When the crowd roared at the euphemism, he stopped midsong.
#PRINCE MUSICOLOGY TOUR CHICAGO TV#
When I heard "On the Couch," I couldn't help but laugh at his romantic entreaty, delivered in that pleading Prince falsetto: "Don't make me sleep on the couch/ Love Jones is on the TV again/I wanna go down south." Songs from his latest, Musicology, sat confidently beside the classics. (Before his late-night performance at Erykah Badu's afterparty, Prince nuzzled with his wife, Manuela Testolini, for hours.) He didn't need so much of the flash and pretense that have often obscured his best asset: his talent. "I know that's what you're used to, but it ain't gonna work tonight."Īge and love seemed to have mellowed him. "Don't lip-synch up in here," he said, a wry smile on his lips. Without his band to play with and off of, Prince seemed to need the crowd a bit more, nudging us to scoot closer and sing along to "Little Red Corvette" and "Raspberry Beret." Whenever we faltered-like, what are the lyrics to "Cream" anyway?-he shot back a one-liner. Later, when he took the stage solo with only an acoustic guitar, the stadium show seemed to shrink a little, get warmer and more intimate. He kept slamming us with Purple Rain-era hits: "I Would Die 4 U," a tease of a lick from "When Doves Cry" and then "Baby I'm a Star." It wasn't until he briefly left the stage 15 minutes into the set-to slip into something less comfortable, presumably-that people actually dared to sit down.
Is it possible that Prince is not aging? He looks the same, sounds the same, which is to say he looks and sounds terrific. Prince strutted and slinked across the cross-shaped stage in a red bowler hat and natty red suit, looking like 20 years had been nothing but a mere suggestion. He started with a bang-literally, a poof of white confetti-launching into "Let's Go Crazy" as latecomers hustled through security and practically elbowed the elderly out of the way to get inside on time. More than a quarter-century after he hit the scene, Prince still ruled. It was as if he had never been gone, as if he had never been weird, never gotten "experimental" and "difficult," never painted "slave" across his forehead. Friday night's show at the American Airlines Center, his second stop in Big D on his Musicology tour, showcased an unparalleled performer at the top of his craft. "I don't care what you looked like when you came in here, I'm gonna shake that 'do loose!" he warned the audience. Just like every snowflake is unique, everyone is sexy to Prince.
And yet, the beautiful thing about Prince was that it didn't matter. We were geeks through and through, slapping high fives and dancing with the finesse of a tipsy 5-year-old, whooping with every familiar riff. "Clap your hands all you sexy people!" Prince told the audience.Īnd people, we were not sexy.