[Read EWs snap judgment of all three!]
6:48 p.m.Your correspondent andL.A.
Times music critic Ann Powersare outside the Nokia, in long line to get past the metal detectors.
Many of the women outside are dressed like strippers, or very enthusiastic Vegas vacationers.
Or maybe thats just how they dress.
Your correspondent is wearing cowboy boots and feels they demonstrate she made an effort.
Venue resembles a movie theater designed by people who also design cell phones, complete with ushers hawking popcorn.
Its not quite full.
But how late can Prince start without running the whole night behind schedule?
7:11Princes Target ad runs on the jumbotrons, without sound.
Instead, the DJ is pumping Ladies Night.
7:16DJ plays Glamorous Life.
Target ad plays again.
Your correspondent begins to get nervous.
Jumbotron ad keeps touting tonights 3 full shows!
7:22Target ad runs again.
Am now pondering deeper themes of ad.
Prince is on a rock in a pool… Everything is very hi-def in Prince world nowadays, it seems.
7:41Video ends with a to be continued.
The Purple Rain chords tease as the curtain opens to reveal the band in front of a giantLotusflow3rbillboard.
Prince enters, wearing a zebra-striped tunic, as the band plays the first of many funky jams.
There are jellyfish hanging from the ceiling that look a bit like 99-cent store pinatas.
Everything you think is true, says Prince.
Instead of hate, celebrate, says Prince.
He asks everyone to clap.
Then he whips off his sunglasses.
The ladies go wild.
7:48Prince stops the music, then starts it again, but does not change songs.
Realize we may be in for long night.
7:50Say one word: Lotusflow3r!'
Prince tells the crowd, then begins soundchecking the kick drum and complaining about the side fills.
Despite it all, Im gonna do my best, he tells the room, How bout yall?
The backup singers leave the stage.
Begins his cover of Crimson and Clover with Wild Thing tangents.
The backup singers have returned.
7:57The sound is getting worse.
Low end is crackling all over the place, and there is no middle.
7:59Prince demands the lights all be turned out.
He then vanishes from the stage.
The lights are not all turned out.
Rips off his zebra shirt to reveal a white tiger/hibiscus turtleneck.
Begins a lite-rock version of I Feel For You.
8:02The crowd is doing theIdolswaybot arms during Controversy.
8:03Prince says Somebody scream!
8:04Becoming somewhat of an aerobics class now, with Prince leading the room through various arm exercises.
Realize that the silhouette seen sprinting back and forth behind theLotusFlow3rbillboard is his guitar tech.
Sound is officially horrible now, with blasts of feedback plaguing Shhh at every turn.
8:10Mic has begun crackling endlessly.
Tech sprints on stage and takes his guitar.
Prince begins If I Was Your Girlfriend.
8:16What do I want to play?
I dont know what I want to play right now.
You ever get that feeling that you just have too many hits?
I woke up this morning with that feeling.
He throws out suggestions Delirious?
to the rabid crowd.
Tonight, this is my celebration, he concludes.
I dont care what yall want.
This is what I want to play.
Thank you brother, Prince says to the guest vocalist.
Now get off the stage.
8:25Princes mic sound has gotten even worse, if thats possible.
Funky Music is reprised as he leads us in snaps and claps, then a Hey hey hey!
Whatchoo got to say/Hollywood swingin!
Ann Powers astutely points out that we are not actually in Hollywood.
8:30Mic distortion is now horrific.
Possible its the speakers?
8:36Frederic Yonnet solo ends.
He has changed shirts.
Everyone stands back up.
Well play through it, he says of the sound.
8:37I dont ever want to give this up, music, Prince says.
Says a friend recently told him music is something that you do.
I dont think so, Prince answered.
I told him, Iammusic.
Says something about Jehovah God being an amazing creator.
Tells us the next song is about loving each other, as is this night.
His mic has totally stopped working now, so he moves into backup singer row for Come Together.
8:41Prince asks that the lights be turned off on stage, and on in the house.
8:45Begins Purple Rain with an off-kilter, slightly wrecked chord structure that appears to perfectly suit his mood.
8:52Finishes Purple Rain, begins shaking hands and blowing kisses good night.
8:58Brings home that songs still-heart-stopping guitar outro.
Adjusts levels on side fills again.
Ann Powers and your correspondent begin doing backup dancer routines at our seats.
9:06I like Hollywood, says Prince.
I just like Minneapolis a little bit better.
Begins Glamorous Life, and suddenly Sheila E. is on stage singing it.
9:09Thank you so much!
9:12That was Sheila fing E., says one audience member as she files out.
9:14We walk across plaza to next venue.
There is a dance party happening outside.
9:22Inside Conga Room, a tiny salsa club.
White acoustic tiles on ceiling give it a geodesic dome vibe.
DJ is playing A Love Bizarre.
9:26DJ is playing Glamorous Life.
Youwillbe escorted out of the building.
9:33Your correspondent orders a bourbon.
9:34Lights go out on stage.
Then they come back on.
Realize it takes a special kind of balls to play your own songs as the warm-up mix.
9:40DJ plays A Love Bizarre.
9:52Its hot in here.
10:03We are all going to die.
10:06Announcement: Welcome to the Conga Room!
Check out our website, conga room dot com!
New band takes the stage: Sonny Thompson on bass, Michael Bland on drums.
10:10Prince takes stage in outfit no.
3, kind of a golden neck collar thing.
10:12Prince is still soundchecking the mic.
Asks for a fan down front, and requests that people not smoke.
10:16Prince asks that the lights be turned down.
Asks for the lights to be turned off.
Do you mind if I play my guitar?
he asks the crowd.
I didnt get to, last show.
There were some crazy people, though.
10:32Bluesy take on With A Little Help From My Friends.
10:36Prince the comedian has come to this show.
10:41Does rapid-fire version of All Shook Up with rat-a-tat vocals and lots of crowd assistance on chorus.
10:44Prince asks that the lights be turned off.
Plays echoey, modern rock version of Empty Room.
10:53Some sped-up Memphis blues give way to Jimi Hendrixs Spanish Castle Magic.
10:56When You Were Mine.
Your correspondent briefly thinks it might be Barracuda.
11:03After longest b.s.-free segment of music so far, Prince says good night.
11:05We are apparently not making enough noise to bring Prince back.
Announcer asks us to make more noise.
One last push gets us Prince, plus a keyboard player and Frederic Yonnet.
11:08Prince plays a track fromLotusFlow3r.Your correspondent learns this from reading over Ann Powers shoulder.
(Ann Powers has heard the albums.)
One of the lyrics may or may not be Peanut butter logic.
If the first show was the hits, this show was the wtfs.
This show was better.
11:11Prince asks that the lights be turned off.
11:14Thank you, good night!
Prince kisses his pick, tosses it into the crowd.
11:28Outside in plaza again.
A famished Ann Powers is eating old cake out of a Starbucks bag.
11:38Five music critics stand at the end of a very long line to get into Club Nokia.
Am now tremendously jealous of Ann Powers.
Your correspondent realizes she is standing on a concrete plaque commemorating the 1989 Grammys.
Song and Record of the Year?
Dont Worry, Be Happy.
Album of the Year?
12:47Finally inside after being rescued and walked to front of line by nice publicist.
1 a.m.Prince takes the stage in a black glittery jacket.
Your correspondents ears have stopped functioning, and so she writes down Bernard Arnetto on keys.
This may or may not be right.
It is freezing inside Club Nokia.
1:04We walk to the other side of the room.
Wonder if they know Purple Haze is not a Prince song.
1:12We have to fix these microphones, says Prince.
Dont take my picture, says Prince.
1:17Convinced he is not even singing lyrics now, just whimpering in falsetto.
Am told this is what the Bria Valente record sounds like.
Bria Valente never appears.
She is currently sitting on the floor in the corner by the ATM.
1:28Prince starts singing again.
Your correspondent stands back up.
1:36Prince asks that the lights be turned down.
1:42Prince finally begins the rant we knew was coming all night.
Tells us to blame Randy Phillips chief of venue owner AEG Live for the bad sound.
(WHY ARE WE HERE THEN PRINCE????
your correspondent types furiously into her blackberry.)
If you fix the sound, Ill be here every night, Prince promises.
Ill be here for free.
I wont charge you.
But now I gotta go back to my $3 million a night, says Prince.
1:46Clarifies that he is mad at AEG, not AIG.
Has the crowd chant AEG, just to be on the safe side.
1:47Prince asks that the lights be turned down, leaves stage again.
And my name is Randy Phillips.
Drunk girl in audience: Prince can suck my butt.
1:53Band returns, after little to no encore applause.
Prince begins singing something with a lot ofshadoop-da-das.
Requests that the house lights be turned on.
1:55Throws his bedazzled maraca shaker into the crowd.
2:06Prince asks crowd what they want to hear.
Someone yells out Freebird.
I got the Kingdom Hall at one oclock, but thats it, he says.
Seems to be building to something awesome.
Returns immediately to falsetto-space-chime-lite-jazz groove.
2:10Your correspondent has made for the exits.
I have nothing against jazz fusion, he is saying to her.
But just let me know thats what Im getting.
