|
I went to see Prince in NJ at the Continental Airlines Arena. In the 80's he was my guilty pleasure since I was a metal head/punk (still consider myself as such, even at 34). But I was always in awe of his songwriting/playing.
Goddamn is his band tight. The only name people were Maceo Parker and Candy Dulfer in the horn section. But whether this performance was meticulously scripted in advance or mostly improv, it was incredible. Ran through most of the big hits and did an acoustic set of some of them that was more upbeat than those things usually are. My only criticism was that he was actually too generous a bandleader at time, giving all 7 or 8 band members the spotlight and letting them solo at length. It got a bit too jammy in spots. But overall it was a great performance.
I forget who said it, but someone said "remember when Prince was the weird, volatile one ready to implode professionally while Michael Jackson was the normal one whose career seemed like it would never end"?
And Morris Day and the Time opened which was a surprise since I hadn't heard anything about them playing with him or even him having an opening act.
|