Stevie Nicks
(Brooke Lee)
Home » RECAP: St Paul, MN – Xcel Energy Center
24 Karat Gold (2014)24 Karat Gold Tour

RECAP: St Paul, MN – Xcel Energy Center

December 6, 2016
6 min read

Scroll down for photos, videos, reviews, fan reaction, and the play-by-play tweets from Pioneer Press’ pop music critic!

On Tuesday night, Stevie Nicks performed at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, MN — the 21st show of the 24 Karat Gold Tour.

Performing in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, where Prince Rogers Nelson was born and raised, seemed to weigh heavily on Stevie’s mind, as she spoke emotionally about the late music icon. A bit choked up, she unexpectedly dedicated “Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream)” to him, which she’s previously identified as her “most favorite song [she’s] ever written” at past shows. After performing the song, Stevie began to tell the story of the 2011 In Your Dreams song, but became overwhelmed with emotion and quickly exited the stage. After an unplanned extended instrumental introduction to “Stand Back” (the next song in the set), she finally returned to the stage to perform the hit 1983 single. Afterwards, she also told the crowd, ‘I don’t want to get hysterical again,’ before going into the story behind her and Prince’s famous “Stand Back” collaboration (clip below). Stevie mentioned that her ex-husband (former record executive Kim Anderson) was at this evening’s show, which added more context to the story. (Stevie was married to Kim when she wrote the lyrics to “Stand Back” and had been riding in a car with him when the two heard Prince’s “Little Red Corvette” playing on the radio.)

Stevie Nicks
(Brooke Lee)
Stevie Nicks
(Ayla)
Stevie Nicks
(Xcel Energy Center)

Videos

Much love and thanks to Denton P, mastenator, Stephanie Silva, and XcelEnergyCenter for filming and sharing these videos!

Gold and Braid (XcelEnergyCenter)

Gold and Braid (Denton P)

Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around feat. Chrissie Hynde – short clip (Stephanie Silva)

Starshine (Denton P)

Stand Back (Denton P)

“There is a story, a quick story It’s not really a quick story, but I don’t want to like get hysterical again, so I’ll just say that Prince and I actually — unbeknownst to Prince, of course, when I was writing it — wrote ‘Stand Back’ together. I was…this is so funny, my one and only husband happens to be here tonight. Hello, husband! You’re out there somewhere. Um, uh…but what happened was that, that my then-husband — my only husband actually I ever had — were driving on our honeymoon to, um, Santa Barbara,  and this song ‘Little Red Corvette’ came on. And I was just like thrilled with his song. And I started — yes, oh yes, I had pencil and paper in the car — started like writing these words as I’m singing along, you know, and, and my husband’s like, ‘Well, you know, it’s already his song, you really can’t.’ And I was like, ‘Oh yes, I can! I’ll call him and I’ll just, I’ll sing it for him on the phone, and he’ll like it.’ And so, what..exactly what I did, so we have to pull over to a drug store and buy a cassette — cassette, oh yes — and record it when we get to the like San Ysidro Ranch, where we’re going for our honeymoon, right? He’s like, “OK, great!’ So we do, we get the recording equipment, we go —which is only this big (Stevie makes a small square with her hands) — we go up to our room and we…I sing over ‘Little Red Corvette’ and even my then-husband, his name is Kim, Kim said, ‘It’s good, it’s really good.” So um, yeah, you should call him and tell him that you’ve done this.’ So I said, “Of course I’m gonna, I’m honest, so.’

We go back to Los Angeles, and I go into Sunset Sound Recording Studio, and I find somebody who knows how to get in touch with Prince. And so, I call him and I don’t even think he’s in Los Angeles, but he is. And I said, ‘Well…’ I told him the quick story, and I said, ‘So can you come over? And he said, “Well, sure.” And so he did, he came over! And um…I know! And he walks in and he is dressed to the nines. He is the purple one, gorgeous. And I’m stunned you know because, because I’m also dressed to the nines because we, that’s how me and the girls dressed when we went into our recording sessions. So we’ll all totally dressed up. And so he comes in and he plays synthesizer, and he plays organ, and he plays piano, and does a little guitar, and, and he likes it, and he gives me permission, and I said, you know, ‘I mean, it’s half of yours, right?’ And he’s like, ‘OK.’ And he’s — whoosh! — gone in a puff of purple poof, gone.

And that was my relationship with Prince for many years, which was, I would just see him for a little while and then he’d just be gone, you know? He was just like that amazing kind of strange friend that just kind of came in and out of your life. So anyway, that’s… The great thing now is that whenever you hear ‘Stand Back’ or ‘Little Red Corvette,’ you can like kind of put them together because they are together, and they’ll always be together forever…and I will always have that. So whenever I sing ‘Stand Back,’ he’s always right here standing next to me. So um, anyway, that’s the story.”

Gold Dust Woman (Denton P)

Landslide (mastenator)

Play-by-Play by Ross Raihala, pop music critic for @PioneerPress

Reviews

Stevie Nicks enchants audience at the X with songs, stories and the spirit of Prince
Stevie Nicks is now 68, but there’s always been a sort of timeless quality about her, like her soul has been kicking around for centuries, wrapping its hosts in shawls, lace and fringe. Remember, this is a woman who crafted the nostalgic, contemplative “Landslide” when she was just 25.—Ross Raihala / Pioneer Press (Read the full review here.)

Stevie Nicks, the Pretenders deliver knockout one-two punch at Xcel
After the Pretenders’ super-charged set, an announcement: “Stevie Nicks will be out in 25 minutes.” The stage was radically altered for Nicks and her big band — two keyboards, one bass, two guitars, two backup singers, and a drummer. Nicks came out last, naturally, backlit by the projection of a rising sun and surrounded by chandeliers. Bathed in golden light from top to bottom, the band launched into the joyous, buoyant “Gold and Braid.” Obviously, Nicks was wearing her platform boots, flowing capes, and surplus scarves. —Chad Werner / City Pages (Read the full review here)

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