Forgive my lack of posts in the past several, and I do mean several, months. Life has shifted in a lot of positive ways and some difficult ways too – and as you know, change is always a challenge.
Throughout the past four years I’ve been a bit of a hermit – going to school and working full time doesn’t really allow for much time for ‘fun’. Since graduating this past October I have been working to up the fun factor in my life. When I hear that Prince was coming to Winnipeg I thought, oh wow! His music is so the soundtrack to my high school years. I remember buying the cassette tape of Purple Rain, and obsessively watching his videos on MTV. So I purchased the least expensive tickets to the concert just to be there and hear his music. I wouldn’t say that I was uber-ecstatic about going, but was excited to see him perform live.
The day finally arrived. We got the concert and [unfortunately] Winnipeg had not sold out the entire arena, but the bonus was that our tickets got bumped up and we sat a level lower in the arena than originally planned (gotta like that!). Winnipeggers seek the quality things in life (as long as they are on sale), and are a discerning lot when it comes to our music.
From the moment Prince took the stage we knew it would be a different concert. Almost the entire audience stood up. Now, you have to understand, when we went to the Aerosmith concert last year – the majority of the audience remained seated. What it came down to (for me) was his clear passion for music, and for being true to his art, his craft. There was no selling out here – no excessive light shows and costume changes, no excessive performance factors. It was pure music (with only 3 costume changes).
[The best part was an older couple seated to our right (probably in late 60's) who immediately stood up and danced through the majority of the concert. Such a huge demographic represented!]
Much of Prince’s music is not available on YouTube (he didn’t even allow the local press to photograph the concert), but a friend posted on the same concert and found a video from the concert on Facebook. Here it is – take a moment and shake off your day – and listen to the instruction ’2 and 4!’.
Stand with Prince. (if this link doesn’t work you’ll have to look it up on facebook — Andy Alo/videos/Stand)
What Prince (and Art) has reminded me of is that sometimes you just gotta put on some music and shake it off! Cause you know what?
Sometimes life is hard.
We all share that experience.
[Perhaps this is my naiveté speaking, but...] At that concert it felt like ‘everyone’ that was there, in the moment, feelin’ the music right alongside Prince and the New Power Generation. And for a few hours, life was a little more joyful, and little easier.
Thank you Live Nation for bringing Prince to Winnipeg. And thank you Prince for being the true artist that you are.
Here are a couple of other posts on the concert…
