No this isn't some sort of sick joke. I went to Brooklyn Bowl this past Saturday to go see Erotic City, the "#1 Prince Cover Band." Now some of you may wonder why I would bother even doing such a thing, especially after getting the privilege of getting to see the real Prince, the MAN, perform live not once but twice on his "Welcome 2 America" Tour that just came blowing through the east coast a couple months ago. Don't get me wrong, those shows were beyond awesome, as you would guess. But I got a chance to go see Erotic City for $5, so I figured I couldn't pass that up. Coincidentally, $5 is the most money I've paid to see any artist perform that I've covered on this blog! How's that for perspective...
Now when you're talking about a cover band, I would guess your best bet is to talk about their similarities to the act they are supposed to be impersonating. I can start with the most obvious one, the look: Julian (the name of the guy who sings the songs, the Prince impersonator in the band) does resemble Mr. Nelson quite well, especially when you consider the purple velvet outfit he had on while performing. He has the mannerisms down to a tee as well, from the dancing to the dry humping on the floor. As far as the voice goes, some of the songs sounded better than others, as you would guess, but he did a great catalog of hits so it was hard for me to think that someone left without hearing at least a few of the hits they know and love. Now on to the show...
Erotic City really managed to cover quite a large amount of songs, and it had a lot to do with their extra long set they had prepared. It was so long that they finished doing their first set of tracks, left to change their clothes, and came back to sing even more songs after a bit of an intermission. They covered a lot of songs that Prince did in the shows I saw: Controversy, Kiss, 1999, Let's Go Crazy, If I Was Your Girlfriend and a ton of other hits. He even had time to do "Jungle Love" by Morris Day and the Time, a song that Prince also covered in one of his shows that I saw (with Sheila E!). The thing that stood out for me for Erotic City was the songs they did that Prince didn't do. My two favorite Prince songs of all time are "I Wanna Be Your Lover" and "When Doves Cry," two amazing songs that Prince didn't do in the two times I saw him perform. Both of these songs were however, covered by Erotic City on Saturday night, much to my surprise and glee! WOOHOO! SCORE!!!!!
Erotic City didn't hold back on the more provocative and explicit Prince tracks either; they are called Erotic City after all. They did P*ssy Control, Irresistible Bitch, as well as Sexy M.F., and even found time in their busy set list to do "Darling Nikki." Clearly the kids should have been put to bed for this performance, this was Prince for the grown ups only! The band was a lot of fun as well. They have a great and talented drummer, as well as a bass player who didn't stop dancing around the stage for the entire night, in some wild and crazy hats. Their keyboard player covered a lot of the guitar solos that Prince would normally do, playing them on the keyboard of course, and giving them plenty of justice. With that said, don't think for a second that Julian didn't get in his fair share of guitar solos. As a Prince impersonator your guitar game has to be on point, and Julian is no slouch by any means, even playing the guitar behind his back and dancing during one solo, which came right after he played a bunch of riffs in a row with one hand, a la Prince. He even played his own keyboard for a few songs, but it was tuned like a keyboard, not like a guitar like the lead keyboard player. They brought out a woman to sing a couple of duets, one of which was "Nothing Compares To You," and played even past "Purple Rain" by jamming out with some funk until pretty much everyone was gone! It was a brilliant show and I would recommend seeing these guys rock if you get a chance to. This was my very first cover band I've ever seen, and now that I know that they can be this good, I will be trying to go to as many as possible!
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