I just awoke after a night of restless sleep. My mind and body are still recovering from an extraordinary night of purple music. I think I realized that from the time I left for the Atlanta concert at 4 PM and the time I got home from the aftershow at about 4AM, I had been standing for about 10 of those 12 hours. My feet and back were killing me, but never throughout the night did I question whether it was worth it.



The main show at the Tabernacle was a great one. I won’t elaborate too much because the setlist is probably similar to the other shows. But the highlights for me were the Uptown/Controversy/Mutiny start of the show and I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man which is always a fun ride with Prince playing the guitar solo at the end.



There was one funny incident during Come On where Prince was on the side of the stage, and someone in the balcony was motioning to Prince to throw his “Come On” straw hat. I didn’t think he was really paying attention to the guy, but when the guy made gestures that he was pulling out money to trade for that hat, Prince had the band break it down, and he said something like, “Wait a minute…we have a negotiation going on here.”



It really funny as the guy held up 2 fingers for $20 and Prince said, “Ok, do I hear 30” and the crowd yelled and I saw other people holding up cash. This went on a couple of times until the bid was up to $60 and the fan motioned that was all the money he had. So then, at the same instant, Prince threw him the hat and the fan threw him the crumpled up money, and amazingly both of them caught it perfectly. So Prince stuffed the money in his pants and got back into the song. But then he took the money out of his pants and threw it into the audience. Who knows if it was $60 or $6 or whatever, but it was a very funny incident.



It was also very humorous when Prince pulled up a couple of women onstage during one of the songs (I can’t remember which one..it maybe have been later in Come On.) P walked over the side of the stage to sing and, before you knew it, this girl was crawling between his legs and sticking her tongue out. So Prince walked back to the middle of the stage and pulled a couple of other women up onstage. One of these got behind him and started grind into him a little as he sang. He seemed to take it all pretty well though.



The aftershow was announced at the end of the Tabernacle show and was to be at the 1150 club (NOT Karma as it had said on the NPG site) . I had never heard of the 1150 club, but they handed out little flyers after the show with directions. So we raced over there and got in line and thankfully, they began to let us in pretty quickly (it was very cold outside).



The 1150 club seemed pretty new and VERY nice. They played good house music and had this large white curtain on which they were playing videos like Bruce Lee’s “Return of the Dragon” film. I found a place to stand in front of the stage and it was exciting to see Prince’s people slowly set up all the instruments and gear. The anticipation of seeing a rare aftershow was exhilarating. I’ve seen a couple of aftershows in the past, and they are always so casual and cool. It’s the ultimate trip for a Prince fan…to see him in a club environment, just grooving and having a good time.



Prince arrived about 1:55 AM and took the stage to much applause and screaming. You could just feel the love for him in the room, and it made me feel good to be a part of that. He walked up to the mic and started to ask about Thanksgiving (the American holiday) and if someone would explain to him what it meant because he was a little unclear about it. He then pulled up three or four people from the audience onstage and let them get on the mic and explain what they thought it meant.



We all had a feeling where Prince was trying to go with this, so no one gave the standard, politically correct answer. The first girl said something about it being a celebration of how we stole land from the American Indians and another guy said it was to appreciate all the food that we stuff our face with on the holiday. This one guy snuck onstage and began dancing wildly, and Prince joked, “He’s thankful for the bartender”.



So after Prince’s bodyguard politely escorted that fan offstage, and a couple more fans had their chance, Prince asked rhetorically, “Do you think Indians celebrate Thanksgiving?” and how he’s from Minnesota and he can promise us that they don’t. He then explained that he celebrates no holidays or birthdays. I don’t want to try to quote him too much because it’s not fair if I can’t remember exactly what he said, but he mentioned something about believing in God and living forever.



Prince picked up his guitar and made a comment that the sound wasn’t right. He said something to his sound guys like “I’m doing my part, and they’re doing their part (the audience), you just have to do your part”. I thought the sound was great overall though, very crisp and clear and much better than the sound at the Tabernacle which was pretty good.



Anyway, a few moments later, he launched into a SCORCHING version of “The Ride”, playing the blue cloud guitar. This song is always an ass-kicking one and this night was no exception. There are few greater joys than being a few feet away from Prince and watching him just tear it up on that guitar. It was surreal how perfect it all was. “The Ride” is one of my favorite songs for him to play live, and he performed a classic version of it.



I believe he played When You Were Mine next which was an arrangement that I hadn’t heard before, and this is where he joked some about radio formats and some people would say that song had a “country” feel to it.



Next he went into sort of a funky riff on the guitar and walked to the side of the stage and Chuck D from Public Enemy came out and sang, “Fight The Power.” This is my favorite Public Enemy song and it made the night even more special to hear it. Chuck D elaborated on how Thanksgiving was a bogus holiday and then Prince left the stage for a bit.



A while later, he got on keyboards and began to play a little of Higher Ground and then Superstitious (both Stevie Wonder songs of course). I think he may have done a little of “Maybe My Baby” as well. Some other musicians came onstage and sang Superstitious while Prince continued to play the keys and also conducted the band.



At one point during the show, he led the crowd in a chant of “Bullets over Baghdad” (?) which someone said was an Outkast song. The audience was really into the entire show and participated with all the chanting, and hand waving, etc.



After this, he played the Santana Medley and tore that sh*t up like he always does, even with one of his guitar strings broken. I was sure that this was the end of the show (at about 3am), but about 10 minutes later, he came back and launched into She’s Always In My Hair, complete with more jamming on the guitar. He was now on his symbol guitar, which I’ve got to say was beautiful…it had this rich purple color to it and looked brand new.



After that, Prince closed the show with a too funky version of Kiss. He’s done this song many times in concert, but once again this was a new arrangement that really worked and made the song seem fresh and new.



At about 3:30 AM, the night finally ended with the band leaving the stage. I can’t tell you how powerful this evening was…everyone at the concerts were really united in their love for Prince’s music and people around me were sharing gum and candy and cigarettes, etc, etc. One person remarked that it’s too bad the world was not a big concert, with people sharing and taking care of each other like this. And you could feel Prince take the love that everyone had for him and, through his music, give it right back to us in every song. It was another magical experience to add to my book of memories of Prince shows I’ve been to.



Well, I’ve tried to remember all I could about the aftershow. I know I missed a couple of things, but hopefully I communicated the emotion and positive vibe that was in the room. I have to encourage everyone to make it to these aftershows, regardless of how tired they may be after the main show. It is always worth it when P gets onstage and turns it out until the wee hours of the morning.