I thought about how annoyed I was with Prince today. I saw him in 2011 and for the first 25 minutes of his show, everyone cried. Like, thousands of women just were bawling. No one sang his songs, no one danced, everyone just cried like infants. I never saw anything like it. And he played for about 2 hours, hitting every major hit in his catalogue before being lowered down into the stage, disappearing. What a show! But 2 minutes later, he was back, in pink fuzzy boots (a new ouftit, I believe number 12 now, as he changed every few songs) and did an encore. He played maybe 10 minutes, was lowered on the little platform under the stage, and gone again. Man, THAT was a show! Nope. 10 minutes later…encore again. It was about midnight now and I was a little tired, but hey, it was Prince. He played again, demanding our energy, we weren’t allowed to sit down…and confetti rained from the ceiling and he said good night and was lowered into the stage. Good night! No. He came BACK up, “Oh ya’ll thought I was done? Hell naw sit your asses down we ain’t done yet!” Prince was now in an all white get up with glittery pants and then the sounds of sobbing returned from the thousands of fans. He once again played for about 10-15 minutes and, once again, lowered down. More confetti, the lights came on, and he was done. It dawned on me that he didn’t play Purple Rain though, and I grew scared he was coming back. It was like 2am and I had to get going. Just as I realized he didn’t play the song…“He didn’t play Purple Rain!” people were saying. “I can’t believe he didn’t play Purple Rai–” AND THE LIGHTS WENT OUT. PRINCE CAME BACK. DAMN YOU PRINCE I HAVE WORK TOMORROW. The man came back up, a new outfit, and by now I was cracking up at the ridiculousness. We were held hostage by Prince. He wasn’t done. He STILL HAD SONGS. I was exhausted. He played Purple Rain and the lights went on, confetti came, and I’ll be damned if the entire crowd didn’t wait around 30 minutes AFTER the last song to make sure he wasn’t coming back. That, my friends, is an entertainer.
