Hail to the King of Funk. Prince is his name.

The concert began at 8:15pm, it's now 1:40am and sleep is the furthest thing from my mind. I'm excited, energetic, speechless and dumbfounded by Prince's stellar performance tonight.

The sold out concert lasted over two and a half hours for an audience of probably 20,000-30,000.

Following his first song, he challenged the crowd by stating "MSG...you are not ready for me." He couldn't have been more right. Glancing at the surrounding faces; everyone, all races, all ages were in complete and utter awe. The audience was in motion throughout the night and it was a beautiful pure feeling.

Prince handpicked the musicians that make up New Power Generation, and they are the tightest band I have ever heard live. Prince even recruited James Brown’s sax player Maceo Parker.

For the first hour, the energy never let up as Prince sang and danced his way through a medley of songs from his early career. Utilizing two saxophones and a trombone, Prince punctuated his best songs in true funk style.

The artist is also a comedian; after addressing some of the younger people in the audience he then began playing a popular Beyonce song. He said he couldn't shake it like Beyonce because he didn't have enough ass. But he changed that when the heavy-set keyboardist Chance Howard joined him in shaking.

He had began singing one of his new songs where he pleads with his lover to let him go down south, as he sang that line there was a sudden female sound explosion which erupted. He took a step back, looked up into the crowd and tried to continue singing while holding back his laughter.

But it was more than just Prince's music and mere presence, Prince sat down with an acoustic guitar and played some familiar favorites with an unplugged treatment. The result was astonishingly intimate and enraptured his still dynamic yet quieter side. The acoustic was a reminder of what a striking talent he really is.

Starting another song he was only on the first line when he suddenly stopped singing but continued playing. He played while listening to over 20,000 people sing his lyrics. He allowed the audiece to sing the enitre song to him, at the end of the song he looked a bit choked up and said "I wish you could hear that from where I am sitting. Thank you. Now, I would like to sing for you."

He made it clear that this was a concert for "real music" as he continued to showcase each band member throughout the night and then intertwined riffs from other "real musicians", such as Van Halen, Metallica, James Brown, Ray Charles, Led Zepplin and Jimi Hendrix.

He ended the evening with Purple Rain, this one goes beyond my abilities to describe. Prince showed that he is truly one of the most underrated guitarists of our time.

The night was endlessly magical, transfixing us and compelling us to move, sing, clap and respond from the heart.

Prince
Musicology Tour
Tuesday, July 13, 2004 - 8:15pm
Madison Square Garden, New York City