Encore.

Your mother and I tend to agree on most things. OK, many things. But I'll be honest, encores are not one of those things. The frustration on your mother's face when an artist goes through the charade of leaving the stage, usually following a "Thank you. Goodnight!", is surpassed only by her reaction during exhibitions of Picasso's later work, but that we'll leave for another discussion.


Last night, as we crossed into your 10 month birthday, we prepared to indulge in the genius of Prince. Yes, you heard right, at 12:00AM your parents were standing among the devotees waiting for the artist formerly known as the artist formerly known as Prince to grace the stage. Three and a half hours later, he finished what was to be his final encore. At that point, however, even your mother was momentarily converted and sought no refuge from the Purple Rain.

To say that we bore witness to a living legend would be doing this particular legend an injustice. Prince is of a dying breed. He is a one of a kind showman that must at times be defined by symbols rather than words. Watching his show was the closest that my generation will come to inhaling funk in its truest form. It reeked of the 70's, in a good way.

Having taken a peek at the set list from the night before, I could have easily walked out with the great disappointment of not hearing Peach, Everyday People, Let's Go Crazy, 1999, Little Red Corvette, Thank You, Raspberry Beret, Cream & Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough. Let's be honest, those are enough omissions to lead even the most dire fan to ask for his money back. It may be the recency effect, having left high on Kiss & Purple Rain, but I couldn't help but feel content. Even now, looking back, it wasn't about the hits. It was all about the music. How often do we really get that anymore?

One thing we knew, while walking the streets of our beloved city, was that we were witnessing it at its best. Just before sunrise, Montreal had rolled over to find that it had spent the night with a strange looking man, no taller than 5'2" who thought that he was royalty. But in this world, she just smiled and fell back asleep, swept away by dreams of perpetual summers, festivals, bixis, terrasses...