CENTERSTAGE
Prince’s 26th birthday—an auspicious occasion, I think we all can agree—found him in Detroit, where he’d kicked off the Purple Rain tour last year...and clearly in a more quixotic, experimental and flat-out happier mood this time around.
CENTERSTAGE
I’LL BE WITH YOU SHORTLY
PRINCE & THE REVOLUTION Cobo Arena, Detroit June 7, 1986
by J. Kordosh
Prince’s 26th birthday—an auspicious occasion, I think we all can agree—found him in Detroit, where he’d kicked off the Purple Rain tour last year...and clearly in a more quixotic, experimental and flat-out happier mood this time around.
Where the Purple Rain show was stiff and formulaic, this—what appears to be the beginning of the Parade tour, if you can believe $15 T-shirts and $45 sweat shirts that say so—was freewheeling and a really cool idea, all told. Eschewing his hits—even the formidable Purple Rain, excepting the title song—Prince & The Revolution (which now numbers 11, including Jerome Benton on back-ups) banged out a fine, virtually non-stop 22-song set, grooving largely on Parade and Around The World In A Day, with Prince himself knocking off splits, spins and shuck ’n’ jive in a blatant, yet goodwilled, James Brown posture.