| Purple Reign in Los Angeles – Three Nights of Prince |
| Written by Paul Lyons |
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Purple Reign in Los Angeles – Three Nights of Prince
Prince is the ultimate Artist. He operates in an enigmatic, private landscape, creating musical pastures that have little to do with success, corporate desire, public demand nor even common sense. Unlike any other artist in music history...Prince truly abides by nobody’s rules but his own. He gets what he wants, and does everything he wants to do... not seeming to care about success nor failure. Never has a superstar had THIS much control over of his or her own career.
Sure, you have your provocative renegades and rebels like Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Trent Reznor, David Bowie, Madonna, Kanye West, Thom Yorke, Ani Defranco, and so on...These are people who have indeed bucked the system, and have chosen to do and say anything that suits them. They somehow have figured out a way to make the music business work for them, as opposed to being a slave to someone else’s business model. Yet this is not what Prince is about.
You see, in Prince’s world, the system simply does not exist...and neither does conventional wisdom for that matter. He doesn’t just make up his own rules; he makes up his own world...a world that perhaps neither you nor I will ever be a part of. Prince operates on a very different plane than everybody else. Unless you accept this fact, you’ll be doomed to frustration, confusion and disappointment. As a devoted Prince fan, I still struggle with this. I mean, why can’t Prince do what I want him to do, and be what I want him to be?
When he feels like it, Prince can be the biggest superstar in the world...with big tours, and big records that people love. Yet he doesn’t always feel like it. Sometimes, he just wants to put out instrumental jazz records, and just stay at home. Sometimes he’ll feel like releasing records in Europe only, and ignore the U.S. completely for a couple of years. He’ll lay low, and decrease his popularity down to the nub...releasing poor-selling albums, and playing only a few scattered , under-the-radar shows in theaters and clubs. Then all of sudden he’ll say “It’s time for me to be a superstar again”...and announce a huge tour that people get excited about. The press and the general public would then proclaim “Prince is Back!”...yet the funny thing is, he never went anywhere...he was around the whole time.
Prince, as a performer, is frighteningly flawless. His dance moves are still incredible, and always exciting to watch. Even at 52 years old, his voice is always pitch-perfect, and sounds exactly the way it did 30 years ago. Prince even looks the same as he did 30 years ago. It’s as if he hasn’t aged at all. We’ve all gotten older, yet Prince stays young and agile...with more energy than you and I will likely ever have. To this day, he’ll play a 2 ½ hour show at a large venue, and then later that very same night, will jam all night at a small club. Know any other superstar who does that?
In addition, his musicianship is simply unparalleled. Prince’s lead guitar playing is beyond superb...with enough creativity and skill to put him up there with the greats...Clapton, Hendrix, Page, Beck, you name it. Not only that, he also expertly plays bass guitar, keyboards, piano, and drums. Prince plays all of these instruments effortlessly...without even breaking a sweat.
To understand where Prince is at right now, we have to go back a dozen years...to 1999. That year meant a lot of things to a lot of people. For many, it was a grand signifier of the turn of the century. To a diminutive 24 year-old pop star from Minnesota, it meant the end of the world...and an excuse to party your life away. To the Los Angeles elite, it meant the opening of the brand new, gigantic, corporate-friendly, $375 million dollar Staples Center...an architectural nightmare that would become home to the L.A. Lakers, Kings and Clippers...as well as host to hundreds of concerts. Though to the working class residents of Inglewood, California, 1999 would mark the end of the supremacy of their urban cash cow...a majestic building designed by Charles Luckman, who sadly passed away January 26th. 1999...
Never heard of Charles Luckman? Well...have you heard of Kennedy Space Center, or perhaps...Madison Square Garden? Both were designed by Charles Luckman. In 1965, workers broke ground on another Luckman masterpiece...a grand palace to serve as the new home of the former Minnesota Lakers. Located just 4.2 miles northeast of Los Angeles International Airport, the 18,000 capacity sports arena has been known by many names: “The L.A. Forum”, “The Inglewood Forum,” “The Fabulous Forum,” “The Great Western Forum”...Yet today, it is simply known as...“The Forum.”
The Forum was once THE place to go in Los Angeles for big events. It’s where the Lakers won fifteen division titles and six NBA championships. It’s where The Who showcased their classic albums Who’s Next and Quadrophenia in 1971 and 1973. It’s where Led Zeppelin performed 16 concerts between 1970 and 1977. It’s where a young Boston band called Aerosmith opened up for ZZ Top in 1975. Queen played their last ever show in the U.S. at The Forum in 1982. Elvis Presley, Barbara Streisand, The Jackson Five, Three Dog Night, Kiss, Led Zeppelin, Rod Stewart, Jimi Hendrix, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, The Bee Gees, Alice Cooper, Nirvana, Deep Purple, and The Rolling Stones all have made live albums and videos at The Forum. History seemed to have been made at The Forum over and over again...that is, until the Staples Center took over in 1999, and stole The Forum’s thunder.
Soon, they all departed...the sporting events, the concerts, the big names, the big stars. As the 21st Century marched on, The Forum soon became a relic...an old reminder of a great past. In 2000, the venue was sold to the Faithful Central Bible Church, and became a gathering place for the Church’s Sunday service for several years. Sure, it would still host an occasional concert here and there (Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Pearl Jam, Coldplay, The Foo Fighters, AC/DC, etc...), yet for the most part...the once grand arena remained empty for most days, and its future remained questionable.
To the rescue came an unlikely candidate...Prince. Why unlikely, you ask? Well, Prince himself has stayed away from The Forum for over 26 years. After performing six shows at the venue in 1985 for the Purple Rain tour, Prince never again returned to The Forum. There was a 1998 Forum concert booked, with tickets sold... yet he cancelled the show at the last minute and never made it up. Instead, Prince played almost everywhere else in L.A: the Universal (Gibson) Amphitheater, the Kodak Theatre, the Nokia Theatre, the Staples Center, the Hollywood Bowl, the Hollywood Palladium, Club Nokia, the Conga Room, the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, a rented house on Mulholland Drive called 3121, the Soho House, the House of Blues, The Key Club, a rented house in Beverly Hills called The 77, and his very own venue...a now-defunct downtown club called Glam Slam West. Yet now, on a quest to single-handedly lift the 43-year old Inglewood arena out of its hard times...Prince has chosen The Forum as the showcase venue for his “21 Nights” Los Angeles residency...all in part of the exciting, yet enigmatic 2010/2011 Welcome 2 America U.S. tour.
Aside from the advance notice given for the six East Coast shows Prince performed in December and January, the Welcome 2 America tour has been a random series of “hit-and-run” concerts. By “hit-and-run,” I mean that the shows are announced at the last minute, with tickets going on sale only 2-3 days prior to the show itself. Prince has been doing this for years. He has claimed in the past this was an effort to throw off the ticket scalpers...yet I have a strange suspicion that there is a lot more to it than that. I mean, there are certainly better ways to avoid ticket scalping...such as mail-order, Will Call-only ticket pick-ups, and others. No, I have a feeling there is a reason why Prince prefers to appear out of nowhere, and just as soon...disappear.
The trajectory of the Welcome 2 America tour is, no doubt, a strange one...perhaps even defying logic. Let’s see...after performing two shows in New Jersey, and four in New York in December and January, Prince next played three nights in Oakland, California in February, then played a six-city tour of the Carolinas in March, then moved over to California for his Los Angeles 21-night stand in April, May, and (I’m assuming) June, plus just added shows in Fresno on May 18th, and two San Jose concerts scheduled for May 19 and 21st. As of this writing though, Prince still owes the city of Los Angeles another ten shows to complete his “21 Nights” residency...or is it, nine?
Since the first Forum concert on April 14th, show dates and ticket sales have only been announced three at a time...with performances scheduled for Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays only. For example, the April 21, 22, and 23rd shows were announced and placed on sale just a few days before. The following week, the April 28-30th shows were announced and placed on sale. The next week, the May 5-7 shows were announced and placed on sale. Yet just when you think you’ve discovered a pattern with Prince, he’ll surprise you with something else entirely...such as May 11th’s announcement of five more Forum concerts in May. Only an hour or two later, a surprise club performance went on sale, with no less than two shows booked at the 500-capacity Troubadour in West Hollywood for later on that evening. The only question is...do the Troubadour shows count as part of the “21 Nights”?
Though of course there is that other question...Why? Why “21 Nights” in Los Angeles? From a realistic point of view, there simply is not enough demand these days for a long series of Prince concerts at a large sports arena like The Forum. Perhaps back in the Purple Rain-era, sure...yet in 2011? How else to explain the hundreds upon hundreds of empty seats I saw at the April 28th and May 5th concerts...with large sections of the arena covered in black curtain, so as not to appear as vacant as it actually was? Seeing this made me actually feel embarrassed for Prince. Has his “hit-and-run” tour technique (coupled with an overabundance of L.A. shows), simply backfired? Do you think Prince is concerned that he has to deal with a tired and oversaturated market...instead of the hungry, overzealous crowds he was hoping for?
Don’t get me wrong, I truly love that he is doing this, yet it doesn’t take away from the fact that the effort is a little...unusual. The only thing I could think of? In 2007, Prince played 21 sold out nights at the O2 Arena in London...in support of his latest album, Planet Earth. That residency was a huge success so...perhaps he has chosen to recreate that same magic here in Los Angeles. Yet...Los Angeles is not London, not by a long shot, and the fact remains that Prince’s most recent U.S. release (2009’s Lotusflow3r / MPLSound) was released over a year and a half ago...and sold less than half a million copies. In fact, Prince has no new material to support at all...at least none anybody has heard. His last full album of new songs (20Ten) was given away for free last summer in publications from the UK, Ireland, Germany, France and Belgium only. No United States release is planned. So...what exactly does Prince mean by titling his U.S. jaunt the “Welcome 2 America” tour?? Is it a song, an album, a figure of speech...what???
Of the four shows I attended on this tour (one in New York, and three in Los Angeles), none of them featured any new songs...not one. Yet that does not mean that Prince didn’t play new songs on other nights. A select few of the L.A. shows have featured the great 20Ten hidden track “Lay Down”...and on the very first night at The Forum only, Prince performed a song called “Welcome 2 America.” Having not been to that particular show, I to this day have no clue what the“Welcome 2 America” song sounds like. So, I ask you this...Why would Prince name an entire tour after an unreleased song that he rarely chooses to perform in concert?? Anyone? Is he...recording an album of the same name right now? Yet even if that were true, that begs the question: WHY name a tour after an album that nobody’s ever heard of? Maybe...once the tour is over, the Welcome 2 America album will come out...and people will want to buy it because they saw the concert in support of it?? Nope, even that doesn’t make any sense.
As for the Forum concerts themselves, Prince has made good on his promise to present a different show each and every night. No two shows have been the same, and all performances have been held in the round, with Prince and The New Power Generation playing on a stage in the shape of the unpronounceable glyph symbol he choose for himself in the 90’s. The opening concert on April 14th was a three hour plus, 37-song epic, featuring no less than six encores. This was a big surprise to me, as the last nine Prince concerts I saw over the past 25 years or so where nothing like that at all. Prince has never been known for playing super-long concerts, with encore after encore after encore. Yet the show on April 14th may have been Prince’s longest show ever...a feat that he has yet to repeat in subsequent Forum concerts. It’s as if he wanted to make a bold statement with that very first Forum concert, setting the bar sky high for the next 20 shows...and also generating great publicity for the L.A. run of the tour. Unfortunately, I was not at this legendary, one-of-a-kind show. Though as soon as I heard about it, I found myself wanting to race to The Forum right away to catch the next great Prince concert...and hopefully get a repeat of what happened on the 14th. Yet it never happened. I did, however, catch three excellent Prince concerts on April 28th, April 30th, and May 5th...nights five, seven, and eight of his “21 Nights” residency.
If I had to pick my favorite of the L.A. Prince shows I have seen so far, it would have to be the Forum concert I attended on Thursday, April 28th...a two-hour extravaganza that was at once brilliant, strange, off-kilter, and quite fascinating. How strange and fascinating you ask? Well, the show featured no less than five encores, and ended at 12:40am with a one-off performance of Roxy Music’s 1982 classic “More Than This.” Let me tell ya, no one saw THAT coming. And just as the end of the Prince concert was strange and unpredictable, so was the beginning.
His concerts, in general, are very exciting, yet far from conventional. Prince never plays a song in full, ends it, then goes on to the next song. He simply has no patience for that type of conventional concert presentation...where the singer announces a song, plays the song, then says “thank you!” No. A Prince show is a vast musical journey...a collage of sights and sounds. Some shows I’ve seen in the past were just one long medley of music, non-stop... where beginnings and endings of songs collided naturally with one another, and not. He’d sometimes ask the audience to clap their hands, stomp their feet, and even sing along to songs that they have never heard of. As for the Prince songs that they actually knew, he might play them, or skip them entirely...or just play them only in scattered pieces...with a verse of “When Doves Cry” here...a snippet of “Pop Life” there...a smidgen of “Do Me Baby” coupled with a tease of “I Wanna Be Your Lover.” “Raspberry Beret” is an interesting example of this. Ever since the song was released in 1985, Prince has never performed “Raspberry Beret” in its entirety. You’ll get to hear a verse or two, and the chorus...yet the whole song? Forget it. And why should he play the whole song anyway, when he has a thousand others to sing? “Too many hits” Prince would often say...too many hits is right.
Prince has such a broad catalog of released and unreleased songs that he probably doesn’t even think of them as songs anymore. To him, they are just toys to play with. In concert, Prince will entertain you with some, and tease you with others...it all depends on his mood. The general rule is: anything goes at a Prince concert, and it usually does.
On Thursday, April 28th, The Forum was only half-full. Large chunks of empty seats were everywhere. Almost the entire upper level of the arena (known as “the Colonnade”) was covered with a large black curtain. I’ve been to a thousand concerts, yet have never seen anything like that before. In true unpredictable fashion, Prince hit the stage before his concert even began....joining opening act Cassandra Wilson in the middle of her set for a passionate rendition of Prince’s obscure 1979 gem, “When We're Dancing Close and Slow." Despite the 7:30pm start time listed on the ticket, Prince didn’t actually hit the stage for his own set until 9:55pm.
The show started slow and DARK, literally. For some reason, Prince kept the lights very low for the first 30 minutes or so of the show. He even asked to turn the stage lights off completely at some points. For those of us not immediately next to the stage, we didn't really get to actually see Prince for a while. The show opener was another obscurity...”Joy In Repetition”, a forgettable track from 1990’s Graffiti Bridge soundtrack album. This was followed by an India.Arie song called “Brown Skin”...which was sung not by Prince, but by his beautiful, yet bald backing singer...Shelby J. Then came the 1984 B-side, “17 Days”...which included bits of a song that sounds just like it (which also came out in 1984)...Teena Marie’s “Lovergirl.” “Shhh”, off of 1995’s criminally underrated The Gold Experience came next. It’s one of Prince’s favorite songs...as he has been performing it at nearly every concert since 2004. Unfortunately, the audience at the Forum did not match his enthusiasm for the track, nor did they really respond to any of the other songs he had played so far.
It certainly wasn’t the band’s fault. Prince has assembled an impressive line-up for the Welcome 2 America tour, including Ida Nielson on bass, Renato Neto on keyboards, Shelby J., Elisa Dease and Olivia Warfield on backing vocals, and the mighty John Blackwell on drums. Second keyboardist Morris Hayes sits on a platform of his own, located about 30 yards away from the glyph-shaped stage. These talented groups of musicians are probably on edge all night, as their fearless bandleader is anything but predictable. Watching Prince lead his band is fascinating. He looks around, makes hand gestures, and calls out directions, stops and starts.
The pace of the show picked up with 1981’s “Controversy”...which begat jams on Stargard’s 70’s classic “Which Way Is Up?”...Janet Jackson’s 80’s classic “What Have You Done For Me Lately”... “Partyman” (from the 1989 Batman soundtrack)...and Graham Central Station’s “It’s Alright.” Yet just when the concert was starting to kick into high gear, Prince disappeared. I mean...vanished. GONE. Where did he go?
Instead, the Forum crowd was treated to twenty minutes of Shelby J. and the other backing singers singing the Adele version of Bob Dylan’s “Make You Feel My Love” (in gorgeous three-part harmony)...along with a Shelby J. solo turn on the old Bob Montgomery song that Dorothy Moore made popular in the 70’s...”Misty Blue.” As nice as this all sounded...all I kept thinking was...”When is Prince coming back?!”
Needless to say, the show's momentum never really took off, due to the erratic pacing of Prince's set. The crowd, in turn, was not that into the show ...and took a very long time to get enthused about anything. Yet when Prince finally did return to the stage for Purple Rain’s “Let’s Go Crazy”, which was mixed in with popular tracks from his 1999 album: “Delirious”, “1999” and “Little Red Corvette” (the last two numbers performed pretty much in their entirety)...the crowed leapt to their feet to dance and sing... as if woken up from a dream. Yet now the show was over...or at least the main set was.
For the first encore, Prince performed “Purple Rain” to a delighted audience. It sounded great, yet the song’s presence felt wrong...as its epic scope and grandeur seemed out of place after sitting through such a strange, and oddly-paced main set. Encore number two was a free-for-all jam featuring parts of “The Bird” and “Jungle Love” by The Time, “A Love Bizarre” by Sheila E., and snippets of 1987’s “Housequake” mixed with a reprise of “Controversy. “ Prince invited a large group of women (and one dude) on stage to sing and dance and party with him. The women dancing closest to him wouldn't leave him alone. He kept shooing them away.
For my money, the highlight of the entire concert occurred in encore number three: “Kiss”...Prince’s number one single from 1986. Not only did the song sound amazing, yet the arrangement Prince choose was fantastic. In particular, he highlighted the tune by letting the music drop out towards the end, leaving just the drums playing a two and four beat. With the rhythm moving, Prince danced alone in the spotlight...with brilliant poise, style and restraint. It looked and sounded very much like Michael Jackson performing “Billy Jean.” With the hour now past midnight, and with most people in the audience now on their way home... the echo of the bass and snare drum resonated in the now sparsely-filled arena. It felt as if the ghost of Michael Jackson was actually with us at The Forum...and Prince was channeling him somehow. It was a beautiful moment, and a perfect way to end the show. Yet the show was not over.
You see, as the word spread around town about the epic Prince show on April 14th, the subsequent Forum crowds were expecting...and almost demanding the same exact treatment. People simply would not leave until Prince came back for one more encore.
...and come back he did, for encore number four. With only a few thousand people left at The Forum, and with the houselights on high, Prince and the band performed a spectacular jam featuring 70‘s hits “Play That Funky Music White Boy” by Wild Cherry, and “Hollywood Swinging” (changed to “Inglewood Swinging” for the night) by Kool & The Gang...as well as a bit of the title track of Lakeside’s 1980 album “Fantastic Voyage.” Watching this with all of the houselights on was simply spectacular.
For most people, that would be enough for one night. Most patrons figured the show was definitely over by now, and left for the night. Yet a thousand or so people stayed put...absolutely refusing to leave. I’d never seen anything like it. The few that remained stomped their feet, and screamed and yelled. It was now close to 12:30am, yet none of these people were ready to go home. They demanded one more encore.
At 12:30am, the lights came down one last time, and Prince walked out to The Forum stage for one more song. As he began to sing a somber version of Roxy Music’s “More Than This”, I wondered how many people left over at the arena actually knew the song. No matter, they wanted more Prince...they got more Prince. It was a great moment, yet a bizarre way to end a bizarre show...the strangest Prince show I ever saw, and conversely, one of the best.
A few days later, I went back to The Forum to catch Prince’s Saturday night special on April 30th...and witnessed an entirely different show. What was different? Well, for one thing, the place was packed to oblivion. It may not have been completely sold out, yet it was pretty darn close. Unlike on April 28th, there were few empty seats...and no black curtains to cover vacant spots in the arena. Every inch of The Forum was filled with people. If there was an opening act, I must have missed it, and the concert began almost an hour earlier than the other night.
Prince came out guns-a-blazing with the 1999 gem “D.S.M.R”, which brought the enthusiastic crowd up on its feet. This was a far cry from the dark, low-key start of the April 28th show. Keeping the energy up, Prince soon merged into 1985’s “Pop Life” for a moment, then broke out the title track of his 2004 album Musicology. Before you could get a chance to take a breath, Gwen Stefani was brought on stage to sing and dance on the song she recorded with Prince for his 1999 Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic album: “So Far, So Pleased.” In effort to cool down the show for a moment, Prince next performed a slow and easy rendition of “The Question of U” from Graffiti Bridge, mixed with the 1998 track off of New Power Soul, “The One.”
Just when the pace slowed down, Prince brought it back up again with a jam that included his 1979 classic “I Feel for You”, as well as “Controversy.” He had mentioned to the crowd that “I Feel for You” was a popular Chaka Khan song back in the day, but made sure to point out that he was the one who wrote it. With the energy on high, Prince brought up Sheila E. on stage to play percussion and sing her 80’s hit “The Glamorous Life.” On a roll, Prince came back on stage to perform a duet with Shelby J. on his 80’s masterpiece “Nothing Compares 2 U.” Still not slowing down, the band broke out Purple Rain’s “Take Me With You” next, then moved right into “Raspberry Beret”, quickly followed by his 1991 number one hit “Cream”...which Prince said he wrote while looking at himself in a mirror.
Not allowing anyone to rest, Prince ended the set with a medley of dance tracks that got the crowd moving and shaking...and he brought Gwen Stefani back on stage to dance with him. The Time’s 1981 track “Cool” brought out a call and response shout-out from the audience (at Prince’s request). This soon merged with Michael Jackson’s 1979 classic “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” (which was sung by Shelby J and the other backing vocalists)...and then went right into 1981’s “Let’s Work”, which was then later segued into the classic 1987 Sign o’ The Times track “U Got The Look.” It was one hell of a set...
Encore number one began with a shocker: “Whole Lotta Love” by Led Zeppelin. Prince does Zeppelin? Yes, as a matter of fact, he does. Singer Nikka Costa came out to do vocals on the song, while Prince performed Jimmy Page’s famous guitar lick in a groovy funk style. It sounded amazing, of course. Switching gears entirely, the band left the stage, and Prince walked over to the piano to sing and play a medley of songs alone...featuring verses and chorus’s of 1999’s “Something In The Water (Does Not Compute)”, Sign o’ The Times’ “Strange Relationship”, the B-side of “1999” called “How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore” as well as Sign o’ The Times’ “If I Was Your Girlfriend.”
Encore number two was a one-two punch of “Kiss” and “Purple Rain”...all performed beautifully. Encore number three was a funk dance party featuring a long medley of 70’s songs including Prince’s 1979 gem “Sexy Dancer”, Chic’s 1978 masterpiece “Le Freak”, as well as“Play That Funky Music White Boy” and “Hollywood Swinging.”
Encore number four was something I had never seen before. Prince came out on stage, with the houselights on...walked over to the piano and hit keys that would trigger song samples to be heard over the loudspeakers. On some songs, he would sing along...maybe just a verse or two, yet never the whole song (of course). Remember what I said about Prince looking at his songs as just toys to play with? This was the perfect example of that. Among the sampled songs included small snatches of Beyonce’s “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)” and Eddie Murphy’s 80’s romp “Party All The Time”...in addition to a collection of Prince songs such as Purple Rain classics “When Does Cry”, and “Darling Nikki” (which he refuses to sing anymore due to his faith as a Jehovah’s Witness). When the audience cheered at the sound of the opening notes of the song, Prince called out factiously “You ought to be ashamed of yourselves!” Other songs in the Sampler Medley included “Nasty Girl” by Vanity 6, “Sign o’ The Times”, and the 1994 hit “The Most Beautiful Girl In The World.” Prince seemed to get a kick out of listening to the sample on “Hot Thing”...a great song from Sign o’ The Times that he rarely ever performs. The set ended with two samples from 2006’s underrated 3121 album...”Black Sweat” and “Love.”
Half the audience had left by the time Prince and the band came out for the fifth encore, yet that didn’t stop him from getting his funk on with 80’s classics “The Bird” and “Jungle Love” by The Time, as well as Sheila E.’s “A Love Bizarre.” Joining him on stage again was Sheila E., as well as a group of V.I.P. guests including Gwen Stefani and her husband Gavin Rossdale, as well as actress Kirstie Alley. It was a fun way to end a really great, consistently high-spirited show.
Of course, Prince’s next concert at The Forum, which was held on Thursday May 5th...was a much different animal. Sure, it featured some of the same songs....yet the feel was very much its own. This time around, he combined the somber tones of the April 28th show, and mixed it with the party atmosphere of the April 30th concert...sort of. Here’s how it went:
First off, seeing it was a weekday show again (and not a Saturday night special), the empty seats were a plenty, and the big black curtains were back to cover the large areas of vacant rows. The house was probably half-filled; maybe even less than that...which is a shame. Yet Prince told the audience later “I don’t care if its 17,000 or 1,700...”...it’s all the same to him.
Second off, those who arrived early were in for a special treat...a 30 minute opening set by the great Chaka Khan. Her voice still sounds incredible...hitting the exact same high notes she hit back in the 70’s with her band, Rufus. Khan sang several of her biggest hits including “You Got The Love”, “Tell Me Something Good” and Prince’s “I Feel For You.” The audience ate it up, as did special guest star Whitney Houston, who was brought on stage (from her VIP seat in the audience) to help sing “Tell Me Something Good.” Houston looked and sounded like hell, yet it was still a great moment to see the two divas together on the same stage.
Third off, Prince choose to open the show with a long, dramatic piano introduction by Renato Neto, followed by an exciting rendition of “The Love We Make”...the rarely played gem from 1996’s Emancipation triple-CD set. From there, he went right into “Shhh”, the Emancipation track Prince loves so much, then off into a long jam featuring “Cool”, ”Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”, “Let’s Work” plus a snippet of Rick James’ “Give It To Me Baby” (as a tribute to him), and “U Got The Look.” Then it was time to bring it down with “The Question of U” mixed with “The One.”
With Whitney Houston dancing at her seat, Prince finally brought her on stage to sing and dance with him on “Musicology.” Unfortunately, Houston is not much of a dancer, her singing voice was shot, and she did not know the words to the song. Nonetheless, Whitney Houston tried her best to sing something...anything. It didn’t really work, and the song was botched as a result...yet no matter. It was still great to see the two icons together.
To change things up completely, Prince strapped on a bass and slapped and plucked his way through an amazing version of Billy Cobham’s 1973 instrumental track “Stratus.” For me, this was the highlight of the evening...a truly magnificent display of artistry and musicianship. He could have played this all night as far as I was concerned.
Switching gears, Prince left the stage, and Shelby J. sung Sarah McLachlan’s “Arms of the Angel.” Soon after, she sang a duet with Prince on “Nothing Compares 2 U.” Keeping the mood light and mellow...Prince and the band performed a truncated version of the 1986 Parade track “Sometimes It Snows In April.”
Picking up the pace, “Take Me With You” came next, followed by “Raspberry Beret” with special guest star Cedric The Entertainer, who came on stage just to...be there. He laughably tried to sing, yet didn’t know the words to the song; then he played some fun air guitar before going back to his seats. Prince pretended to hand Cedric his guitar for a brief moment.
In another surprise, Prince next played “Guitar,” the rarely performed 2007 track from Planet Earth. It’s a shame that Prince rarely plays the songs he recorded from the five years, as several of them are really good. From there, it was a six-prong attack of “Controversy”, “Let’s Go Crazy”, “Delirious”, “1999”, “Little Red Corvette” and of course...”Purple Rain” to end the set.
Unlike the previous two Forum shows I attended, there was only one encore for the May 5th show...just one. He began with a similar Sampler Set to the one he played on April 30th: a touch of “When Does Cry” followed by snippets of “Nasty Girl”, “Sign o’ The Times”, and “The Most Beautiful Girl In The World”...with a small dose of the great 1988 track “Alphabet Street”, plus “A Love Bizarre”, “Darling Nikki” (which Prince again refused to sing, telling the crowd “I’m in rehab!”), “Single Ladies” as well as Purple Rain’s “I Would Die For You.”
Next on the order was a slow and sexy version of “If I Was Your Girlfriend.” The arrangement of the track was filled with a strong, soulful yearning, and stayed clear of the danceable funk heard on the original 1987 track. With no time to waste, the opening guitar of “Kiss” blasted over the loudspeakers...and Prince commanded the stage with a stellar version of the song...which closed the show.
...or was the show closed? As per previous nights, the few remaining people left at The Forum stomped and clapped and yelled for Prince to come out again. This couldn’t be the end of the concert, right? He’ll come out for at least one more encore...he’s got to! Yet after a long wait...it became obvious to all that that was it. Prince would not be coming back. The show was definitely over. It was a one-encore night, no big deal. It doesn’t take away from the fact that the concert was excellent, and those present got to experience an inspired, unique, and entertaining evening with Prince...one that was like no other.
Prince is a genius. You may not always like his music, yet you cannot deny that he is...a genius. Here is an artist who appears to have (almost) limitless musical talent...and has a truly unique approach to music presentation, performance and distribution. In fact, I sometimes wonder if he is even human. Prince’s approach to everything always seems to be radically different, and sometimes highly unusual. This is why he is Prince, and everyone else...is not.
As he once said about himself, Prince IS music. If he cuts himself shaving, he doesn’t bleed blood...he bleeds eighth notes, quarter notes, odd time signatures, pop ballads and funk grooves. His body was born to dance. His voice was born to sing. His hands were born to play guitar, piano, bass, drums and anything else they could wrap their fingers around. His whole existence has been dedicated to his craft, leaving little room for friends, family, or any sort of conventional personal life. Prince is indeed the ultimate Artist.
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