The Cream

The Prince concert was truly amazing. The songs, including a few well-placed covers, were superbly chosen and executed, our Lord of Funk commanding a tight band (including renowned saxophonist Maceo Parker) and an enormous crowd, his giant musical stature belying his small physical one. He dances. He sings. He composes, plays tremendous guitar, and generally shines, looking half his 46 years. As Chappelle said: he plays basketball! He makes pancakes!

The visuals were pleasing, of course: mostly purple lighting offsetting dramatic, snappy black-and-white costumes. And The Purple One's ego somehow added to the enjoyment--the sly you-love-me sidelong glances, the admonition that we need to practice singing the ego love song "Cream" to our own reflections. He joked about his own egotism, even, pitching a hissy fit in the middle of a jam, covering his ears and stomping to the side of the stage, displaying a humor I hadn't seen before in this artiste.

The show opened with the title track of his new album, Musicology, then segued into a stunning medley of some top hits, including "Let's Go Crazy", "U Got The Look", "When Doves Cry", "I Would Die 4 U", and "Baby I'm a Star". There was a long funky jam, a few covers, including Chaka Khan's "I Feel for You", followed by solos by Parker and then keyboardist Renato Neto. Prince returned in a haze of dry ice to perform an incredible acoustic set, just Prince and his guitar, which included The Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction", his own "Raspberry Beret", and a soulful, melancholy rendition of "Little Red Corvette". The acoustic set was my favorite part, its quietness elucidating the beauty of Prince's songs and his musicality. Prince is normally an Experience, amped-up, costumed-out theatre, making the acoustic cleanliness all the more touching by contrast.

The band returned for a long Zeppelin cover that, although well-executed, I didn't quite "get", before proceeding with more funky, funky shit, including "Kiss". The encore, too, was a highlight, a solid three-song set of those soul-wrenching Prince ballads, culminating, of course, in "Purple Rain".

If I had any reservation, it was minor, and this: the show sometimes felt like segments rather than a unified whole. Perhaps this disjointedness was an inevitable byproduct of Prince's versatility and the concert's two-and-a-half hour length. If I had any revelations, they were these: Prince has written an incredible volume of incredibly good music; it takes an extraordinary performer--one willing to be vulnerable before a whole lot of strangers--to pull off as dramatic a song as "Purple Rain" without campiness and with heartfelt emotion; and music has an incredible uplifting force.