Live Out Loud Tour - Prince 2013

2013

Concert tour

A perfect collision of the planned and the unplanned

Live Out Loud Tour was a series of stripped-down concerts performed (initially) along west coast North America. The announcement was made on 20 March 2013, with the tickets going on sale two days later.

The Live Out Loud Tour was a gruelling schedule performing two shows nightly by Prince and his newly created all-female backing funk rock band 3rdEyeGirl, because of this, shows averaged 100-minutes in length. The lineup is a small one by Prince standards – comprised simply of Hannah Ford (drums), Donna Grantis (rhythm guitar) and Ida Nielsen (bass). Joshua Welton, who married Hannah Ford in 2011, played keyboards. Prince was on lead guitar, brandishing a standard Vox HDC-77 electric. Welton would also co-produce Prince’s 2014 solo album Art Official Age. Live Out Loud Tour was about old school rock, Prince even sported an afro to hark back to his first LPs and the 70s.

Live Out Loud Tour was preceded by two nightly performances staged at the Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis on 16, 17 and 18 January 2013, billed as ‘Three Nights With Paisley Park’ to serve as warm-up for the fully formed tour. There was also a subsequent performance by Prince and 3rdEyeGirl on the Jimmy Fallon Late Night Show, aired on 1 March – the occasion the new backing band heard they were to be named 3rdEyeGirl. There was then one final appearance, organised by Samsung to headline the annual SXSW Festival at Austin, Texas on 17 March, before the tour proper launched at Vancouver’s The Vogue Theatre on 15 April 2013. Live Out Loud Tour was played at small capacity venues (approx. 1000 capacity) as were better suited to the style for traditional grassroots, up close and bare bones, small scale rock events, as was the flavour of 3rdEyeGirl. Tickets were far from grassroots, and the pricing often depended on the capacity of the venue, the majority being sold at $100 but the smaller the venue the cost of entry was often far higher.

Many of the band’s new tracks were performed that would be included in their album Plectrumelectrum released in September 2014. Their track that gave the tour its name was released on their website as a download on 23 February but would be omitted from the album. The website also promoted the dates of the tour. Two gigs were performed nightly (8pm and 11:30pm) to accommodate public demand, its set lists varied during encores and some performances even saw the return of Prince’s much beloved ‘sampler’ set. During Live Out Loud Tour, on 19 May Prince and 3rdEyeGirl played the Billboard Music Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas.

The tour’s final shows were staged at The Myth in Maplewood, Minnesota, when Bobby Z accompanied Prince on stage for both of the night’s shows to play drums during Purple Rain. After this date Live Out Loud Tour ended and evolved into a summer tour comprised of a series of one-off and short notice Hit N Run style concerts staged at key European festivals. The band headlined three consecutive nights at the Montreux Jazz Festival on 13th, 14th and 15th July 2013, and then in August for the Music & Arts Festival (Stockholm), Smukfest (renamed for the occasion The Beautiful Experience), and finally North Sea Jazz Festival.

3rdEyeGirl

Vocals/Guitar

Prince

Drums

Hannah Ford

Rhythm Guitar

Donna Grantis

Bass Guitar

Ida Nielsen

Percussion

Joshua Welton

Sample setlist

1. Let’s Go Crazy
2. Endorphinmachine
3. Screwdriver
4. She’s Always In My Hair
5. The Love We Make
6. I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man
7. Guitar
8. Plectrumelectrum
9. Fixurlifeup
10. When Doves Cry
11. Nasty Girl
12. Sign O’ The Times
13. The Most Beautiful Girl In The World
14. Forever In My Life
15. Hot Thing
16. A Love Bizarre
17. Housequake
18. I Would Die 4 U
19. Mr. Goodnight
20. Purple Rain
21. Even Flow [Pearl Jam]
22. Bambi
23. Stratus
24. U Got The Look

Sampler set