THE HIGHER NOTE REPORT

One 4 the ages, 4 the great one of the ages…

A slow start made way for a glorious finish at the 13th annual Prince Party in Houston. Lots of familiar faces were in the house at Scott Gertner’s Sports Bar Saturday night for the celebration marking Prince’s 50th. Some new fans were also created as we jammed the night away with a purple soirée that will go down in the books as one of the best since we started these parties back in ’96…

Ant Boogie got the night started promptly at 8:00, tossin’ out jewels from Jesse Johnson, Ta Mara & The Seen, and Andre` Symone to name a few. Around 9:30 the videos drops started as I played the NAACP (not NCAA) performance from ’05. The skeptical folks in the house (sports bar regulars) were soon won over as we all rocked out to the legendary 12-minute performance that reminded err’body just why Prince is considered the most uniquely talented musician/performer on the planet today…

A little later, Houston’s own Prince impersonator “K” kicked off the karaoke (in street clothes) with “The Most Beautiful Girl…”. Of course we had plenty of those in the house, including the sports bar’s Scottie’s Hotties, getting into the act with “Kiss”. Many more fun performances followed along with the continued jams. Ant Boogie became the night’s MC-extraordinaire as yours truly, Peter V. moved over to the wheels of steel with classics like “Soft And Wet”, “Dirty Mind”, “17 Days”(live), as well as new jams like “3121” and “Lolita”…

Of course, we had to drop a few more videos. It was only fitting to showcase some classic performances from another B-day celebration (Detroit ’86). “I Wanna Be Your Lover” from Lovesexy ’88 not only showcased Prince the performer, his B-ball skills as well. Again, some of the youngsters in attendance began to realize why we idolize this man when “If Eye Was Your GF” from the “SOTT” movie rocked the house in HD and HIFI. The crowd noise from the videos echoing throughout the club gave such a surreal feeling one felt as though you were in the arena itself. And when someone requested “Head” (the song) we obliged by going back to Detroit ’86 and viewing the legendary performance that had all the ladies’ (and most of the fellas’) attention from start to finish…

The Princely Karaoke feature was quite popular this year. “K” returned in full costume to deliver a very authentic “Beautiful Ones” performance, followed later on by “Little Red Corvette”. Renee and Kim kicked off the themed shot specials with “Raspberry (kamikazes) Beret”, Kadrae jammed “Musicology”, and Suzi & friend took us back with “Manic Monday”. The best rock & roll movie of all time was nicely represented by Brandon, who had everyone singin’ along to “Purple Rain”, Lea (St. John) kickin’ that long version of “When Doves Cry”, NKem doin’ some “Darling Nikki”, Cassandra and Jeanine rockin’ “Baby I’m A *”, the Hotties singin’ “I would Die 4 U”, and yours truly led in the group favorite “The Bird”…

The karaoke contest was fun and competitive as well. Nine contestants vied for the $100 cash prize. We also gave all the competitors a free copy of “The Remix Experience” by Brotha Jules. Some great selections were made for the contest including; DJ Klymaxx doing “I Could Never Take The Place…” by Jordan Knight, Louis and Orenia’s duet “Nothing Compares 2 U”, Dee with Melissa Morgan’s “Do Me Baby”, Greg with “Fury”, and many others. But the winner was Karaoke King and his crew doing their rendition of “The Beautiful Ones”. Following the contest, we had just enough time for the night to conclude with everyone on stage as me and Ant Boogie lead the entire house with a rousing version of “1999” (long version). What a perfect way to end a fantastic night!



Additional side note: To those who “didn’t make the effort” to be in attendance, you really missed a memorable night. Prince will only turn 50 once. I just hope that in the weeks, months and years to come, you will remember doin’, whatever it was you were doin’ as much as we will all remember the night of June 7th, 2008.

Great job, guys!