If you follow Popservations on Twitter, then you know that I was at Prince’s concert in Oakland on Wednesday night. The Oracle Arena turned out to be a locked-down fortress impenetrable by AT&T’s 3G network, which frustrated my desire to share the excitement of the evening as it unfolded.

It was an absolute joy to hear Prince perform songs I’d played over and over on the stereo as a kid. I’ve seen Prince in concert before, but Sheila E. joined him for this trio of dates on his Welcome 2 America tour, which meant that in addition to personal highlights from the Purple One’s vast catalog — “Little Red Corvette,” “Kiss,” “Baby I’m A Star,” “Pop Life,” and “Alphabet St.” (only snippets of the last two, sadly) — I lived a childhood dream of seeing Sheila E. sing “The Glamorous Life” and “A Love Bizarre” live. Especially “A Love Bizarre.” There was a good run when that 45 was rarely separated from the record player.

Bizarrely enough, that run took place about 25 years ago. It was exactly this week in 1986 that Sheila E. peaked with the song at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100. Prince, you’ll recall, co-wrote and sang backing vocals on “A Love Bizarre,” which was also featured in the film Krush Groove, in which Sheila E. co-starred:

Alas, there was no “Belle Of St. Mark” to be heard on Wednesday night, but you can’t have (Sheila E)verything. Prince closed the show with The Time’s “The Bird” and “Jungle Love” (tunes he co-wrote as “Jamie Starr”), and hearing that two-fer as the final encore of the evening was none too shabby a tradeoff.

Though it should go without saying, here goes: If Prince brings his Welcome 2 America tour to a town anywhere near you, go. And if you can swing it, get tickets for more than one night, since the setlist is never the same. This boy still has dreams of hearing “U Got The Look,” “Mountains,” and “Anotherloverholenyohead” live, so I’m not done with seeing His Royal Badness yet.

Purchase Sheila E. – “A Love Bizarre” via iTunes, Amazon MP3. Only the extended album version, not the single edit, is available.