I love Prince – his Royal Badness has one of the most amazing compilations of music that I’ve ever come across – him and Eric Clapton – and I like a lot of different music by a lot of different artists. But Prince and Eric are by far the most phenomenal in my book. Dan provided the opportunity for me to go see Purple Rain at the House of Blues. Darian, Dan, and I went to a table reserved for us, right off of the dance floor.

Kind of kewl to go out with two of your kids. D.H. (yes, Donna, we plan to take you with us on one of these dance-athon, show excursions).

I have been out many a time over the years and danced it up with Dan, and we’ve roller bladed and he’s skated to music too many times to count. He’s a kick to go with, just hit the floor and keep dancing. I’ve danced it up with my son Josh – once when we were in Germany – I was visiting him and his wife – we left her at home and we went out and burned the soles off of our shoes in a German nightclub. A ton of fun. This was the first time I’ve ever gone out with Darian to a club – and danced with him. Nice when your kids call you and ask you to go do something like this with them. Most kids seem to forget that parents are people too.

But back to the show. Of course if was a Prince impersonator, goof. The whole show was fashioned after the movie Purple Rain and there was a lot more Morris Day and the Time than there was Prince. Prince was by far the best of the show, other than one special surprise that showed later. Prince looked exactly like Prince – and sounded like him too. Unfortunately he did very little and most of us wanted to see more of him. There were no women guitarist/back-up singers in the group…too bad, it would have been a very authentic touch.

I didn’t take my camera because I thought it would be the big taboo like it is in all live shows in Vegas. NOT! That’s not to say that all House of Blues shows will allow you a camera but some of these will – as long as you aren’t taking video. So iPhone it is.

We had a table with four chairs, and were seated in the perfect place to watch the stage and the dance floor. We had one couple that stood to the side of our table for quite awhile, then asked if they could sit on the spare chair. “Sure.” Problem was she sat on his lap – their back to us – and blocked our view. Butt heads. I got up and walked around the table and asked them to move to the side. They did. A few minutes later, the woman (they appeared to be in their late 20’s), laid her purse on the table and sat with her back to it.

Umnhhh. I start to wonder if she’s just an idiot of if there’s a bomb in it. Yeah, I have a suspicious mind.

Dan and I both looked at each other like WTF? He yelled at my ear over the noise of the music, “There’s nothing in it.”

I’m sure he was right, nothing that was worth anything, but honestly, I don’t know how anyone can just leave themselves so unprotected – especially in Vegas.

We hit the floor, and danced, and danced, and danced. Darian’s butt appeared to be glued to his chair and he only danced one dance with me, then, other than bathroom breaks, he was locked in to the table and chair. We came back to find our tourist chair users were on the dance floor but the purse was still laying on the table. KEE-RIST! Get real. I went out to the dance floor and accosted them, tapping them both and asked where they were from. “California, why?”

“Never leave your purse laying anywhere. especially in Vegas,” of course we’re screaming at each other because the music is over the top of the sound scale.

Surprise flooded her face and she had a panic stricken moment as she kind of looked around with, “Where did I leave it?”

“At our table.”

The guy, “Where’s your table?”

HELLO! What kind of drugs are these kids on?

I motioned and headed that way. They followed. When we got there, I turned around and she was right up against me…no shit…nipple to nipple…dancing into me. I yelled, “Are we dancing?”

She replied, “We are now.”

I just slipped my arm around her waist and danced with her for about a minute. Hell…I don’t care, I came to dance.

They took her purse and wandered off…I wonder if they even knew where they were.

The band took a break. They had announced earlier that the Temptations were in the house, and everyone applauded and woo hooed but the best the Temptations would do is wave. During this break, they got up and hit the stage. Darian was screaming at me to get out there and get some pictures….”This is history! The Temptations are here!”

The pictures were all poor, another iPhone shot.

They were great and stayed on stage for quite awhile – there were four of them. You see them from left to right. It is pretty sweet that you never know what you’re going to find in Vegas, no matter where you are or what time of day it is.

The guy that played Morris Day’s second – who would know his name? Not me. This guy’s name on stage was Jerome – possibly that’s the same name as the movie character. Jerome was hysterical. And what a mover, the guy could really dance. There were a couple of older, overweight grannies seated right by the stage and he was in front of them most of the time. He played to them. He took off his tie during one round of dancing craziness and wrapped his hands up in it so it appeared he was handcuffed and then held his arms out to them. LMAO. A bit later as he spiraled and moved through more moves, he suddenly stopped and grabbed his nipples and leaned over the women’s table and kept tweaking at his nipples. That was just part of the show he put on for them. Maybe you had to be there…but this kid knew his business…entertainment!
We had a trio focus in on our table and its one spare chair. They kept looking at the chair like it was gold but then they stood with their backs to us, like a frigging firing squad lined up shoulder to shoulder, right in front of us so we couldn’t see a damn thing. I got up and walked around the table again and asked them to body shift to the right. WTF!!! Finally one of the women asked if she could sit on the spare chair, “Sure! Just not in front of our view, pull it to the side.”

They were all short, nothing against short people but they couldn’t have been over 5’4″ or so. The guy kept glancing at Darian, almost like he was going to head shot him or something. This is beyond me. Darian is 6’4″ and cut like granite. Dan is about 6′, if there was a situation, I’d want them on my side and not against me. One of the women and the guy finally drifted off somewhere. The woman in the chair stayed but she got up from time to time and perched her ass on the edge of the table. OMG! Dan and I both laughed about it, was she looking for action? Dan and I went back to dancing.

On one bathroom break, I ran into a woman that was eating cigarettes, smoke rolling out of her head, and holding onto my arm because she was convinced I looked like a movie star but she couldn’t remember who and she didn’t want me to leave until she thought of it. Yeah…right! I escaped. She did catch me later as I was moving to the groovin’ and told me I looked like Diane Keaton. OH MY LORD! Oh well.

The woman in the chair kept trying to scream conversation at Darian. She’s not his type although I had the feeling she thought she was every guy’s type. She must have been close to 50…not that I’m knocking Grannies…but there should be a point where you quit trying to hustle if someone doesn’t look interested…he didn’t.

At one point Dan went back to the table and I stayed on the floor, moving to the music with the group that was out there. That’s what I like about these things – just go out and dance. And BTW, when we first got there, a DJ was cranking up the tunes (nice) and a couple was out crawling around each other, literally, on the floor, entwining, over under, semi humping with their clothes. They basically got told they couldn’t have sex on the dance floor. Hysterical. They stopped dancing and went back to their table.

Around 1:30ish, the show was over and when the restaurants closed down, smoking was allowed. We were ready to roll. A new chick was sitting beside Darian, him trying to jump start a conversation with him, as Dan and I walked up and asked if he was ready to go. Hell yes!

One word for the whole experience…AWESOME!