Prince at the Forum: Three hours, massive setlist, many medleys

 

Thursday night, Prince kicked off his 21-night stint in at the Forum in Inglewood with a massive three-hour show featuring many highlights from the Purple One's three-decade career. The Times will have a full review of the show in a few hours, but below is the first stab at a setlist. Any Prince fanatic in attendance last night -- apparently there were a few -- who sees any discrepancy in this, let us know.

One curious Prince aside that deserves note: Onstage between songs, Prince didn't make mention of "21 shows." He said that he and the band would be performing at the Forum "as long as you'll have us." Did that strike anyone else as curious?

Prince and the New Power Generation at the Forum, April 14

DMSR
Pop Life
Extraordinary
Uptown
Raspberry Beret
Cream
Cool  (Time cover, featuring a sojourn into Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop 'Till You Get Enough")
Let's Work
U Got the Look
Purple Rain
Let's Go Crazy
Delirious
1999
The Beautiful Ones
Little Red Corvette
Kiss
Medley: When Doves Cry / Nasty Girls / Sign of the Times / Darling Nikki / 777-9311 / Single Ladies
If Eye Was Ur Girlfriend
Insatiable
Scandalous
Adore
A Love Bizarre  (Sheila E. cover, featuring Sheila E.)
Play That Funky Music  (Wild Cherry cover)
Controversy  (with Housequake chants)
The Glamorous Life  (Sheila E. cover, with Sheila E.)
Peach (with Sheila E.)
Dance (Sylvester cover)
Baby I'm a Star
Stratus  (Billy Cobham cover)
Sometimes It Snows in April
Laydown
Endorphinmachine
She's Always in My Hair
Dreamer
Welcome 2 America

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Prince keeps things affordable at the Forum for $25, but how close does that get you?

Prince to play 21-night run at the Forum

-- Randall Roberts

Photo: iPhone photo of Prince's stage on Thursday night at the Forum. Credit: Randall Roberts / Los Angeles Times

 

Prince keeps things affordable at the Forum at $25, but how close does that get you?

Let's face it. The live music business is one that fans and media approach with a skeptical eye, albeit one that's deserved after years of increasing ticket fees, last-minute fire sales and ticketing systems that seemingly play into the hands of the secondary market. So, when artists and promoters do something right, such as Prince offering about 85% of the house at $25 a pop -- a figure that includes service fees -- a hearty well-done is in order. 

Three of Prince's 21 Los Angeles dates went on sale this morning, and if anyone was curious as to how a superstar such as Prince could price more than half the Forum at $25, the answer looked to be apparent as soon as one went to make a purchase. There were, of course, the $25 all-in tickets, but the next tier was a drastic hike. Those who wanted to guarantee a seat outside the Forum's upper deck (the colonnade section) would have to spring for a $205 ticket. 

What's more, those $205 tickets were running deep into the Forum's loge section. If one wanted to ensure one of the absolute best seats in the Forum, Ticketmaster directed you to its Platinum Ticket section, which offered premium loge seats for as high as $450.

But again, there is good news in all this, as Pop & Hiss is not interested here in criticizing an artist for pricing more than 80% of the house at $25. A spokeswoman for promoter Live Nation confirms that there are in fact loge seats available for $25, and those are, no doubt, among the first to go. So those who are gambling on snaring better seats for one of Prince's forthcoming 18 gigs, there is hope, although what percentage of the loge is selling for $25 is unknown.

Prince announces first set of Forum dates, kicks off Thursday

Prince is the only artist who can announce a set of impromptu shows and send fans -- and music writers -- into a frenzy.

Last week, the Purple One phoned in to “Lopez Tonight” to announce that he would be taking over the Forum for a 21-night residency that would begin April 14 -- certainly causing a panic for fans who had  already committed to Coachella.

Still unconfirmed is whether all the shows will be at the Forum. After initial indications that they might be spread around town, it's yet unclear as to the venues for the other 18 shows. Monday we got official word that a set of shows, dubbed the Welcome 2 America Live “21 Nite Stand” tour, would go on sale Tuesday at 10 a.m.

Prince previously played successful residencies in the New York area in December and January which received tremendous acclaim each night – and even snagged headlines for playfully booting Kim Kardashian offstage during a New York gig for not dancing with him (look, if Prince says dance, you better dance). He also played a handful of intimate nights in Oakland and five shows in the Carolinas.

Always a hot ticket draw, the star made it a point to make the tour affordable for fans -- a welcome gesture given the economy, gas prices and soaring concert ticket price tags. He has promised that nearly 85 percent of all tickets will be available for $25, inclusive of all service fees. 

The superstar will be joined by backing band the New Power Generation and “a whole gang of special guests,” he teased during the phone call with George Lopez.

Special guests for the L.A. performances are expected to be announced shortly but he has previously been joined by Cee Lo Green, Esperanza Spalding, Santana, Cassandra Wilson, and Sheila E among others, so it’s highly unlikely that he wouldn’t pull out all the stops for his L.A. sets.

His first two Madison Square Garden shows sold out in 30 minutes and over 45,000 tickets were sold in the first three days for the string of Oakland shows – so tickets will undoubtedly go quick at the Forum.

Take a peek at the first set of dates after the jump:

Prince to perform 21-night Los Angeles run, starting at the Forum on April 14 [Updated]

After successful residencies in the New York area in December and January, Prince is finally setting up an extended stay in Los Angeles -- and attempting to upstage Coachella in the process.

The singer dialed into “Lopez Tonight,” of all places, Thursday night to announce he would be kicking off a 21-night run at the Forum.

[Updated 1:10 p.m.: Word from Prince's camp is that not all the shows will necessarily be at the Forum; a press release is due out shortly detailing ticketing information and venue locations for the first six appearances. We have adjusted the headline to reflect this information.] 

The stint will begin April 14 with backing band the New Power Generation and “a whole gang of special guests,” he teased. He said he needs somewhere to rehearse and asked the host if he could come to the show in person on Wednesday, which Lopez graciously agreed to.

“Whatever you do, just let us bring the purple,” the singer warned. "Everybody’s always overdoing that purple lights and whatnot, you know what I mean?”

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One night with Prince

Live review: Prince's three shows at L.A. Live

-- Gerrick D. Kennedy
Twitter.com / gerrickkennedy

Photo: Prince. Credit: Jumana el Heloueh / Reuters

How Prince's all-gold Fender Stratocaster came to be

 

 

 
What: One-of-a-kind Fender Stratocaster, fully gold-plated from the top of the headstock to the bottom of the electric guitar’s signature solid body

Who: Prince (the artist formerly known as the Artist Formerly Known as Prince)

Where: He’ll introduce and play his gilt instrument during a string of shows in December in New York and New Jersey

When: Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J., and Sunday and Dec. 29 at Madison Square Garden in New York

Why: Prince told his friends at Fender that he’d had a dream in which he played a gold Stratocaster. For his upcoming “Welcome 2 America” performances — his first East Coast shows since 2004 — he wanted something special and asked if such a guitar could be made. Fender execs turned to their designers at the Fender Custom Shop in Corona, Calif., where master guitar builders specialize in delivering unique instruments, for superstar musicians as well as amateurs with the desire, and the money, for something out of the ordinary.

Prince pens 'Purple and Gold' fight song for Minnesota Vikings

Prince debuted a new song, but it’s not exactly what fans would expect.The notoriously reclusive star unveiled his inner jock, writing a song about the Minnesota Vikings to honor last week's win over the Dallas Cowboys.

The Fox affiliate in Minneapolis quoted the musician, one of the state's more famous natives, as saying he "saw the future" after Sunday's win. The game apparently inspired him to write "Purple and Gold" later that night.

A sample of some of the lyrics:

We come in the name of the purple and gold
All of the odds are in our favor
No prediction too bold
We are the truth if the truth can be told
Long reign the purple and gold

So it's a bit simple, but one doesn't necessarily look to stadium chants for artistic greatness. At best it's a cute offering, with sport-friendly lyrics and cheesy, old-school Casio-like effects. It almost sounds a bit like a Christmas song, with its slow beat and prideful chorus. Sample it below.

Competing CD sales strategies on display

Two snapshots of the music business were on display on the U.S. pop chart, with Prince's distribution strategy proving to be a bigger winner this week than the one used by rapper Flo Rida.

While Prince landed at No. 2, selling 168,000 copies of his three-disc "LotusFlow3r," released exclusively through Target, Flo Rida struggled to turn success selling digital tracks into album sales.

Flo Rida is a king of digital downloads. Already this year, his single "Right Round," which was released in January, has sold 2.4 million downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan figures released by Billboard. His song "Low," featuring T-Pain, was the No. 3-selling digital track of 2008, with just under 3 million copies.

Yet both of his full-length albums have had trouble gaining traction, with last year's "Mail on Sunday" and this week's "R.O.O.T.S." selling fewer than 100,000 copies each in their first week. "R.O.O.T.S." landed at No. 8 on this week's chart, selling 55,000 copies.

"The challenge of the entire music business is converting a massive amount of singles buyers out there to album buyers," said James Lopez, Atlantic Records' senior vice president of urban marketing. He added that Flo Rida has sold more than 10 million singles worldwide. On the flip side, Lopez said, Flo Rida's "Mail on Sunday," has sold about 381,000 copies to date in the U.S.

Tonight: Wendy and Lisa in conversation at USC

One of the coolest things about L.A.'s pop life is the presence of everyday demigods, everywhere. So many key contributors to contemporary music's canon hang out at the local Coffee Bean or have their kids in your preschool. Count Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman among my favorites -- goddesses with no pretense and unflagging energy.

Best known for their early work with Prince, Wendy and Lisa have forged a career well worth emulating since departing his Revolution more than two decades ago. As composers, they've written for such films as "Dangerous Minds" and such television shows as "Crossing Jordan" and "Heroes." As producers, they've helped realize projects with everyone from Seal to Eric Clapton to k.d. lang. They've also made some great pop music under their own names -- most recently the lush, complex 2009 album "White Flags of Winter Chimneys," self-released and available on the duo's website.

At 7 tonight, Wendy and Lisa will join me in a public conversation at USC's Annenberg School for Communication. The event is free. The duo answered a few questions via email as a preview for our talk.

Live review: Prince's three shows at L.A. Live

Prince’s three-in-one concert experience Saturday at downtown’s L.A. Live nightlife complex often felt like a date with a special someone that wasn’t going quite as expected. You know how such evenings can be: Your beloved insists on making all the decisions; he (or she) directs the conversation toward unfamiliar topics; he makes you wait, but when he’s finally fully present, announces he can’t stay too long. Such a night can frustrate, but then it turns around completely on the strength of just one perfect, loving gesture. Despite many challenges, Prince still managed just that kind of metaphorical final kiss.

The circumstances were less than perfect. Expert at improvised set lists, Prince loves to stretch out, but this jaunt through the Nokia Theatre, the Conga Room and Club Nokia required a tighter song selection, which felt truncated compared with last year’s Coachella set and other recent high-profile gigs.

He also struggled with the sound system, notably during the opening Nokia Theatre show. A bad buzz afflicted his vocal microphone and the mix was weak in the middle. Later, a long line to get into the final show at Club Nokia left some fans frustrated, after they missed that ending set's first few songs.

Throughout the obstacle course, Prince noted the problems, but vowed to soldier on. Showing pique would have just wasted time; he had a concept to execute. With a new website, LotusFlow3r.com, just launched, and three albums hitting Target stores today, Prince was staging both a celebration and a marketing pitch.

None of the performances featured much new material, but each represented the mood of one of the new releases, already available for download on Prince’s website for a $77 subscription fee. The first show reflected the “old school” approach on “MPLSoUND”; the second, the guitar adventures of “LOtUSFLOW3r,” and the third focused on the smooth sensuality found on “Elixer,” even though that album’s main singer, Bria Valente, never took the stage.

Album reviews: Prince's 'LotusFlow3r' and 'MPLSound,' and Bria Valente's 'Elixer'

By now, most music fans are well aware that Prince will self-release three albums that will sell in one $11.98 bundle at Target and on the artist's website starting Sunday. Which one you fancy the most depends on what flavor of Prince "u" prefer -- the nasty antiquity of "MPLSound," the guitar-hero antics of "LotusFlow3r" or the VIP-lounge purrs of his protégée Bria Valente on "Elixer."

"MPLSound" is a valentine to Revolution-era traditionalists. The nine-song collection pays homage to Prince's beloved Minneapolis and trades in nostalgia, lifting the syncopated drum machine beats from "When Doves Cry" and name-checking Rick James. But it's not all naughty retro: "MPLSound" also incorporates Prince's faith as a Jehovah's Witness, like when he shouts "thank you, almighty" and "hallelujah" to a lover in "Dance 4 Me."

All three albums have a touch of the spirit, an abiding cleanliness that elevates sex to heavenly communion, but "MPLSound" might be the most pristine for what it ultimately lacks: the sense of real, lusty sin.

Ballads "Better With Time" and "U're Gonna C Me" leak syrup all over the soundboard, but "Chocolate Box," a strutting bit of funk braggadocio set in the club with a guest spot from Q-Tip, is electrifying. In "Valentina," Prince addresses Salma Hayek's daughter: "Tell your mama she should give me a call." Hayek might be one of the world's most voluptuous movie stars, but new mothers and their "nightly feedings" are not the typical pop subjects.

Possibly the album's most notable track -- for reasons fine and regrettable -- is the spirited romp "Ol' Skool Company." Here Prince, his voice doctored to sound like he's taking hits of helium, lets his curmudgeon rip for more than seven minutes, longing for an "old-school melody when God, his son and the love of family ruled in the community."