Purple Reign

As we were standing in line to see Purple Reign at Hooters, a miserable woman walked past and said to her equally miserable male companion, "These people are such idiots. They don't know they're not seeing the real Prince. If they're going to be that dumb I'm not going to tell them."

Wow! Being the smartest person in the world must be such a burden for her.

We should have run after her and yelled, "What do you mean it's not the real Prince?! They should call it Purple Reign of Terror! This is an outrage! Hooters will be hearing from our lawyer!"

I'm pretty sure even the elderly Japanese couple who didn't speak English understood they were seeing a tribute band and not the real thing. To quote my favorite philosopher Bugs Bunny, "What a maroon!"

I really like Prince's music so I had been wanting to see Purple Reign for quite some time. A few months ago, a friend of mine went for her 40th birthday. She was a bit disappointed in the show. She explained that she didn't like the part where he performed as some sort of alter ego doing original material. Turns out, it wasn't an "alter ego doing original material." It was a Morris Day impersonator! She just didn't know the music of Morris Day! I think "Cool" is one of the greatest funk songs of all time so I was thrilled!

The show is great. Unfortunately, our crowd was turd-like so it didn't have the party atmosphere that is present on many nights but, as performers, we enjoyed watching the band deal with our lack of energy.

My husband didn't help matters. He's the worst audience member because he just sits there and studies everything. He'll spend five minutes fixated on the guitar player's hands or tracking the movements of the tech dudes. In fact, during "1999" I stood in front of him so the performers wouldn't notice that he wasn't up dancing. For the record, he loved the show. But, as I said to him, "I can never tell."

I knew most of the lyrics-- from both Prince and Morris Day- so I just happily sang along.

Watching Purple Reign was one of the few moments in my life when I wished I had a boat load of cash. Hiring these guys for my birthday party would be amazing. Oh wait, I'm not having a birthday party. I'll be working that night at Stitches in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Get your tickets now. I promise it won't be a Traci Skene tribute act.