recording changes for the "acoustic" (for want of a better word) section ('Little Red Corvette' onwards) and Prince's vocals are to the fore of the recording (harsh?) and the audience level is slightly increased - still not too detrimental to the recording, but far more audible than the opening 45 minutes. Add to this 'Little Red Corvette' being marginally incomplete, and hopefully my VG+ is justified.

It's good, it's great, but it doesn't quite reach the giddy heights of some other recent recordings. The show is a very enjoyable, funky taster for the upcoming London residency due to start a few weeks after this concert - one of 3 taking place in Minneapolis on 7th July. It's most notable for the appearance by Wendy from 'Little Red Corvette' through to 'Come Together' and although she may only be audible during 'The One U Wanna C', her influence is audible throughout - a very special show in that respect. Sheila E also guests for a number of the closing tracks, joining the band firstly on 'Let's Go Crazy' and ending with a duet performance on both 'A Love Bizarre' and 'The Glamorous Life'. The opener 'Purple Rain' lulls one into a false sense as once this is performed, the show moves on at 100 mph without pausing for breath until 'Satisfied' - it's one of the best setlists played in a long time and includes a very rare performance of The Cars 'Let's Go'. The main attraction of the "acoustic" section is the performance of the (at the time unreleased) 'The One U Wanna C' played in two segments - the first (4 lines only) is a normal version, the second is sung in a country-drawl apparently to put off the bootleggers. It evidently didn't work. The show moves on with Shelby's first appearance on 'Come Together' before Prince plays a stunning (albeit criminally short) piano segment which features full band backing on the majority of tracks. 'I Wanna Be Your Lover' contains part of the extended instrumental outro before Prince cuts it short to launch into 'How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore' (1st verse and chorus) followed by half the opening verse of 'Diamonds And Pearls' before he picks up his guitar and continues the show with 'Cream'. The remainder of the main show is pretty standard fare with 'Kiss' (alas no "Little girl Wendy's parade" lyric) and 'Let's Go Crazy' closing the proceedings. The encore section begins with a very funky 'A Love Bizarre' featuring Sheila before moving onto Shelby's version of 'Crazy' - admittedly not the best version I've heard. The show is brought to a close with Sheila rejoining for 'The Glamorous Life' - although the opening drum intro by Cora sounds suspiciously like she was launching into 'Get On The Boat'.

Overall this is an excellent release and whilst the recording is lacking the finesse and excellence of others, it's still a solid recording. The appearance by Wendy really makes this show worthwhile and important on it's own, but the content of the show is equally enjoyable. Oh, and the artwork?! Holla! The Target Center show, along with the First Avenue aftershow has since been released (in December 2007) by Free Boot Generation on their '7-7-7' release with the Target Center show being superior quality.


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