Prince's Oscar Party Report
Posted Monday 02/23/2009 4:07 PM in
Blender Blog
by
Tricia Romano
What: Prince's Oscar Party
When: 2/23/09
Where: Avalon Club, Hollywood, CA
Secret Prince parties are the stuff of legend and so when Blender was invited to the Purple One's very exclusive Oscar night bash at Avalon, we shivered in anticipation. Told that doors opened at 10, and knowing Prince's penchants for very fashionable lateness, we cruised in around 12:30 in the morning, just in time for the unveiling of his new site, lotusflow3r.com.
Around 1:30 he took the stage with his latest band, a six-piece that included, two singers, Shelby Johnson and Olivia Warfield, drummer Cora Dunham, keyboardist, Morris Hayes, and Frederic Yonnet, who demonstrated the versatility of a harmonica that we never knew existed.
The club wasn't packed--purposely, it would seem--but the crowd was voraciously eating up every shred of rock-funk-soul goodness that Prince delivered.
It turned out he was in a mood to hear other people's songs. He played a ton of covers, as wide ranging as Prince's own styes. The Beatles' "Come Together," "Crimson and Clover, " and the Cars' "Let's Go, (I Like the Nightlife), all got the Prince remix. He employed his delicate falsetto to "Crimson and Clover" and seemed to revel in the soft-hard dichotomy of the song, dishing out grunts, and shredding on the guitar with gusto.
"Come Together"--like many of the other tunes--turned into an extended jam, and, with the addition of his two back up singers, both possessing muscular, powerful voices, had a bit of a gospel touch.
Toward the end, he turned in a bit of "Cream" much to the crowd's delight--which included Oscar nominee Taraji P. Henson, as well as Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys, and Penelope Cruz.
Feeling a bit nostalgic, he pulled out a few bits from the Prince family--"Jungle Love" and "Glamorous Life" were crowd favorites--and made you wish it was still the 80s.
Funniest/best bit: When Prince got all M.I.A. on us and invited audience members up to the stage to dance and--even sing--to the strains of "Play That Funky Music." For a minute there, it was like a real house party, and Prince seemed to be giggling to himself when an audience member helped himself to the mic and sang lead.
The band left the stage and the crowd chanted his name. Finally, he returned to dish out the encore's "I Feel For You." But it was nearly 4 a.m. and I was out of time.
--Tricia Romano
