Last night I saw PRINCE at Madison Square Garden – that’s right, baby! What a fun concert! My friend and fellow studio 1482-er, Kati, texted me in the afternoon and invited me to join her at the show. (Kati does a blog called musikati where she goes to many shows and reviews them. Her reviews include drawings and photos – you should definitely check it out.) So when she invited me I was so happy to go! Put on my old purple lipstick and everything – well, officially it’s called ‘Amethyst” and I haven’t worn it for years. But for Prince, oh yes I dug it out of my dresser drawer! Here is a drawing of the event and a first glimpse of the artist still known as the Prince:

He played all of my favorites – the ‘old school eighties’ as he called them. How fantastic! The show was complete with purple confetti and plenty of glitz. His stage was his famous ‘symbol’ with purple lights all around it. And talk about outfit changes – very hot! Prince was one of my earliest crushes – I remember taping (yes, VIDEO TAPING) his songs and music videos off of the old Friday night music video review on Channel 11 (anyone remember that?) and watching “Little Red Corvette” over and over, like it was my job. Prince had a funky sound and was too cute to handle! : ) Plus he was from an exotic place called Minneapolis – wasn’t that where Mary Tyler Moore lived? I used to picture Prince strutting down the snow covered streets of the city in his purple regalia and high heels, playing the guitar and being soulful in the midst of a blizzard.

He did it last night, although the blizzard was made of confetti:

LOVE the eyeliner – how fantastic is that? Of course they had three giant video screens above his head so you could see every nuance of expression! The guy is really a pro and a great performer. He understands proportion like crazy – actually he’s a good illustrator! I kept wanting to draw the body language, it was pretty dark but I really enjoyed drawing…

The look was really big in the eighties – part matador, part pirate. I remember my sister had a date with a guy who showed up at our house in a Prince-inspired outfit. Too hot! I really loved the eighties, it was a fun time. I can’t exactly say I felt like I was 19 again at the concert, that’s too cliched, but when Prince came up from the stage  for his final encore and played  “Jungle Love”, a fabulous dance song he wrote for Morris Day and the Time, I jumped out of my seat like a teenager and went a little nuts! Fortunately Kati was having a ball next to me as well! Then, to top it all off, he called people from the audience up on stage to dance and Cindy Lauper made a cameo singing appearance with him. Eighties pop bliss….Thanks Kati!

Purple Rain, oh yes.