By Brent Michael, Rock At Night Tampa Correspondent
Venue: Busch Gardens, Tampa, Florida
Marshall Charloff, front man for The Purple Xperience, looks, sounds, and acts like Prince on stage so much I could almost believe in channeling. Backed up by a quartet of experienced musicians, Marshall is a self-taught multi-instrumentalist with a biography that parallels the Purple One’s in many ways. He might not have as many chart-topping songs to his credit, but he has a few, some recorded by other artists.
Marshall bounced, pranced, twirled, changed outfits, headgear, instruments, jumped, wiggled, and altogether entranced the crowd. I swear by the reactions of some of the female fans, they thought Prince had come back to life and chosen them to witness his resurrection! Looking closer, Prince was rounder of face and darker of complexion, but to the casual observer and longtime Prince fan, he was there.
As expected, all the hits were covered, “1999,” “Kiss,” “Raspberry Beret,” “Little Red Corvette,” “Let’s Go Crazy,” I Would Die 4U,” “When Doves Cry,” and the finale, an extended version of “Purple Rain” that brought back the days long ago, when I saw the movie at our local drive-in theater with my now ex-wife. Good times, relived through The Purple Xperience!
For more info, go to: The Purple Xperience
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When not in custody, I've been involved with music, photography, and writing my entire life. Ever since I was a young boy and played those silver tunes, I've had the beat, but being a drummer didn't suit me so I became a lead singer, which lasted a few years. Settling down, sort of, I translated my knowledge of audio and glib tongue into mobile emcee work, and my training as a photographer and videographer into a living in the wedding, party, bar/bat mitzvah, and entertainment industry. During this time I also managed to bamboozle my way into a master's degree in writing, worked for a couple of magazines (yes, I took photos for a nudist magazine!), have photographed hotels, done commercial work (shot the cover of Tablet and Capsule magazine), published a few articles, hosted some public access shows (a couple times in drag, but that's another story), and generally made a nuisance of myself until I landed here.
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