Dateline Boston — Last week I saw a cool Prince tribute band. They’re called Princess. The lead singers are college friends Maya Rudolph (of SNL fame) and Gretchen Lieberum. They told the story of how they used to listen to Prince all the time in college. After their amazing performance, I know it’s true.
They played at a club in Boston, and my friends, Husband, and I scored a great view from upstairs. We stood behind a woman who wore her 1984 Prince concert tee-shirt. I wore the one I got from his second-to-last concert—together, our shirts spanned decades!
The band arrived onstage dressed up just like members of Prince’s bands from current times and ones from years past. Maya wore a purple coat/dress just like the one Prince wore in Purple Rain, and Gretchen wore a black coat and police hat, circa Prince, 1988.
When the music first came on, there was a recording of Prince’s voice, and I suddenly burst into tears. It’s still unbelievable to me that I will never see Prince in concert again. The band started playing, and the ladies sang their hearts out. They sang mostly his Purple Rain hits, plus a few earlier numbers that only diehard fans (like me) would know. They did a spot-on imitation of Prince, down to hand gestures and screams. They reminded me of my best friend and me in high school.
After awhile, I got a tap on the shoulder, and a woman said to me, “Aren’t you and your husband the ones we talked to at the Prince party at Bella Luna?” Oh, my goodness, a Prince fan reunion! We said yes, and all hugged each other and became Facebook friends.
We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves for the next hour and a half, and left, not without a few more tears shed by me. I may not see Prince again, but seeing Princess made me feel like he was there with us at the club.
Ms. Vaillancourt may be contacted at snobbyblog@gmail.com
