062511 Prince, Montreal, QC

It’s not very often that one gets the opportunity to see an iconic performer like Prince in a small(ish) venue like Metropolis (okay, maybe not so rare with Prince), so when the tickets went on sale for a show there on June 25th, 2011 I jumped fast.  They were expensive, but this was a case of begging Prince to please, please take my money.  Thank the gods that I do that sometimes.

Though this wasn’t one of Prince’s official after-shows the concert started late – shortly after midnight.  The room was packed and buzzing with excitement.  When the little purple dude in the spiked boots hit the stage the place went appropriately bananas.  Prince funkified the room out-of-the-gate, tearing his band through a string of hardcore dance grooves that made the whole room bounce.

And bounce.  And bounce.  Song after song, funk after funk.  It was never-ending.

Once he was sure he had the audience well-greased and clamouring Prince kicked his band off stage and picked up the bass.  Looking about four feet tall and sounding bigger than a mountain Prince played solo funk bass for about twelve minutes straight.  It was a mesmerizing chunk of some of the greatest bass playing I have ever heard period

Back on guitar Prince was on fire, amping up some tasty covers like Le Freak and the set closer, Play That Funky Music.  The guy was such an impeccable, perfect musician; an utter joy to watch.  He just oozed musicality. 

sigh

Three encores later Prince had funked the crowd through Nothing Compares 2 U, Pass The Peas, What Have You Done For Me Lately, Take Me With U and a thousand others.  Then he emerged for a fourth encore and played Kiss, reinvigorating his sweat-drenched audience with a 4am slap to the funkbone.  It was all so glorious.

And then, impossibly, Prince (1958-2016) came out for encore number five and played a Bbsus2 chord, punching a hole in everyone’s stomach with a single strum of his guitar.  Capping off such a joyous marathon of funk with Purple Rain was as inevitable as it seemed unlikely, and as the song dwindled all of us at Metropolis sang together with a single voice in exhilaration, exhaustion, and peace, having shared a truly epic night of music.  It was rapturous.

Woo, hoo-hoo-hoo indeed.