Newspaper Page Text
Tuesday, January 27, 1998
THE MAROON TIGER
PAGE 12
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
Former Prince Reclaims His Throne at Fox
By Sterling Taylor
Staff Writer
The lights are dim. Rose
petals litter the carpet under
your feet. There's an array of
alcoholic drinks at your
disposal. A slow jam is
playing on the speakers, its
throbbing bass beckoning
your heart to beat with it. No,
this is not some wannabe
player's fantasy; this is the
atmosphere before a concert of
The Artist Formerly Known as
Prince in the Fox Theatre. But
the objective is the same: he
wants to get you in the mood.
The Artist is sex
personified to the seventh
power, one degree more than
the nymph of pop herself,
Madonna. He uses this to his
advantage on the stage. Like
any great lover, his main aim
is to please. The middleaged
entertainer proved
inexhaustible as he fused the
spirits of Elvis and James
Brown and interspersed them
with his trademark splits. One
thing noticeably unique at his
concert was the fact that from
the moment The Artist made
his entrance until he exited, no
one took their eyes off of him
and no one left their seats
except to move closer to the
stage (as one man's date did,
climbing over rows to get a
better view!). This is because
the artist's repertoire includes
so many classics, no one wants
to risk missing their favorite
song. His backup band was
well capable of keeping up
with him, although it seemed
like only he knew what he was
going to do next. Since the
artist is a master of all of his
band's instruments, he
demands nothing less than
perfection from them.
The Artist's two-hour set
consisted of about thirty songs
which he played the best parts
of (one verse, one chorus). He
opened it up with, "Jam of the
Year", the concert's title song
and one of only two songs
from Emancipation, his latest
album.. "Face Down", The
Artist's angry rap diatribe
against his "oppressor", ex
label Warner Brothers, was the
other. While these two songs
were effective for their funky
styling, The Artist shined most
when he did his older songs;
namely the songs he put out
when we were still allowed to
call him Prince. He began
working the crowd into a
frenzy with a Jerry Lee Lewis-
style "Delirious", but then
slowed it down with the all-
time classic "Purple Rain",
featuring a weeping guitar
solo that had every smoker in
the theatre raising their
lighters to heaven. "Little Red
Corvette" proved that a great
deal of The Artist's earlier
songs can be classified as rock.
The energy that he gave off
during this number was
contagious.; every member of
the thirty and older crowd was
moving to either The Artist's
FILR
rhythm or their own.
However, it was slightly
embarrassing to see people
older than my parents gettin'
loose.. .real loose!
Towards the end, The
Artist performed a string of
numbers that consisted of
nothing more than him and his
piano. On "How Come U
Don't Call Me Anymore?", he
proved that he begat D'Angelo
(like he ever needed to prove
anything to anybody
anyway!). The show was, of
course, dominated by the
music, but as expected, sex
pervaded in nearly every
number. The Artist found a
way to simulate sex with every
instrument he played - as well
as many of the stage props (to
the delight of his female fans).
He even threw in a little
mysoginistic innuendo, as the
female bass player performed,
he teasingly asked the
audience "How low can she
go?"
Between his rock-induced
dance numbers ("Let's Go
Crazy", "Rasberry Beret") and
his love ballads ("The
Beautiful Ones") its hard to
decide which he is more adept
at or which his fans like more.
Either way, The Artist
succeeded in putting on a
show, quite possibly the "Jam
of the Year" so far. When the
show was over, everybody left
satisfied and content. The
Artist's satisfaction probably
came from knowing that he
got everybody off.
Reclaiming his throne, the former Artist gives a regal concert
for the fan at the Fox.
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