Review: The Revolution rocks the most hard-core Prince audience ever at First Avenue

A tall man wore a purple-and-black paisley suit with a white ruffled shirt. One fellow donned a purple sequined fedora with a matching blazer. A blonde woman sported a purple jean jacket with silver studs over her right shoulder.

There were enough purple outfits and T-shirts to think it might have been a Vikings rally. But if you didn’t have a pendant of Prince’s glyph, you might have felt out of place.

Friday saw the most hard-core Prince audience that ever witnessed his heyday band, the Revolution, in concert at First Avenue.

Fams (Prince didn’t like the word fans) flew in from New Zealand and Canada and from Atlanta to Los Angeles to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the movie “Purple Rain,” which made Prince and the downtown Minneapolis nightclub in which it was filmed world-famous.

For the Purple faithful, it was a special night full of the familiar and the nostalgic. They got to hear Dr. Fink jam on “Baby, I’m a Star,” Lisa Coleman ask “Mommy, why does everybody have a bomb?” in “1999″ and Wendy Melvoin play the opening guitar notes of “Purple Rain” that she composed at the age of 19.

The Revolution’s first concert in 4½ years certainly wasn’t as emotional and cathartic as its trio of First Avenue gigs in September 2016, just a little more than four months after Prince died. Friday’s show wasn’t fun in the sun like the Revolution’s local performances at Rock the Garden in 2017 and the Basilica Block Party in 2018.

But the joy in the room was palpable as 1,500 Prince lovers sang the opening verse of “Raspberry Beret” and delivered the “woo-hoos” on “Purple Rain.” Dutifully waving their arms to the latter song, it didn’t matter that they weren’t as in sync as the fans in the scene from the movie. After all, this was the Revolution performing Prince songs live at First Avenue. What more could Prince aficionados ask 40 years after “Purple Rain”?

Well, they could ask if there were still tickets available for Saturday’s reprise at the Minneapolis club (there were).

The Revolution concerts are part of an unofficial Prince Week in the Twin Cities. Activities continued with a block party Saturday open to the public by the Prince mural on 1st Avenue as well as panel discussions and concerts part of the official Celebration 2024 at the State Theatre and Paisley Park in Chanhassen.

On Friday, the Revolution brought along a secret weapon: Judith Hill, one of Prince’s protégés from late in his career. She handled lead vocals on four numbers — “The Beautiful Ones,” “When Doves Cry,” “Kiss” and “Baby, I’m a Star” — bringing a soulfulness and vocal range to suggest his soaring high notes, thrilling falsetto and incomparable passion. She funked up “Kiss” with Aretha-evoking sass and gave a new meaning to the sound of doves crying. Hill’s selections ranked among the crowd favorites, along with the hard-grooving “America.”

After a week’s rehearsal in the Twin Cities and one practice with Hill, the Revolution sounded solid. Drummer Bobby Z didn’t get a moment to catch his breath between songs as he played more fills than he ever did when Prince was boss from 1979 to ‘86.

Melvoin, who shared lead vocals with bassist BrownMark, made a heartfelt speech near the end of the 80-minute performance and expressed her love for each of the Revolution’s members.

“We love doing this and we love doing it for you guys,” she told the appreciative crowd. “We’re missing [Prince] a lot. We’re not pretending to be him onstage. We’re just trying to make him proud.”

They did. Once again.