Concert Review: Nokia Theatre

ok.. show was really great... of course things could have been better (like no covers, please and the setlist hasnt changed much in a few years).. but great show, the great parts were GREAT..

old skool company
crimson and clover (INCREDIBLE)
1999
I Feel 4 U
controversy (awesome)
shhh (guitar part ruled)
if i was your girlfriend
kiss
play that funky music (why god, why?)
Hollywood Swinging (this felt like a hundred years long)
Harmonica solo
Prince speech about loving one another
Come Together (kinda lame)
Purple Rain (still great)
Lets Go Crazy (complete with go go go's)
The Bird (!)
Jungle Love (!)
The Glamourous Life with Sheila E!!!!!

overall it was MUCH better than the last few shows ive seen.. no horns at all (YES!, i needed a break) and NO LARRY GRAHAM!!!!

i have to say that crimson and clover gave me chills... sometimes the covers feel so phony and forced (IMO) but this one just feels like HIS song.. it was awesome....

who was in the band? sounds like josh and cora based on setlist alone

L4OATheOriginal said:

I loved the clean guitar parts of the Purple Rain solo!
...I think the "white boy" next to me was offended durin the chorus! HA!!!
1999 actually was great, very 1982 feel to it.

Low point: Let's Go Crazy. I now hate that song!

Shhh & Controvery were great & If I Was Your Girlfriend gave CHILLS!

I took my 12 year old daughter for the experience, here sumation, "Dad, I was blown away!" I loved that... Time for Club Nokia now... LATER!

7teen said:

itsjustaroundthecorner said:

itsjustaroundthecorner said:

7 teen said.....

"...I think the "white boy" next to me was offended durin the chorus! HA!!!"


was this comment necessary?

[Edited 3/28/09 23:07pm]
[Edited 3/28/09 23:08pm]

Hey who was the celebrity in the audience? Randy Jackson? I remember people going nuts and taking pictures and P making some sort of comment like "I don't care what you think Randy, I'm gonna tear the house down tonight!"

My bf and I loved the 1st concert - it was everything we wanted to hear. I'm in line for the 3rd concert to hopefully get a taste of the funkier and newer music! I love it all! Thanks Prince for the awesome seats; we were front row center! We'll never forget it!!!

BTW I think the crowd was cheering for Magic Johnson - who didn't have gr8 seats. Cuba Gooding sat near us and Ice Cube was behind us. It is so worth it for the tix alone to join Lotusflow3r.com! Prince took care of his tru fans!

This was my first Prince concert and I loved it!! I was kind of suprised that he did so many covers though, is that typical? I don't think I've ever been to a concert with energy like that. And what a charmer he is... It's funny that someone should mention that Magic Johnson didn't have very good seats. LOL We were in Row Z on the end and he was 4 rows behind us on the end. I said to my friend that we have better seats than Magic Johnson. I also said that I felt sorry for whoever was sitting behind him. I didn't get my tickets through the fan club because I'm not a member....at least not yet.

Thanks for the reviews. Wow, I thought I would have to wait to late tommorrow for a review because people would be tired to post. No Bria, I wonder what is going on in relation to her.

FrankCapraMoment said:

I'm not about to kiss anyone's a** in this post.....
The SOUND was TERRIBLE...for the ONES who got good seats....good for U...because I certainly DIDN"T . However, as usual the "LA ELITE FANCLUB"(no names mentioned, they know WHO they are) got the Pit tickets, how they got the tickets...well...Only GOD knows I suppose.
In the first 15mts of the show I could tell that the sound was totally OFF.
It took til 3/4 of the performance to get it right! How sad...
It started pretty good with the viewing of the chocolate box video to lead us to a very bare stage, with the 3 vignettes of the CD's with the 2 Medusas hanging...thank God for lighting...cause nothing else of interest was there.
Target had done a great job with the video, Prince should have used the props,at least those looked very professional and not amateurish.

I also witnessed sales of tickets, a person who supposedly is doing work voluntarily, piling up mucho cash in his pocket, prior to the show. That person evidently had access to tickets and passes for the other shows or even Pit tickets for that performance. Another one as close as a bodyguard selling tickets on the sidewalk?? I guess Prince surrounds himself with scalpers as good friends
It was quite an eye opener as to what's happening in his world...I feel sorry for U Prince....mayb U need a break!!!
Call me a hater if U want. But I speak the truth.

Thanks for the review. Wow, I thought I would have to wait to late tomorrow for a review because people would be to tired to post. No Bria, I wonder what is going on in relation to her.

CaptnCrunchBerry said:

Are we allowed to post pictures, if not sorry
They aren't very good, my cellphone camera sucks!

1st outfit



2nd outfit



Sheila





I did see Magic Johnson as well, he was sitting some rows behind me
And whoever sang "Play that funky music" was pretty good, loved it when Prince told him to get off the stage

Oh by the way, I have a strange request from ya'll...does anyone remember the list of songs that were played before the show? I want to make a little iTunes playlist of them and I've heard some awesome tunes I've never heard before. I remember:

The Payback - James Brown
Get Down On It - Kool & The Gang
Ladies Night - Kool & The Gang
I Wanna Be Your Lover - Prince
The Glamorous Life - Sheila E.
Groove Me - King Floyd
Don't Stop Till You Get Enough - Michael Jackson
Flash Light - Parliament

Thanks very much in advance! <3

this was only my second concert, and i have to say it gets better everytime i see dude do his thing. the pit was on fire tonight. the energy was bananas in there. thank you p for the great tickets!!!

Very fair assessments of the show. The sound was very mediocre (I was also in row Z), and it's much the same setlist that he's been playing for approximately 5 years. That said, I expected exactly that from the first show of the night, and wasn't lucky enough to get tickets to the later shows, which I would've preferred.

That said, the great video screens made his every look, smirk and linger a delight, and there was some astonishing highlights, from yet another blistering version of "Shhh" (which he can feel free NOT to retire, in my opinion), a surprisingly fresh sounding "Purple Rain" and a great series of encores. I have to say that I really liked "Let's Go Crazy", personally. I'm sick to death of "I Feel 4 U", "Kiss" and "1999" though.

I wrote a much longer post on the concert on my blog...

http://salieriandwolfgang...-hits.html
[Edited 3/29/09 0:39am]

Thx a lot 4 posting!!

darmstro said:

FrankCapraMoment said:

That's quite a weird setlist, not even "Dreamer" or something else from LotusFlow3r?

Overall a letdown. Bad sound. Bad lighting. Empty stage. Bad backdrop (the album cover looks so 1990s... in a BAD way) and Prince walked through a lot of the show with just a bunch of mugging, etc. He got into it 2/3 into the show, but up until that point it was almost boring at times. The entire area I was sitting in (granted we were in the back of the balcony) was sitting during most of Purple Rain. PURPLE RAIN PEOPLE! I didn't get the chills from that song like I usually do. When he played it back at the Universal Ampetheatre in April of 92, the crowd was crying because it was so emotional. This time, it was just another song sadly. The entire row in front of me left after the 2nd encore and missed THE BIRD, JUNGLE LOVE and Sheila which were all great! Some of the songs were really fun but many just had him standing there and mugging in a way he's done a thousand times. He seemed to be saving his energy for later in the show or later in the night. Maybe he was pacing himself. I don't know but I paid for a show and got a 90 min. concert. Shorter than his usual. Slow in patches, and overall not in my top 10 Prince shows. Not by a longshot.

shhh should have been played at the Conga room with Michael B.

Another review, from row H, seat 316...roughly center of the stage eight rows back of the pit...

This was my first visit to the Nokia Theater and my sixth time overall seeing Prince perform live,..must say that overall I was impressed with the venue and the management. Seems like AEG is interested in putting on a good production for their customers with an attentive staff. On to the show...

Star factor was high. Teena Marie was seated behind me. Former Lakers guard Norm Nixon and wife Debbie Allen were a few rows ahead. Rick Fox and Earvin "Magic" Johnson came in through an entrance near the stage minutes before showtime and the crowd reacted...Rick was behind me and received a polite amount of attention but Magic brought down the house. Everything literally stopped when he and his family came through...it was really beautiful to see how much love he has from L.A. Lights go down, video plays, curtain rises and the show begins. It wasn't the best Prince show I've ever seen. Let me qualify that statement...I've seen him several times so compared to his best, it wasn't his best show. Maybe he was holding back just a little energy for the later performances...maybe not. He was clearly irritated by the sound problems, as he constantly spoke to the sound engineer(s) re house sound, side fills, mic levels, feedback, stage levels...Prince isn't a "sound diva" when he performs, his focus is on his performance, the band and the audience...I've never seen him so affected by poor sound before (someone's gonna be fired over this one, I'm sure).

Setlist has already been posted...I would liked to have heard some other nuggets besides songs like "Play That Funky Music," "Kiss" or "I Feel 4 U," but by the time of the encores ending with "The Glamorous Life" everything was white-hot. When Sheila came out and sang lead it was just incredible. Re the sound issues...it was the most stripped-down Prince set I've ever heard. The band itself was only drums, bass, guitar, keys, harmonica, background vocals. From where I sat, most prominent instrument was the guitar and for a guitar player like me, it was heaven. Sound problems marred the performance as a whole. I heard from my brother who was in the balcony that it was horrible up there with mics going in and out, washed-out bass, etc. From where I sat, the bass was indistinct (not Josh's playing but how the bass was mixed), I hated the sound of the drums, the keys were basically invisible. Sad thing is, the theater itself sounded relatively dry, meaning had the show been properly mixed the sound would probably have been good.

Really wondering how the other shows went down...my guess is that they were looser & more jam-oriented...wish I could have heard Michael Bland on drums and Sonny T on bass..!

madhouseman said:

I wanted to add something about the tickets...people were buying Pit tickets an hour before showtime from the box office...I bought a ticket through Ticketmaster last week that was in row KK on the side...waited around the box office before going in to see if anything was being returned...heard some singles came in that were in the middle section down front and jumped on one...it was row H, center section. Sold the other one to a guy out front for cost so I wasn't out anything. Right after that is when people in the wait line were getting Pit tickets...so it wasn't all Fan Club members or scalpers who got tickets down in front.