Prince Blows The Park West Up Friday Night in Chicago!!



What can you say about this brotha?! The adjectives are starting to run out when it comes to trying to describe this man and his talent! There will be other reports, I'm sure, that will contain set lists and such but, I just want to share my view of Friday Night's experience.



I was first in line along with my buddy AprilReign (of course) and my girls Angie and Ree-Ree at the Park West in Chicago! We entered the club and had our choice of where we wanted to be! How cool is that!? We were standing directly in front of the man's mike stand!! Prince was All Up in Our Grills, baby! How many people can say they had Purple Rain played literally in their FACE?! I have come to realize that when you are standing on the front line at a Prince show, it is unlike anything you've ever experienced before. You get an entirely different perspective of the show than say someone who opted to just sit and chill in the back. The energy level is UNREAL and UNFATHOMABLE and you are totally caught up in it!! It's like being in "The Suck Zone" or, as we were calling it Friday night, The O-Zone! I have become so spoiled now. I have seen Prince perform in Chicago twice within the last 4 months and once just 2 weeks ago at Paisley Park and I was on the front row for each of them. I can no longer settle for anything less than that! If you've ever been there, YOU KNOW WHAT I'M TALKIN' ABOUT!!



We were surrounded by all the usual diehards that attend every Prince show in Chicago. My guy Tom R. (Love you loads, dude!) Karla (what's up girl!), my cuz Jerome, Roxy and her crew, Superman & his wife, Julian, Bianca (luv'd the hat, girlfriend!) and my man "Cottontop"! The Fams were in the house and primed & ready to jam!!



Prince came out dressed in red with a black top coat and looking as gorgeous as he wanted to be!! It was like Hit & Run II!!! He opened with "Uptown" and that just charged us all up! Chicago loves hearing him perform that song! Right after that, he went into "Controversy" with Geneva coming out with the newspaper, just like at last November's Hit & Run Tour. Now, don't get me wrong - this was not an exact duplication of that tour. Prince also dug out some new stuff for us. A new joint called "Willing To Do The Work" followed his customary speech which was very much on point about record labels and how they gouge artists who are doing all the work but not reaping the rewards. It was not "preachy" by any means! I felt and understood what the brotha was trying to say. He also perfomed a song that was written by Donny Hathaway called "When Will We All Be Free"! Some of you who saw the movie Malcom X may recall this song being sung by Aretha Franklin at the end of the movie as the credits were rolling. Just a beautiful, beautiful song! I was happy to hear him do something like that! Kip Blackshire's vocals on the song were excellent!



But what really got me was "You Are My Sunshine"! That song had the same effect on me as did "Adore" when he performed it at The Northrup last June. One of the young ladies from the group Milllenia (geez, I hope that's correct) sang Angie Stone's part and she and Prince had me damn near in tears! So heart wrenching it was! Brotha clowned on Housequake! If anyone's seen clips of that San Jose show, they know how Prince breaks Housequake down to a real mellow groove with a cool baseline and goes into one of the most awesome guitar solos ever! He even told us to "shhhhh", then turned the guitar over on it's backside and began tapping on the guitar causing it to purr with some of the most erotic sounds I've ever heard!! Brotha was "clowning" I tell you!! And of course, Prince had to play Purple Rain. I've heard many people say that they are tired of hearing him do P.R. Not Me!! Reason being, every time he does that song, there's just a little bit more... a little bit more emotion... a little bit more feeling to it. I have never seen him do P.R the same way twice! There's always something different about it everytime I hear it. It's the emotion he puts into it everytime that makes it different. And again, he played it IN MY FACE!!



I aint gonna even try to relay to y'all everything he played Friday night. I can't! I was caught up in the O-Zone! I do know that Prince made quite a bit of eye contact with AprilReigns (what up with that, girl!!) Brotha even asked her something!! He also shook my hand a couple of times! I also got one of John Blackwell's drum sticks (that bad boy was BEAT UP, I tell ya!) And one thing I thought was kind of ironic yet cool was, after the show, there was a dude in the audience trying to reach over and take the leftover guitar picks that Prince didn't use! Me & AprilReigns were not HAVING IT! I can't fathom anyone trying to steal from Prince! I feel like, he's given us alot over the years through all his talent and, even though it was only a few guitar picks, I thought STILL, you can't steal from Our Brotha! We got Prince's guitar tech Tekomi to come over and told him to take the picks because that dude was trying to steal them! Tekomi, in turn, gave the picks to us! We didn't ask for them, we weren't even trying to get them. It was just a nice gesture on Tekomi's part, I thought. After what Prince had just given us, how could any try and steal from him, even if it is only a measley guitar pick! My opinion, ya know?



The Fonky Baldheads opened the night with a set that did not disappoint! Their performance was FIRE, as was Millenia, the new girl group Prince is rocking with! Sista's with MAD HARMONY!!! Najee was in the house too and dropped a nice solo on that mellowed out portion of Housequake.



Again, I know other Chicago Fams will have more to add. I just wanted to share my experience! Thanks!



Jo/RedZRyder!