Review: Prince show wild and wonderful at Penn State

By GISELA GARCIA

Blue Entertainment Editor

I KNEW HE WAS ICONIC. I was aware of his greatness and that he has influenced many other musical artists.

But until Sunday's concert at the Bryce Jordan Center, I really had no idea how incredible Prince truly is.

To be honest, my knowledge of his legacy is pretty basic. I can maybe sing along to a few lines of some of his well-known hits such as "Raspberry Beret," "1999," "When Doves Cry," and of course, "Kiss" -- thanks to watching Julia Roberts belt it out in that "Pretty Woman" bathtub scene one too many times.

So that was the extent of my familiarity with Prince. Well, that and the fact that he is revered by the rest of the music world, but honestly, I wasn't ever exactly sure why.

I found out Sunday night.

I started realizing why when I had to park on a remote grassy area of the Jordan Center instead of the parking lot, because more than 10,000 people had shown up.

I further realized it as I stood in a humongous line at the door and took in how many true-blue Prince fans had shown up (let's just say purple velvet ran rampant).

And I realized it even more when I got to my seat and looked around. Almost every spot surrounding the X-shaped center stage (Yes! A center stage!) was filled, mostly by purple-clad fans squirming in anticipation of his majesty.

Listen to me. I'm gushing and the show hasn't even started yet.

He took a royal amount of time to come out, but when he did -- clad in a vibrant red suit and clear heels -- he literally rocked the house. It was phenomenal. It was like I was in the middle of the most fabulously decadent party that ever was, with purple champagne and leopard-print curtains and hordes of beautiful people dancing like ... well, like it was 1999. Again.

"Penn State! School's IN!" the royal one shrieked out from underneath a storm of confetti that wafted down from the ceiling. "Every one of you is in college tonight, and I'm about to school you!"

And school us he did. In between his signature yelps, screams and dance moves (holy crap, can that man DANCE!), he gave the swooning audience what we wanted: a lesson in true funk.

"That's F-U-N-K, funk!" he said.

I learned a couple of other things that night, too.

First of all, Prince can play guitar. I mean, he is a DAMN good guitar player. He put down a few solos and dropped even more jaws with his lingering wails that reverberated across the Jordan Center. And he's got some awesome back-up musicians to boot -- including two phenomenal sax players and a drummer who threw his sticks around like he was a juggler. Together, they musically gave nods to "The Flinstones," James Brown, "The Jeffersons" and Beyonce's "Crazy in Love."

Lesson two? Prince is like Elvis, James Brown, Little Richard and the good part of Michael Jackson, all rolled into one neat, little package. Very little. And with a hairy chest.

Thirdly, despite all that energy, he can chill out and do the acoustic thing. After a short intermission, Prince came out in a white Presley-style get-up, cradled his guitar, sat center stage in a swivel chair and treated the audience to unplugged snippets of "Little Red Corvette," "Raspberry Beret" and "Cream" peppered with some tongue-in-cheek blues.

"Hey, where's my background?" he said with a mischievous look when the audience grew too quiet. "Don't make me come up there!"

I was surprised to witness how in tune with the crowd he was. That was lesson four: Once Prince starts performing, the audience is helplessly entranced.

I've been to my share of concerts, and the artist always talks to the crowd and does the whole "What's up Penn State?" thing or even tries to get the audience to clap along or jump. But at most concerts, only the fervent fans or the energetic oblige for a bit. With Prince, his wish was our command. When he asked us to jump, clap or wave, we did. And we ALL did -- even those in the nosebleed section. It was almost miraculous.

But it was no wonder. He was just as in love with the audience as we were with him, dropping "Penn State" into almost every song and frequently asking if we were having a good time.

"I told ya'll I was gonna spoil ya!" he said toward the big finale, when he pulled up about 20 women from the audience (coincidentally, all perfectly gorgeous) to dance on stage, along with two very surprised little girls. He followed up with his claim to fame, "Purple Rain," for an encore.

And yes he did spoil us, though I do have one big gripe to air out. I wish he had spent more time on some of the songs instead of giving us glimpses of them in long medleys. But then again, he has so many songs. I'm not sure how he could have successfully carried that out without working overtime. Still, two lines of "Raspberry Beret" just ain't gonna cut it for me. And dearly missed were "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" and the one-and-only "1999."

All grievances aside, I felt nothing less than honored to be witnessing a living legend performing right in front of me.

GISELA GARCIA

Blue Entertainment Editor

AMEN!!!!! This is by far the best that I have ever seen him. I have not one complaint. He seemed to be happy, and enjoying himself the whole time and I thought the entire night was absolutely electric. I am trying to find tickets to Philly, NYC or NJ, so that I can take different people to the show. I am still on cloud 9. This woman obviously felt what I did.