Prince Closes Out SXSW With Joyous, Funk-Heavy 3-Hour Set

Prince is onstage wearing a spirit animal hat—fox, for the completists—and sunglasses tearing into Janet Jackson's "What Have You Done for Me Lately" at the 400-capacity Austin club La Zona Rosa. Had we been allowed to take pictures, that shot would've been the whole review right there; the perfect signifier for a freewheeling, playful set leaning hard on extended instrumental funk jams.

              Prince is all over our photo gallery from SXSW's closing day 

But let's go back two-and-a-half hours, with The Purple One entering the stage with a high-collared pink shirt and suit straight out of The Mack to close out South by Southwest. He waves around a bejeweled scepter because he is Prince and of course there's a scepter. Just like of course all 12 horn players of his 22-piece band are wearing those spirit animal hats (well, technically 11, with one dude rocking the Bonnaroo-ready hippie hat and apparently not getting the band notes). He will probably be talked to later.

Prince's world has no analogies or exaggerations; it lives within itself, transcending rational thought.  If you think I'm full of sh-t, imagine your dad saying, and I'm quoting Prince here, "A lot of people got horns, but they usually leave them on their cars." Tonight, Prince will somehow make this sound cool.