Prince

I debated writing anything about Prince's Saturday performance at Myth Nightclub. I mean, it's Prince. And I am, by no means, a music reviewer any more than I am a restaurant or theatre or festival reviewer. I would say, moreso than a reviewer, I experience certain things and I want to share them. I write to share, not to warn, or complain, or even to overly promote. Over the 6 years I've lived in the Cities I've slowly, sometimes painfully, built a little world for myself peppered with pretty awesome experiences.  And it's those experiences I want to record for posterity.

So, in the interest of sharing, here we go...

Prince has been on my bucket list for a long time.  Knowing that he was from Minneapolis, that his presence was inextricably woven into the music history of the city, just made the thought of seeing him seem all the more elusive.  When he played at the Dakota recently I was crushed to learn of the exorbitant ticket prices and just resigned myself to yearning for some magical moment when I'd happen to be at some late show at First Ave and he'd pop up and decide to play. A quasi-ridiculous daydream, I know.

I thought the Myth show would be another such heartbreak when the $280 tickets went on sale. That is 25% of a round trip ticket to London. There is no part of me that can justify $280 for a ticket, not in this paying-off-student-loans period of my life. And I will admit there is some part of me that was bit peeved at the Purple One for being so inaccessible. At some point Prince was a poor, scrappy kid buying records in between paychecks, right? He wasn't always so removed from the rest of us.

But mere hours before the show, some cheaper tickets went on sale for $140 and $99.  I opted for the cheapest ($112 with fees) and still shut my eyes when I hit "submit" on the payment button and hoped however they were dividing these strata of tickets would make sense.

I was solo with my ticket (a dear friend went for the stellar ticketing and probably felt Prince's sweat on her at some point) and I wished we'd gotten there a bit earlier just so I could have had a closer view from the beginning. I'm very short so standing behind 3-4 rows of people (is everyone in Minnesota 6'2?) was just not going to work out. I could see snips of someone (Prince?) for the first 2 songs and then decided to risk it and check the balcony for the second time and see if I could squeeze somewhere with a better vantage point. Success! I landed tucked in a Rachel-sized space dead center of the balcony with a perfect view.

I know other reviewers have said Prince never really took off, but for me, as someone who'd never seen him live and never dreamed I'd get to, the experience was just impossibly fun.  Swinging from newer songs (Screwdriver)  to some classics (When Doves Cry, Purple Rain with Bobby Z on the drums), the pendulum moved from pounding tempo to piano-laden croons. I suppose that could be called uneven, but to me it was just a perfect taste of everything I love about Prince. Unpredictable. Kind of weird. Guitar licks and vocals that just make your jaw drop in their intensity. Slow jam instrumentals that confuse you until you place the tune (Even Flow by Pearl Jam). It just all felt perfectly Prince to me, which was all I wanted for my $112. And I suppose what I loved the most was Prince's warmth, his constant shout outs to his "hometown," his heartfelt admiration for Bobby Z's lifelong loyalty as they played Purple Rain together. Prince seemed happy to be onstage, happy to introduce his new band, happy to show off a bit, and happy to sit back and let the crowd sing along. And for me, that happiness was definitely infectious.

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