Prince Plays the Meadowlands Friday, the Garden Saturday

Prince is associated with the color purple, but he'll be playing this custom-made, gold-plated Stratocaster at his NYC/NJ shows.

Prince has begun his multi-night stand of concerts in the New York area, and it sounds like a great event judging by the New York Times' review of one of his shows at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Prince will play at IZOD again on Friday night the 17th, then at Madison Square Garden on Saturday (where I'll be in attendance, way up in the nosebleed section).  He'll come back to the Garden on December 29th and January 18th.

Tickets are still available for the Prince shows on Friday and Saturday on StubHub, and possibly at the box office as well.

Prince apparently wanted to do something special for his first New York-area concerts in six years, so he's auctioning off for charity a one-of-a-kind, all-gold-plated Stratocaster that he'll be playing at the shows (see photo above). If you're looking for that special gift for the musician who has everything, this might be just the thing. (Read more about Prince's gold-plated Strat at the L.A. Times.)