Heavenly Daze - Chicago Launch Party



I am only now emerging from the heavenly daze that Prince put me in on Friday. He is omnipotent. And Chicago LOVES HIM as we always say over and over again in bursts of uncontrolled emotion.



My girl Jo and I with Angie and Re-re were the first ones through the door. I knew from the moment I walked in the place that something magical was about to happen. We assumed our usual post front and center. The mike was between us on stage and I was leaning on Prince’s music bookstand, we had two speakers on either side of us about waist high – the acoustics for us were impeccable.




Our purpleheadz were out in force Tricky, Roxy, Carla and Batman, Julian, Cotton-top, Superman and Kay were all around us. It was wonderful, when the DJ’s had the nerve to play some non-Prince noise we would just start singing Prince songs and jam a-cappella. We sang Poom-Poom until they played it. We sang face down, and mad sex. It’s great to be in a crowd where everyone appreciates the work so much that we know every word and every riff.



The DJ’s had the place moving playing some new mixes with pounding base lines. And they had big screens to either side where Sam showed us video from the Music Club website that he has worked so hard on (Thanks much Sam for all the hard work, I love the club)



Then the fonky bald headz came out, Chicago showed them love too. Jo and I were at the launch party at Paisley Park and when the bald headz sang “Youneedanotherloverlikeyouneedaholeinyourhead” the crowd was cricket, cricket quiet but in Chicago we drowned out the Baldheadz singing back to them. We had fun with them and the girls who followed them.



As they were finishing their set we looked in the wings and there HE was. That timeless beauty just glowing. Even though I was leaning over his song book it didn’t click how close he would be to us until he did that powerful, confident rock star walk and pranced within inches of our faces. The whole place erupted in screams we were so delighted to see him. (And Jo and I thought we were close at Paisley when we were within a foot of his loveliness, and here we were two weeks later even closer than that:) I was and still am in a heavenly daze. I’ll call it Prince Proximity Syndrome. Being close to his energy just puts me in an instant state of euphoria, where I know only joy compounded. The sight of him, the sound of him, the thought of him, does this for me and for millions of others.



The music club gives us the opportunity to show him our love directly, no middle man. He had on a black coat that was embellished with intricate golden buttons and delicate embroidery work. His jacket was open and the rest of his body was draped in red. His hair, shimmering and healthy is long and layered (I wonder if it is as soft as it looks). His smile is quick and easy and there is joy and freedom in his captivating eyes. This time I couldn’t take my eyes off his hands. They are amazing, delicate and strong and he doused us with funk I couldn’t get my mind around how much pleasure the hands I beheld have brought me and all the fans around me. As he was singing “willing to do the work” the fact that he will be giving and giving even more of himself to us just made my eyes well up. Through our hazy bliss we were trying to reassure him that we would always be there for him and that he didn’t need a thieving record label when he had us.




I like to hear his social commentary because his speaking voice is just dreamy. I float on the cadence of it, like riding a gentle wave at sunset. His words are poetic and potent, pure unadulterated truth. He said the last time he was at the Park West he was 21 and horny. He flashed a quick smile tilted his head down and dramatically swooped his thick lashes up as he looked over the packed house. In that instance I felt real sorry for those who couldn’t get tickets, they sold out so fast, as they always do here.



I’ll be all day recounting the story at this pace but even the little things that he does seem spectacular to me because it is he, the best ever doing them. So here are my highlights:



1) He looked at me. I don’t mean quickly caught my eye and moved on looked at me. I mean stopped talking opened his beautiful eyes as wide as they go and stared into my soul looked at me. My normally reliable knees went weak, stomach went all topsy-turvy and everything else just started tingling. He mouthed a question which my brain refused to translate so I stood flushed with a “doe in headlights” look on my face. (And I thought I’d be cool if he ever spoke to me, there goes that theory



2) He put his fingers to his lips and breathed into them to silence our screams for a spell, (bent down which put him nearly at eye-level for us) and began stroking the neck of his guitar in unbelievable tantalizing ways. and oh my goodness watching his fingers caress the strings was almost like being touched. I’m pretty descriptive but even I can’t find the words that would do justice to what he was doing to us. All I can say is all my efforts not to cry failed in that instant, I was still standing because I was hold on to Jo and Angie.



3) Drinking in the faces he was making as he sang You Make My Sunshine, I was getting very close to sensory overload at that point.



4) Watching him, feeling him pound the rhythmic driving beats of Housequake through us.



5) Then he walked off the stage and it felt as if someone snuffed the sun out. Screams of protest, nooooo don’t stop were everywhere, more…. Please just a bit more. He called us “Addicts” and he was right, I know I was shaking and in desperate need of a “Prince fix”. Then he came back out … wails of joy exploded from the crowd. We were just mesmerized by the fact that no one was standing closer to him than us and he was torrentially pouring his heart into a rich rendition of Purple Rain an experience I will be reliving in my dreams for years to come.



It will always be overwhelming to watch him sing and play at the same time with such passion and depth. I really do fell lucky to be alive at the same time as he is and able to perceive and feel the gifts he is sharing with the world. It took me three days to float down from the joyful trance he put me in this time but it was nice to share the journey with my buddies. So who’s going to LA with me? Jo? If it’s on a weekend we are there Sista. Man, I love Life!!!


See you at the next episode.

AprilReigns