Tag: Prince

Sharing my husband’s memory of the night his band opened for Prince

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

Last night talking about Prince with my husband, and knowing what a huge fan of his he was, I asked Tom what is his favorite Prince song. He said there were too many and then shared a heartfelt story about the night his band (The Atlantics) opened for Prince at the Metro. It was for The Dirty Mind album tour and the year was 1981, Saint Patrick’s Day. He and his band mates were over the moon with excitement, but also scared to death. Not because of Prince’s growing star power, but because of the intense racial divisions prevailing in Boston at that time, which often manifested at rock concerts, with musicians getting caught in the crosshairs.

All worries were for nothing. To everyone’s joyful surprise, the audience, a sea of black faces and white faces in equal numbers, were all there to have a fantastic time, which they did. Tom especially recalls a group of young black women in the first row, dressed more for church than a rock concert, smiling and dancing to the Atlantics songs, and if you can believe this, they placed their purses on top of the stage, near his feet. (Can people even bring purses to concerts any longer??) Prince’s messages of love and tolerance are a powerful inspiration. That Saint Patrick’s Day night at the Metro opening for Prince is one of Tom’s favorite band memories.

On Tom’s facebook page is a great photo from that night, taken by the Metro’s house photographer Steven Stone, maybe a little too sexy in case young kids are scrolling through GMG, but you can check it out here at Thomas Hauck.