Jboogiee said:

Is the picture of Bobby Z in the new tourbook? Thanks!

dreamer4now said:

terrig said:

this is exactly how i felt at the nyc shows i saw. he's having FUN. I've been to too many shows - i cant count them. but i'm just a few years younger than prince, and have been doing my job just as long....and you get to a point in your career, love it though you may....that you've ascended as high as you can go. the drive for the next pinnacle is over...you're as high as you can go.

then you need to rediscover your joy, love and passion for the thing that now pays the bills, and must exist to keep your life secure...

and it seems like prince is rediscovering the sheer fun of his own music in a way that is less a performance and more of a celebration.

and good for him. and good for us. i'm so close to getting on a plane for LA....my hubby would kill me though lololol

Very well said!! Prince on this tour seems to be celebrating his love for the music and performing!!! And we are lucky to be able to witness the result of it ... awesome, mind-blowing concerts!!

ladyleap2u said:

NDRU said:

I agree starting concerts late is not my favorite thing, but the place is empty not because people were bored or tired but because they bring up the lights, you think it's done.

In Oakland we left, and it took a good ten minutes to get out of there and only later did I find out he came out again and played to the few desperate weirdos who hung around and ultimately did so for a good reason!

I wouldn't call us weirdos but okay...we just happen to know what time it is

I was just joking about that specifically, but come to think of it, everyone is a weirdo!

Amazing set list! I wish I could have been there! I live in LA but with the economy as it is I didn't even have $25 to my name before payday on 4/15, which is the only reason I missed this show! I'm not missing next week's shows though! Now that the paycheck is in the bank, some of my bills may have to suffer a bit, but I now have a ticket for 4/21, 4/22 and 4/23! Hope he repeats this set list, or just as good, maybe on Saturday at least? By the way, how is the view from the Colonade section? I hate that I have to sit in these nosebleed seats after years of being spoiled by the NPG Music Club, but I'm hoping it won't be too bad. I'd better bring some binoculars though don't you think? Anyway, with set lists like this, I'll be happy just to be in the building!

The first five or six rows of the Colonnade section are fine. The stage is in the round and is several feet off of the floor so it feels closer to the seats than a typical end-of-arena stage. There are high-def video screens encircling the lighting rig & PA for close-ups. I usually bring binoculars to concerts but they weren't necessary at this one, IMO. If you're further up in the colonnade seats then you may want to bring a pair...

Here's some pics I took at the show:

Cataclizm1 said:

Here's some pics I took at the show:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?fbid=10150174988716657&id=554041656&aid=294261&l=5f5c48a2dc

DAMN...the reviews here are insane! Respect to all y'all showing love and appreciation. I have been listening to Prince since 1999 came out, and as I grew with Prince and eventually got into more rock-oriented sounds (Zeppelin, the Dead and other rock n roll bands) I always wanted my friends who dissed Prince as "mainstream" to listen to some of the stuff he was doing at aftershows, and on releases not known to the general public. It sounds like this show was pure musicology and Prince demonstrating his skill on guitar. Keep enjoying y'all. I am far as hell...all the way in South Africa, but if I could be there, I would see a minimum of 4 (or 5) of those shows.

I had a ball danced my heart out. of course I was out in the parking lot looking for my car when he started up again oh well i had a 2.5 hr drive ahead of me anyway. it was midnight when I got in my car and he was still going.

morningsong said:

I had a ball danced my heart out. of course I was out in the parking lot looking for my car when he started up again oh well i had a 2.5 hr drive ahead of me anyway. it was midnight when I got in my car and he was still going.

awww . I was there till 12:30 i think. I still think I missed a few songs cause I thought Endorphinemachine was the last song : |

wow, i can finally post! first of all, this was my first prince show over, last thursday. was never a big fan in the 80's (im only 30), but in the last four or five years have been getting into a lot of his live stuff and bootlegs. the loring park sessions really opened my eyes and made me dive deeper.

we had already purchased tickets with a bunch of friends to go tomorrow but i pulled two INCREDIBLE $25 seats for opening night at the last minute. i was a bit worried about how empty the forum was at first, but it seemed to fill up by show time, though not completely.

anyway, my wife and i both agreed that was the BEST concert or "show" we've ever been to (and we average about 50 or so shows a year). the la crowd really needs to loosen up and get the f*ck down though! our section was, but the section next to us was almost motionless.

can't wait to go back tomorrow and saturday!

oh yeah, prince does suck at the internet and youtube though. had all my vids taken down.

anyway, just wanted to post my quick comments and introduction, so cheers, and i'll post some thoughts after tomorrows show!

ihatephish said:

wow, i can finally post! first of all, this was my first prince show over, last thursday. was never a big fan in the 80's (im only 30), but in the last four or five years have been getting into a lot of his live stuff and bootlegs. the loring park sessions really opened my eyes and made me dive deeper.

we had already purchased tickets with a bunch of friends to go tomorrow but i pulled two INCREDIBLE $25 seats for opening night at the last minute. i was a bit worried about how empty the forum was at first, but it seemed to fill up by show time, though not completely.

anyway, my wife and i both agreed that was the BEST concert or "show" we've ever been to (and we average about 50 or so shows a year). the la crowd really needs to loosen up and get the f*ck down though! our section was, but the section next to us was almost motionless.

can't wait to go back tomorrow and saturday!

oh yeah, prince does suck at the internet and youtube though. had all my vids taken down.

anyway, just wanted to post my quick comments and introduction, so cheers, and i'll post some thoughts after tomorrows show!

Don't you just hate it when people just sit there like they're watching television at home!! LOL It's a concert people. Get up and move that ass!! I pity the people who have to sit behind me because I'm not sitting down for one second.

AeroE said:

ihatephish said:

wow, i can finally post! first of all, this was my first prince show over, last thursday. was never a big fan in the 80's (im only 30), but in the last four or five years have been getting into a lot of his live stuff and bootlegs. the loring park sessions really opened my eyes and made me dive deeper.

we had already purchased tickets with a bunch of friends to go tomorrow but i pulled two INCREDIBLE $25 seats for opening night at the last minute. i was a bit worried about how empty the forum was at first, but it seemed to fill up by show time, though not completely.

anyway, my wife and i both agreed that was the BEST concert or "show" we've ever been to (and we average about 50 or so shows a year). the la crowd really needs to loosen up and get the f*ck down though! our section was, but the section next to us was almost motionless.

can't wait to go back tomorrow and saturday!

oh yeah, prince does suck at the internet and youtube though. had all my vids taken down.

anyway, just wanted to post my quick comments and introduction, so cheers, and i'll post some thoughts after tomorrows show!

Don't you just hate it when people just sit there like they're watching television at home!! LOL It's a concert people. Get up and move that ass!! I pity the people who have to sit behind me because I'm not sitting down for one second.

ha, it was the first time i've ever encountered such a scenario. the majority of the shows i go to are either small funk bands from new orleans like dumptaphunk, stanton moore and some larger acts like phish and widespread panic.

oh well. hopefully with more notice this week, more people that REALLY want to see prince and get down will show up!

Forum Inglewood pictures http://www.flickr.com/pho...638946012/

serpan99 said:

Forum Inglewood pictures http://www.flickr.com/pho...638946012/

Yay, I can finally post too!

Well, by now (waiting out the 5 day period) pretty much everything has been said about the concert... but I just wanted to echo how absolutely AMAZING the show was. When he announced these shows I KNEW I had to go, and due to my schedule the 4/14 show was the only one that I'd be able to make it to to, and I was concerned about him moving to another venue or something that might be impossible to get tickets for. Plus I thought the opening night might be a little special...so even though I had to get collonade tickets (I was 30 minutes late to a meeting trying to wait out the destroyed Ticketmaster website before I had to drop it and just buy what I could after I got back) I was happy to be going. For $25, there was no way I'd be complaining even if it was just a mediocre show. (Still think it's funny that because I pre-paid for parking it cost more than the ticket!)

I am so SO thrilled I made it to that show. I hate to admit it here-- I am not the most hardcore fan of Prince's music, to the point there were songs at the concert I wasn't totally familar with. But I've seen Prince live before and was blown away before so I know not to miss him! (Unless he plays Nokia, home of the crappiest acoustics in town-- I have to laugh any time I see it brought up how he blamed Nokia, and Nokia blamed Prince-- being as every show I've seen at Nokia has SUCKED sound-wise I'd believe Prince over them) I TOTALLY believe he is one of the most gifted musicians of the last few decades (if not of all times, really).

But I wasn't prepared for the 3.5 hour marathon. I FINALLY got to see one of those "magical" concerts that people talk about-- the legendary shows that always are referred to but you're never quite lucky enough to catch. I'm a little concerned no concert (by anyone!) will ever live up to that show, to be honest! I've always wanted to see one of the Prince afterparties and I figured it was unlikely to happen -- scheduling, having to drive to wherever it is, even just the logistics of finding out where to go-- just never seemed to work out. So this was a fantastic treat. I've seen so many little parts of the show dissected and examined and I know that's what people on forums do. And the concert starts sounding stale, forced, whatever. But I have to say-- if you were there, it was beyond amazing. He played 25+ year old songs like they were brand new, with the fire and emotion you'd expect of a new artist. I see a LOT of concerts every year and Prince is so far out there in terms of showmanship and talent that it's almost unfair to even think of comparing a Prince show to anyone else.

Things like the sampler, teasing us with Darling Nikki (or Beyonce), etc-- yeah, it sounds a bit cheesy reading it but when you were there you just felt the joy and humor that Prince was bringing to the show. He was having a great time on stage and bringing us all along for the ride. He was in his own world and we were getting to see a little glimpse of it.

The fact it's a week later and I'm still buzzing is almost unprecented for me. I sometimes worry I go to too many concerts that they don't have that excitement that they'd have in high school or college, where a concert was a special treat. But even before the show I was totally excited (For the 2 whole days I had to wait! ) and now afterwards I'm still driving everyone I talk to crazy not being able to stop talking about it.

My only regret is I had to leave before it was over. I had to scramble to find someone to go with at the last minute due to an emergency that came up with the original friend I was going with... so I asked a friend who I'd seen Prince with before, she was totally into it, but she has to be at work VERY early and once it hit midnight it was becoming a bit of an issue, since we both had a bit of a drive home. So we agreed to leave after the then-current (5th?) encore no matter what. We knew we'd miss something, and we heard it blasting on the way through the parking lot, but sometimes real life calls... nothing to do with being a bad crowd or anything, it just became an issue. Honestly, had we known there was only about 15 minutes to go we would've stayed. We were sure he'd go to at least 1am at that point. (plus it didn't help that my work had one of our biggest events of the year on that day so it was a VERY long and stressful week at work so I was exhausted going into the show-- forgot about that exhaustion until around 12:30 that night though!)

And I also wanted to say it was great being back at the Forum. Lots of good memories, both of events I attended there and of events watched there. (Funny, I have ALWAYS sat in the orange seats there, or at least been on that side of the floor) It felt sort of like being home, and the history in the building just made it feel like such a perfect night. Yeah, it has quirks and it's an older building but it has character (EARNED character), not just the "pretty girl at the party" that expects to get all the attention. (Staples) Even the colonnade seats were great. Not perfect, but so much closer than I expected (since the Staples luxury boxes shoot you 3 stories above the action).

So now I'm left totally jealous of everyone who gets to see him this week. And I absolutely am going to go back to see him again as part of these shows as long as he gets some scheduled on days I can go. (since I'll be out of the state for a while)I'm nervous they won't be as magical as 4/14 but I'm sure if anyone can top himself, it'd be Prince.

Hope everyone has fun in the upcoming shows!!

(wow, and sorry this is so long!!)

Justin42 said:

Yay, I can finally post too!

Well, by now (waiting out the 5 day period) pretty much everything has been said about the concert... but I just wanted to echo how absolutely AMAZING the show was. When he announced these shows I KNEW I had to go, and due to my schedule the 4/14 show was the only one that I'd be able to make it to to, and I was concerned about him moving to another venue or something that might be impossible to get tickets for. Plus I thought the opening night might be a little special...so even though I had to get collonade tickets (I was 30 minutes late to a meeting trying to wait out the destroyed Ticketmaster website before I had to drop it and just buy what I could after I got back) I was happy to be going. For $25, there was no way I'd be complaining even if it was just a mediocre show. (Still think it's funny that because I pre-paid for parking it cost more than the ticket!)

I am so SO thrilled I made it to that show. I hate to admit it here-- I am not the most hardcore fan of Prince's music, to the point there were songs at the concert I wasn't totally familar with. But I've seen Prince live before and was blown away before so I know not to miss him! (Unless he plays Nokia, home of the crappiest acoustics in town-- I have to laugh any time I see it brought up how he blamed Nokia, and Nokia blamed Prince-- being as every show I've seen at Nokia has SUCKED sound-wise I'd believe Prince over them) I TOTALLY believe he is one of the most gifted musicians of the last few decades (if not of all times, really).

But I wasn't prepared for the 3.5 hour marathon. I FINALLY got to see one of those "magical" concerts that people talk about-- the legendary shows that always are referred to but you're never quite lucky enough to catch. I'm a little concerned no concert (by anyone!) will ever live up to that show, to be honest! I've always wanted to see one of the Prince afterparties and I figured it was unlikely to happen -- scheduling, having to drive to wherever it is, even just the logistics of finding out where to go-- just never seemed to work out. So this was a fantastic treat. I've seen so many little parts of the show dissected and examined and I know that's what people on forums do. And the concert starts sounding stale, forced, whatever. But I have to say-- if you were there, it was beyond amazing. He played 25+ year old songs like they were brand new, with the fire and emotion you'd expect of a new artist. I see a LOT of concerts every year and Prince is so far out there in terms of showmanship and talent that it's almost unfair to even think of comparing a Prince show to anyone else.

Things like the sampler, teasing us with Darling Nikki (or Beyonce), etc-- yeah, it sounds a bit cheesy reading it but when you were there you just felt the joy and humor that Prince was bringing to the show. He was having a great time on stage and bringing us all along for the ride. He was in his own world and we were getting to see a little glimpse of it.

The fact it's a week later and I'm still buzzing is almost unprecented for me. I sometimes worry I go to too many concerts that they don't have that excitement that they'd have in high school or college, where a concert was a special treat. But even before the show I was totally excited (For the 2 whole days I had to wait! ) and now afterwards I'm still driving everyone I talk to crazy not being able to stop talking about it.

My only regret is I had to leave before it was over. I had to scramble to find someone to go with at the last minute due to an emergency that came up with the original friend I was going with... so I asked a friend who I'd seen Prince with before, she was totally into it, but she has to be at work VERY early and once it hit midnight it was becoming a bit of an issue, since we both had a bit of a drive home. So we agreed to leave after the then-current (5th?) encore no matter what. We knew we'd miss something, and we heard it blasting on the way through the parking lot, but sometimes real life calls... nothing to do with being a bad crowd or anything, it just became an issue. Honestly, had we known there was only about 15 minutes to go we would've stayed. We were sure he'd go to at least 1am at that point. (plus it didn't help that my work had one of our biggest events of the year on that day so it was a VERY long and stressful week at work so I was exhausted going into the show-- forgot about that exhaustion until around 12:30 that night though!)

And I also wanted to say it was great being back at the Forum. Lots of good memories, both of events I attended there and of events watched there. (Funny, I have ALWAYS sat in the orange seats there, or at least been on that side of the floor) It felt sort of like being home, and the history in the building just made it feel like such a perfect night. Yeah, it has quirks and it's an older building but it has character (EARNED character), not just the "pretty girl at the party" that expects to get all the attention. (Staples) Even the colonnade seats were great. Not perfect, but so much closer than I expected (since the Staples luxury boxes shoot you 3 stories above the action).

So now I'm left totally jealous of everyone who gets to see him this week. And I absolutely am going to go back to see him again as part of these shows as long as he gets some scheduled on days I can go. (since I'll be out of the state for a while)I'm nervous they won't be as magical as 4/14 but I'm sure if anyone can top himself, it'd be Prince.

Hope everyone has fun in the upcoming shows!!

(wow, and sorry this is so long!!)

I am glad you had a good time. I hope the Saturday show is as good or better!

Justin42 said:

Yay, I can finally post too!

But I wasn't prepared for the 3.5 hour marathon. I FINALLY got to see one of those "magical" concerts that people talk about-- the legendary shows that always are referred to but you're never quite lucky enough to catch. I'm a little concerned no concert (by anyone!) will ever live up to that show, to be honest! I've always wanted to see one of the Prince afterparties and I figured it was unlikely to happen -- scheduling, having to drive to wherever it is, even just the logistics of finding out where to go-- just never seemed to work out. So this was a fantastic treat.

He played 25+ year old songs like they were brand new, with the fire and emotion you'd expect of a new artist.

Things like the sampler, teasing us with Darling Nikki (or Beyonce), etc-- yeah, it sounds a bit cheesy reading it but when you were there you just felt the joy and humor that Prince was bringing to the show. He was having a great time on stage and bringing us all along for the ride. He was in his own world and we were getting to see a little glimpse of it.

The fact it's a week later and I'm still buzzing is almost unprecented for me. I sometimes worry I go to too many concerts that they don't have that excitement that they'd have in high school or college, where a concert was a special treat. But even before the show I was totally excited (For the 2 whole days I had to wait! ) and now afterwards I'm still driving everyone I talk to crazy not being able to stop talking about it.

I'm nervous they won't be as magical as 4/14 but I'm sure if anyone can top himself, it'd be Prince.

Just read your great review - another one that put a big smile on my face!

I can so relate to you regarding thoughts of probably never experiencing one of those special magical shows, or even one of the rare aftershows. - For me it has not happened yet, but I am thrilled to read about your experience! You got a brilliant main show and an aftershow attached to it, more or less. - What could be better? And that for only 25 bucks - indeed a great treat!!!

What you said about Prince playing his old hits like they were new and they sound fresh - that's exactly how I see it! That's why I would never complain about the setlist and "only the hits being played", because I know that Prince plays them with passion every time!!! And that is something really special for an artist who has been doing this for decades!!!

To experience Prince in his own world like that is truly awesome!!! I can almost feel the magic when hearing it described. So thanks for sharing your thoughts here with us!! It always lifts me up to see how much joy Prince brings to people.

I perfectly understand not being able to stop talking about it ... I talk about Prince all the time when I read about another great concert event, even though I'm far away!!

I could imagine that not all upcoming shows will live up to the magic of the first night, I think it is only natural that they might not be comparable, but Prince has shown us over and over again that he is able to top himself - so maybe one or the other especially great surprise will be ahead. Aside from that, I am sure every one of the shows will be amazing!!!!