Today I must pass the talking stick to my extremely funny friend, Jim Maloy. Jim recently went to a Prince concert, which made me very jealous because I love Prince and seeing him live is on my list of “Things I’ve Always Wanted to Do.” Actually, a couple of years ago when we were still living in Los Angeles, Prince was doing a residency (of sorts) at a club in LA, and I almost went. Two things stopped me, though—for one, the tickets were RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE, like four or five hundred dollars. Actually, this wasn’t the main thing that stopped me— we once went on a pilgrimage (and I do mean that in the most literal sense) to Memphis in the middle of summer to see a Tom Waits show, so clearly I will spend money when motivated. No, the thing that stopped me from seeing Prince a few years ago was that there was a rumor going around that Prince actually didn’t go ON until two or three in the morning, after making his audience wait for hours and hours until he was ready.
This is where I draw the line. Take my money, make me travel, maybe even me take two airplanes and endure the stinkiness of a summer of Memphis, but SERIOUSLY? Do not wait until 3 am to start your show, because then I’m just delirious and cranky, and mad at you because what, do you think you're better than me? In fact, if you’re a musician or a comedian or someone I would enjoy seeing live, just please don’t be doing that thing at 2 or 3 in the morning, because that’s when I like to be sleeping. One additional example—a few years ago my friend and I happened to be in the right place at the right time, and we ended up being the LAST TWO PEOPLE allowed in the door for this super-secret, unpublicized, “Dave Chappelle just showed up in town and is doing a midnight comedy show” in San Francisco. I was SUPER EXCITED at midnight when the show started.
But, then we weren’t really allowed to leave, and Dave Chappelle was—well, you know. Dave Chappelle, and he was working out new material, which was awesome—-for the first two hours, and then I started to feel like I wanted to lay on the table and take a nap. But we stayed, and stayed, and stayed, and then it was four in the morning, and we felt like we were going to die, but we stuck it out. It did end up being an awesome, once in a lifetime kind of a show, but even under those circumstances, I was a little bit bitter about being that tired because Dave Chappelle couldn’t start a show at 8pm like regular people, because I needs my sleep, doesn’t he know?
Anyhow, Prince is back in Los Angeles, and Jim went to the show last week, and here is his writeup of that, complete with set list. He also took a number of great video clips, which I seem to only be able to share on Facebook, so if we're friends over there, go on over to my page for some bonus Prince footage.
You go, Jim!
A HASTILY ARRANGED ENCOUNTER WITH PRINCE
Long story short…well, no, long story long.
Prince is doing a residence of sorts at the Inglewood Forum, which is about two miles from my house. He’s playing Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights for the near future. The first show lasted three hours, including six encores. His business model is…insane. He announced this week’s shows on TUESDAY. Which isn’t a ton of advance time, to say the least.
I looked at the forums on prince.org, and last night the setlist leaked in advance. It looked like this:
Wow. Another full show with six planned encores, with my favorite B-side third in the set. Then someone posted a picture of the venue during the opening act: the place was deserted. Once Laura got home to watch the kids, I booked over to the Forum box office. I paid $10 for my ticket…for a seat in the front row of the first loge, directly over the floor facing Prince. And I walked in during the first song. Call it kismet, call it serendipity, call it the dumbest fucking luck in the world and let’s move on.
After all that, here’s the bad news. Prince is past his prime as a performer. Not horribly past, he can still shake a leg when he feels like it, but…it reminded me of the last James Brown show I saw on TV. James had about eighteen different female singer/dancers onstage with him to move around and generally call attention away from the fact that he wasn’t doing any of the frenzied dancing and insane splits that used to be his trademark.
Prince had five female singer/dancers onstage with him last night. Got it? And his band, while competent, was more generic and less interesting than his eighties bands.
In his defense: that was over twenty years ago, and the guy is 51 years old. I’ve also read that he needs to have replacement surgery done on both of his hips, but he won’t because he’s a devout Jehovah’s Witness and they’re skeevy about blood transfusions. Or something.
Anyway, it left him free to focus on the music. Of which there was a ton. He’s the only guitarist in the band, and just watching Prince play rhythm guitar is a great pleasure. He played “17 Days,” which I never thought I’d hear live; several songs by the Time ( which he probably wrote himself under a pseudonym ); and the last encore was a 94.7 The Wave cover of “More Than This” by Roxy Music.
Did it blow my mind? No. The 1988 Lovesexy show in Massachusetts blew my mind. This was more like a pilgrimage to a see a legend who wasn’t as good as he used to be (back when I revered him), because neither he nor I are getting any younger. He has become what Paul Stanley once called a “heritage artist,” a PC way to describe someone who is more relevant for what they used to be than what they currently are. Which, let’s face it, describes Prince. Remember that 3-CD set that he released exclusively through Target a few years ago? I picked up a copy for $1.99 a year later, and if good songs are valued at 99 cents apiece then I overpaid by a dollar.
( I also love that the phrase “heritage artist” was coined by PAUL STANLEY. “How many of you people feel age and entropy following you around like an unwelcome shadow?!? This one’s called LOVE GUN!!!” )
Here’s the other thing: when tickets first went on sale, they were DISGUSTINGLY EXPENSIVE. $200 for loge seating. There are a few tables around the front of the stage, and each ticket for that was $781. However, because of Prince’s unorthodox methods, even this weekend’s shows are down to $25 or less. So the scalpers and ticket brokers are getting fucked… but so is Prince, who has to pay his band and crew, plus lodging and arena rental for four dark nights every week.
There’s no way I would have paid $100 to see Prince. But if tickets are $25, I’ll go at least one more time, and probably three. So he’s still getting $100 out of me. Does this make sense? He really doesn’t seem to care if he takes a bath on these shows. He’s just offering people an opportunity to see the musical god of the 1980s multiple times. It's like Shark Encounter at Sea World, except instead of sharks it's Prince. How can I fault him? And why wouldn’t I go again?
