.


Just awful.

Club Nokia was hands down the worst live gig I have ever witnessed by any musical act - bar none. I don't even know where to begin... I guess the start was the 45 minute wait in the queue line to get in to an empty club whose doors were supposed to open at 11:30. Then the ridiculous process of going through metal detectors and having your ticket taken, entering the club and being asked to show your stub to each one of 6 or 7 staff members to get to the main floor. Then the crush of 100 club members trying to get in to the floor pit (which our tickets granted access to) and going through yet another security check being completely bungeled by one (1) single staff member.

Now add in the band 'opening' with meandering jazz covers of not just one but two Prince tunes and then proceeding with Prince finally gracing the stage only to perform about 6 or 7 slow to mid tempo obscurities and my patience was totally worn thin. Not one track from the new project was played. Not one. By the time he started ranting about the fact that he had seen Alicia Keyes there and the sound had been the worst he had ever heard, I could feel myself losing my religion. Good thing you booked a show at a club whose sound you hated, Prince, because you got what you asked for. We could barely hear his mic, the instrument levels were all over the place, especially on Neto's key patches and the main thing you could hear loud and clear was a piercing chime pad triggered over and over again by Blackwell.

Forget the fact that he did a bunch of tracks rarely performed live, that would have been wonderful if the band had rehearsed some interesting arrangements for them, but it was like Prince karaoke starring Renato Neto. Prince couldn't possibly feature him more than he did last night. Large Room With No Light? I could have performed it with just about as much quality. Doesn't he realize that the whole appeal of that tune is the sublime horn arrangements? Neto didn't even try to replicate that with his keys. How can you attempt that tune with a three piece combo?

Don't be fooled by the amazing setlist, nothing sounded as fantastic as it could have with just a little better planning and a better choice of band to fit the material. Club Nokia is never going to be a great sounding venue, they don't have the equipment or the smallest bit of a talented sound crew. Regardless, this show was like being transported back to 2002 to watch the One Nite Alone band cover Prince songs.

It was while Chaka Kahn was on doing her Sweet Thing chestnut yet again that I finally snapped. Even the slight energy boost from the closing ballad medley of Insatiable/Scandalous/Beautiful Ones/Nothing Compares couldn't pull me out of the realization that we've seen and heard this all before.

I gotta say that after this experience I'm done for a long time. Maybe permanently. I may continue to follow his recording career, but I will never see Prince live again. It's become utterly pointless and redundant.

Sorry for all the vitriol, but I am unusually angry and dissapointed by the whole experience. If you enjoyed this or one of the other shows, rock on brother. I'm past this kind of crap.

Oh well.

thanks 4 ur honesty

Darn. Someone else on here posted how amazing this gig was and the best they'd seen since Lovesexy and how for once they weren't disappointed. Hmmm.

Jestyr said:

You do realize that what put you in a bad mood (the entrance mishaps) was not Prince's fault right? As he said, write or call AEG and complain to them.

lezama said:

Give it a rest. Prince already said he has previously seen a show there and the sound was shit. So why book himself there?

swanny said:

AEG booked it because they run those venues and I'm assuming they're in close proximity to each other(?).

Jestyr said:

Thanks for the review. I just wondered what you meant by the above?

swanny said:

I'm sure he did it consciously to piss of people like yourself...
[Edited 3/29/09 9:37am]

Serena said:

I know they booked it but Prince does nothing he doesn't want to do. He knew the sound sucked at the site and he still played there.

You can't have total control of your career (as Prince has) and then blame others when things go wrong.

Jestyr said:

You know what it felt like? An aftershow...like he showed up at a club and started jamming. You can tell the energy was down, but what do you expect? I'd say the set lists for each show were almost determined by the type of bcking band he had...and there was no way the main show was going to contain tons of ballads and covers...the last 2 shows were for the die hards who appreciate the music...so it worked for some and not for others. after 2 shows, I really wasn't expecting a full blown concert at the Club Nokia...it was more of a jam session, and I'm cool with that.

lezama said:

You posted on a public forum dumbass.

I ain't pissed off either, I didn't pay for a shit sounding concert. However I won't blindly back Prince like you are.

swanny said:

So it was probably something like this "Prince: sound sucks there, AEG: No way dude, it's been upgraded to 'state-of-the-art, promise!', Prince: ok, but if there are problems, your asses are mine!, AEG: No worries, mate!"

swanny said:

No need for name calling.

Serena said:

Sorry, my bad, I didn't know you were privy to the discussions.

I am obviously wrong in what I said.

swanny said:

Bitchy aren't we...

My post was meant to question when something's an artists fault and when its bigger than them, because obvoiusly more than one person is involved in making an concert happen on such short notice.
[Edited 3/29/09 10:28am]

lezama said:

You have got realize that your tone in the post is f'ed up

Its not about blindly backing Prince rather its pretty obvious that a musician like Prince also was not happy about the technical issues. Lord man is this your 1st time seeing Prince in concert? I know its not the dude is a perfectionist

I guess I say that to say while it sucks you had the experience you had someitmes $hit happens.... and to trash Prince for last night seems very petualnt. Dude even said he would come back and play for free if the just get the sound corrected

Ur anger seems misdirected. I also believe the goal of the three different shows was to provide three very different vibes which might explain the set list. Looks like you chose the wrong one
[Edited 3/29/09 10:39am]

Alexandernvrmind said:

u really belive this . > Prince gonna play free if the get the sound corrected??

come on ,.U know Prince better !! he ain´t gonna play 4 free,,,,,

thanks for the review

swanny said:

-----
Yes, he planned for the sound to be bad.(LOL) You sound crazy. Be mad at the mgmt for bad sound or lighting not the performer. In addtion, I knew if he did set list with rare songs people would bitch.

swanny said:

Geez, you're so pleasant on a Sunday morning.

See the words "probably something like"? I know it's not the best grammar, but it was a generalization of what might have happened.

Jestyr said:

I had a fun time. Since it was the first time I saw Prince I wish I had gone to the first show since those are the songs I most wanted to hear. I was a little let down, but I didn't think the quality sucked in the least. The sound could have been better but it wasn't unlistenable by any stretch of the imagination.

However, it was obviously clear that there were a lot of people in attendance who were extremely upset. For one, the event staff was terrible. I had a floor ticket, and I couldn't get down to the main floor because the inept event staff ran out of wristbands. Luckily I managed to squeeze in and find an unobstructed view. Jestyr was right in saying that Prince started playing before 75% of the people were in the club. There was no excuse for this at all.

I'm guessing that for most hit-obsessed LA fans the Club Nokia show was the only one they went to and they wanted to hear some uptempo hits. They clearly had no patience or appreciation for jazz noodling, improvisation or slow songs. The only time the crowd looked alive was when Prince opened his mouth, and when Chaka Khan appeared on stage. "The Beautiful Ones" and "Nothing Compares 2 U," elicited the strongest reactions of the evening, which tells you what the people wanted to hear. Even worse, when you consider half of them probably paid major money to a scalper, it made the realization (that the show wasn't about hits) all the more painful.

As far as the short play time, people where I was standing got mad because throughout the evening, Prince made references to "being there all night, and that he could keep going." So when the show cut short, everyone said to themselves, "That's it?" The crowd hollered for an encore to the encore for about 10 minutes, before the house lights came up to a chorus of boos and jeers. On the way back to the car, I listened carefully to gague the reactions from others, and they all seemed to be saying, "I should have stayed home."

I'm glad I got to see Prince, even though it was probably one of the most obscure shows I ever could have picked. Seeing how lots of die hard fans would have gladly have loved to have heard the songs I heard last night, it makes me a little more appreciative. But yeah, all the people spewing hate and vitriol have good reasons to be upset and I can understand where they are coming from as well.

Thanks for the honest write-up.

Makes me slightly less jealous I wasn't there.

SLIGHTLY.

OmegaSeamaster said:

This sums up the Club Nokia show very, very well. For people who got to see all three shows (and the ENTIRE third show) it was probably a wonderful cap to the evening. But for those who saw only the last show and were let in late it was bullshit.

why play knowing theres real sound issues .. feeling a bit cheated here . i think its fair to ask for a refund .. something .. cmon that was ridiculous and not what was advertised for the price. "sukkahz"
[Edited 3/29/09 13:28pm]

spiffnme said:

Just taking a guess here, but maybe he had to start when he did due to timing constraints. Sometimes these things have to shut down by a certain time, so if he waited until everyone was in, it might have even been shorter. I don't know why the club wouldn't let people in earlier, that's kinda stupid.

YES! This makes me so happy that yall got fucked after seeing the American Disabilities Act Civil Rights Violation seating chart 4 this show, which stuck the handicapped in the last row of each section! Prince has bad karma, I hope his shitty triple album crashes and burns!

Jestyr said:

FrankieDJ said:

Prince probably thinks the handicapped are being punished by Jehovah for crimes in a previous life.

But hey, Love41another.

Serena said:

Unlike other states (NY comes to mind), California liquor laws cut-off at 2AM. They were treading on thin ice letting the show go until later (if drinks were still out).