Sad to say, concerts at the Halifax Metro Centre just won't look or feel the same after witnessing a devastating performance by Prince on Wednesday night.

Shows that are packed to the rafters are few and far between these days, but the power of the purple one drew roughly 10,000 attendees from near and far to shake their collective booty for over two hours.

His massive symbol-shaped stage was like a funkcraft carrier; every time he made his way down the central catwalk he launched a deadly salvo of charm and skilled showmanship that fanned the flames of the non-stop party even further. Repeatedly rising up through the smoke on an elevator in the middle, Prince looked like a captain taking the helm of a mighty strobe-lit spaceship, with his band New Power Generation as its warp drive engine, thrusting us all back through time, over three decades of popular music.

Not that much time was spent in the most recent decade, only the Musicology ballad A Million Days made the cut, and served mainly as an opportunity for everyone to sit down after a solid half-hour of dancing. Up to that point the show had been an insane rush, starting with drummer John Blackwell's pounding 4/4 beat for Controversy and Prince's smoke-shrouded entrance.

'This is the best place on earth right now!' exclaimed the Minneapolis soul man, clad in black flares and an embroidered vest, with his face and hair sparkling with glitter. Frankly, who could argue that point? Then he took it to the next level, introducing 'the baddest man in show business,' Maceo Parker. The same Maceo Parker who played sax on some of the greatest funk records of all time by James Brown and the Parliament-Funkadelic crew. This was going to be epic.

Parker's stacatto phrases — the same ones sampled by Public Enemy and De La Soul in the halcyon days of hip hop — settled right into the groove, and kept on going as the band shifted into K.C. and the Sunshine Band's Get Down Tonight. They also inspired Prince to get down, as he sashayed down the catwalk to the stage's arrow tip to do the good foot, swivel his hips, and shake his butt, to the delight of those in the front row.

'Everybody jump up and down!' he commanded to the beat of Housequake, and as one we all did his bidding. Resistance was useless. 'Halifax, we are here!' Yeah, and about time too.

Then came two words that everyone there was waiting to hear. 'Dearly beloved...' was greeted by an overwhelming roar that nearly drowned out the following '..we are gathered here together to get through this thing called life.' Let's Go Crazy was everyone's cue to really cut loose as Prince segued into Delirious — more Maceo! — and moved back out to the arrowhead to lay his interpretation of some early Elvis Presley-style moves on us.

Like Presley, Prince's music is an astute distillation of sounds that came before him into something entirely new, with soul, funk, pop and psychedelia nesting together in unusual and surprising combinations.

In concert he wears some of these influences further out on his sleeve than he might on record, merging the Cars' Let's Go into his own Take Me With You and bridging the glam of Cream with Michael Jacksons Dont Stop 'Til You Get Enough, a nice tip of the hat to the only other performer who could truly rival him for sheer live magnetism.

Prince's charisma was most fully in effect for the evening's biggest setpiece, the title song from the movie that took him from household name to worldwide phenomenon: Purple Rain. Like a preacher exhorting his flock to pray, he begged everyone to sing along as a storm of purple and gold confetti was blasted into the atmosphere.

'I heard somebody sing it, but I need to have everybody sing,' pleaded the singer.

'Something happens when you sing together; whatever's bothering you, for just a moment, it seems to go away.' No one was thinking of the outside world while Prince was pumping his arms, jerking his hips and dancing like a marionette to Kiss, or sharing the spotlight with dynamite soul queen Shelby J for Nothing Compares 2 U, one of the most gut-wrenching pleas for forgiveness I've ever heard.

It felt like a cruel awakening when the concert finished, after an impromptu dance contest involving three audience members and Prince's sister Tyka and a final encore with singers J, Elisa Dease and Liv Warfield making like Sister Sledge on Sylvester's Disco Heat. Blowing kisses through Baby I'm a Star and a final blast from Parker, Prince was gone from the stage and despite the audience?s hunger for more, never returned to it.

Five minutes of darkness before the house lights came up only served to get our hopes up. It hadn't been the three-hour extravaganza that kicked off the Welcome 2 Canada tour in Toronto last week, but for more than two hours Prince laid it all out on the stage for us and left us all wondering if we?d just dreamed the whole thing.

(scooke@herald.ca)

PLAYLIST


Controversy
Get Down Tonight (yes, KC & the Sunshine Band)
Housequake
Let's Go Crazy/Delirious
1999
A Million Days
Let's Go (Cars cover)/Take Me With U
Raspberry Beret
Cream
Don't Stop Till You Get Enough
Cool (recorded by The Time, but Prince wrote it)
Make You Feel My Love (Bob Dylan) sung by Shelby J, Elisa Dease and Liv Warfield
Purple Rain
Medley including When Doves Cry/Sign o' the Times/The Most Beautiful
Girl in the World/Pop Life/Darling Nikki/Forever In My Life/Hot Thing (among other things) Kiss
Nothing Compares 2 U
Get Wild (NPG tune, with a sample of the flute from Gett Off)
Disco Heat (Sylvester)
Baby I'm a Star