Prince: Snapshots of a Magical Night at the Inglewood Forum in LA

Gustavo Turner

Prince: On point for 3 1/2 hours at the Forum in Inglewood

[Relive the Prince Show right here @laweeklymusic. Read our Twitter feed from last night for blow-by-blow commentary of Prince's first Forum show.]

Some tips if you are alive in LA right now:

• Prince is here. He says he's gonna play 21 nights. You wanna get a ticket. You really wanna get a ticket.


• The Forum at Inglewood is an ideal venue to see Prince's in-the-round spectacle. There are no really bad seats in the house.


• This one is important: whatever happens onstage (lights on, maintenance people, etc.) DO NOT LEAVE THE VENUE until they positively kick you out. Last night Prince's "encores" really turned into a complete secret second show after the "hits" set of the first 2 hours. Half the stadium left and we the lucky who were left took over the seats by the stage and got a full-on Prince club show for another 1 1/2 hour.


• Again, DO NOT LEAVE THE VENUE even if it looks like they're done. They're not.


• Prince has something for everyone: the classics, old-school rock n roll, Metallica-style riffing, the occasional punk-funk number, Santana-style stoner jams, straight-up jazz and gospel, kickass backup singers, his ballerina girlfriend, two "twin" dancers who are dead ringers for Susanna Hoffs in the '80s...


• ...and SHEILA E! Yup, Sheila E is unstoppable and has gotten, if you can believe this, hotter in every sense of the word with the years. Sheila E--the Helen Mirren of pop. Male and female boners all around the house.


• Oh, and don't let Tea Partiers fool you: it doesn't get more AMERICAN than a prancing little black genius from Minneapolis and a gorgeous Latina amazon from Cali deeply grooving on guitar and percussion for the most truly integrated audience you were likely to see anywhere in the US last night.


• The one Prince lyric that got all the applause: "All of them get older, but I still look the same." Straight talk.

Gustavo Turner

First set-up of the evening: Prince as the Thin White Duke

Gustavo Turner

Set List (courtesy of Randall Roberts at the LA Times)

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

DMSR
Pop Life
Extraordinary
Uptown
Raspberry Beret
Cream
Cool (Time cover, incorporating Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop 'Till You Get Enough")
Let's Work
[At some point around here the background singers sang a moving version of Bob Dylan's late-period gem "To Make You Feel My Love."]
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