alfbo said:

LA showed Prince mad love last night. He felt it, and gave it back to us in return.

^^^ You said it sweetly and succinctly. We felt satisfied, satiated, and sanctified!

L.A. LOVES Prince, and he Loves L.A.... Its the Promoting of the concerts, and timing of tickets. This past weekend was SOLD OUT!!!!! and the other 2 that I went to looked pretty full to me. I am hoping that he will stay for a little while longer, and I just wish I could have gotten VIP tickets to see him close up!!!!! Good run, and he hasnt done 21 shows in L.A. yet, so there is still a possibility that he will come back for more.

bobzilla77 said:

Short notice for weekday gigs is a big problem. The paper that reviewed the San Jose show on Thurs noted that he'd sold only 6000 tickets, while the first Oakland Arena show had sold out 18,000 tickets in minutes. And he ain't doing 21 gigs there, only 2.

Cheap seats are sold out for this weekend, which is bummin me out cuz it's my birthday & I wanna go again!!

I heard that the Fresno, SF shows he only played like an hour and 25 min... L.A. he has played for 2.5-4 hours!!!!!

electrodyne said:

I can both agree and disagree with the title of this thread.

Agree:

• With the exception of the first few Forum shows, anytime Prince asks the crowd to sing along and he steps back from the microphone, the crowd response has been weak. Very weak! He'll try again, taunting the audience with, "I can't hear y'all... " or "You can do better than that, c'mon!". And it still falls flat. After seeing this at several Forum shows, you can tell it frustrates him. Another example was where he sang "Sometimes It Snows In April" (with Renato and light accompaniment, not the solo guitar version he's also performed it). He told the crowd, "You can sing if you want to." The crowd was mostly silent, at which point he directed the band to cut it short but calling out "Chorus." to them, instead going back into the final verse. He was visibly frustrated. This instance was the week after the show was so undersold on a Thursday, that tickets were being sold for $10. at the door. Which leads me to...
• Ten dollar tickets due to a venue being that under sold???!!?!?!? Whoa!!!! I'm broke and only semi-employed right now, thus I'm not complaining about such bargains (and there are many, many others here suffering from such dire economic circumstances). But there's also many people with oodles of cash and it's baffling that they would not take advantage of the opportunity to see a musical legend in (what I feel to be) the peak of his powers. I've been seeing Prince perform live since the Lovesexy tour and the man is simply burning with a loving, musical fire right now. Some of this can be attributed to mediocre promotion on the part of Live Nation. Maybe next time, he'll go with an indie ticket distributor & concert promoter like flavorus.com .

Disagree:

• Despite undersold venues, I've met some serious hardcore Prince enthusiasts here in L.A. Remember, he used to have his own club here in the early 1990s. If he didn't feel an affinity or connection here, he wouldn't be playing 21 nights much less have opened a club.
• Have a look at the people dancing in the Purple Pit section. People there are showing him love (and then some)!

I do hope he plays some AFFORDABLE small club performances or spontaneous shows while he's here. I couldn't get into to the House Of Blues the other night and felt rather silly standing outside, knowing what was happening indoors. It would be amazing if he simply showed up at The Airliner, The Echoplex or even the stage at Amoeba Records.

I agree with the whole LiveNation promoting. My friend at Ticketmaster said that there are no problems with LiveNation, but yet it seems that their promoting of the concert is half Ass..... alot of my friends ended up going because of my telling them about it, and where to get tickets!!!!

purplepurple said:

Shows have been very full considering lack of promotion, lack of advance notice, and the fact that it's at the Forum (which is out of date, out of the way, and has bad traffic.) And don't forget Prince played London when the economy was in much better shape.

I heard that last night and Fri night he was talking about how he Loved the Forum so much, and about saving the Forum. He loves his L.A. fans, and he wants people to come to as many as his shows as possible, hence the discounted tickets!!!! Madison Square Gardens has bought the property, and so I think Prince by saying save the Froum, he wants to make sure that it doesnt get all crazy big and expensive for people.... LOVE HIM SO MUCH!!!!!!

PurpleDiver said:

electrodyne said:

I can both agree and disagree with the title of this thread.

Agree:

• With the exception of the first few Forum shows, anytime Prince asks the crowd to sing along and he steps back from the microphone, the crowd response has been weak. Very weak! He'll try again, taunting the audience with, "I can't hear y'all... " or "You can do better than that, c'mon!". And it still falls flat. After seeing this at several Forum shows, you can tell it frustrates him. Another example was where he sang "Sometimes It Snows In April" (with Renato and light accompaniment, not the solo guitar version he's also performed it). He told the crowd, "You can sing if you want to." The crowd was mostly silent, at which point he directed the band to cut it short but calling out "Chorus." to them, instead going back into the final verse. He was visibly frustrated. This instance was the week after the show was so undersold on a Thursday, that tickets were being sold for $10. at the door. Which leads me to...

I didn't catch him being frustrated, but hopefully even if he's bummed that not eveyone knows the words, he reasons that it means there are a lot of people coming to the shows and having a blast who aren't intimately familiar with his catalog, so that means there are NEW fans. I'm no marketing genius, but that's a good thing in my book.

If he released digital remasters of his classic albums, and a box set that big chain stores would stock, there might be more people at the concerts who would know the words to his songs.

oh well i guess its plan B for this weekends getaway for me...

I do have to kind of agree that southern California is a lot of posers and bullshit. But you have to realize its La-La Land. The entertainment capital of the world just like New York is the pulse of the world imo. They've seen it all in Cali. Jaded to the point we dont even realize it. Plus you have to be too cool for school. Cant be acting all joyous because that derides for the cool-pose.

If Prince wanted to see how the real people here party he'd invite those of us in the further seats up on stage instead of the celebs who went just to be seen. LA loves Prince, that's why he was able to play so many shows in our wonderful city.

MLava said:

If Prince wanted to see how the real people here party he'd invite those of us in the further seats up on stage instead of the celebs who went just to be seen. LA loves Prince, that's why he was able to play so many shows in our wonderful city.

95% of those on stage each night were NOT celebs.

xlr8r said:

I do have to kind of agree that southern California is a lot of posers and bullshit. But you have to realize its La-La Land. The entertainment capital of the world just like New York is the pulse of the world imo. They've seen it all in Cali. Jaded to the point we dont even realize it. Plus you have to be too cool for school. Cant be acting all joyous because that derides for the cool-pose.

L A is old news, do they even film movies there....just alot of wanna bes...my God yall scope up lady gaga tickets like crazy but prince struggles...give me a break...Prince you done the east ...done the west coast, now come to where the we apprciate ya...THE SOUTH.....

nusole said:

xlr8r said:

I do have to kind of agree that southern California is a lot of posers and bullshit. But you have to realize its La-La Land. The entertainment capital of the world just like New York is the pulse of the world imo. They've seen it all in Cali. Jaded to the point we dont even realize it. Plus you have to be too cool for school. Cant be acting all joyous because that derides for the cool-pose.

L A is old news, do they even film movies there....just alot of wanna bes...my God yall scope up lady gaga tickets like crazy but prince struggles...give me a break...Prince you done the east ...done the west coast, now come to where the we apprciate ya...THE SOUTH.....

yall are uncouth down there..yuck...Prince , if you want to drink out of jelly jars go head there then