A few Tuesdays ago, or perhaps sometime in the late Cenozoic, I went to another cabaret night of the Boston Pop Underground, which was a tribute to the music of Prince. I was planning to go well before then, but the Wednesday before that I met the host, John Powhida, in quite unexpected circumstances, so there was no way I was going to miss it ! And before it began, we talked a little about His Purplitude and especially the high quality of his B-sides in the 80s. Now I need to look for that lost Christmas song he did...

And so, Mr. Powhida and the specially-assembled band Mascafemuhorne (like Prince's symbol — get it ?) took the stage, with Tony Goddess (ex-Papas Fritas) on bass, and featuring the very smoldering Andrea Gillis on vocals. They led off with “Pop Life” — of course ! — and romped through a lot of hits and just plain good LP cuts like “Take Me With U.” Somehow, they morphed “Sign O' the Times” in “Let's Pretend We're Married.” “You Got the Look” was turned in a blues-rock stomper, not too far from ZZ Top. Bleu and Andrea did a great version of “Nothing Compares 2 U,” one of two Prince songs they did that night that were hits for other artists (the other was “I Feel For You”). I have to say J. Po really does the early Prince Dirty Mind/Controversy voice well.

All in all, it was a lot of fun, and funky.

Also, as a bonus, the Paradise Lounge was exhibiting art by Gary Baseman — if you've got any of the Cranium games, you'll recognize his work right away. Hmm, but the stuff he does for himself isn't exactly for kids...