Dear Los Angeles. I’m telling you, if you get the chance, go see Prince in concert. For $25? You can’t pass this up. And I have scored AMAZING seats for $25. It is very much possible with some strategy. Seriously, do yourself a favor. You don’t necessarily have to be a Prince fan, but you do have to be a music fan…
I previously wrote about how seeing Prince was on my “IMPOSSIBLE” list for many many years, and how it finally became a reality thanks to his 21 Night Stand at The Forum. So, I went to my first Prince concert on April 22, Friday night, and then went back again on April 23, Saturday night. After leaving the first show a little disappointed on Friday, something within me, a premonition, a gut feeling, I’m not sure, but something told me I needed to go back again the next night…except I didn’t have tickets and Ticketmaster wasn’t showing me much in terms of good seats! Grr! But, I didn’t feel like I got the full “Prince Concert” experience.
As if by fate, chance, the universe aligning, or something…hours before the show, I saw on the Twitterz that if you went to Ticketmaster they had just released some Premium tickets as $25 seats. I jumped at the chance, texted my Prince Concert Buddy Joe and said “are you in?” and the rest is the making of THE BEST CONCERT EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE EVER.
Hours before the show direct from Ticketmaster I scored tickets in LOG 5, Row N for $25 each! For the first few shows, these were considered “Premium Purple” seats, and were the money seats. Like initially they were listed for way over a hundred bucks, and were NOT the $25 tickets you could get. I was excited! This time around, thanks to Joe, we knew a shortcut and got to The Forum in record time! So early in fact, that we got chips and pretzels (inside joke) from the concession stand. Something I never do at concerts, but I was hungry and if I was going to be dancing, I needed energy!
We made our way over to our seats and the lights went low and the band came out…even though it was barely 8ish! What was going on? CHAKA KHAN WAS GOING ON! OMGZ. The instant she hit the stage, there was an energy in the room that I hadn’t felt on Friday night. The Forum was alive in a way I had never seen any venue full of all this positive energy. People (including us) were on their feet dancing the whole time! Yes, this felt right. At one point, Prince asks everyone to take out their cell phones and wave them from side to side. Joe remarked that the amount of light in that room was way beyond what it had been on the night before. Something was definitely different about Saturday.
Prince came on stage promptly at 9ish with the twinz, and the show started off on a very different note than Friday. Soon, he was joined by his BFF Sheila E! I have loved her ever since I can remember! How cool is she on the drums? I never thought I would get to see her live. She did Glamourous Life and the crowd went wild! Just look at this clip. She is amazing and she looks amazing even though she is in her mid-50s! Glamourous indeed!
And then Chaka Khan came back on stage and they sang Sweet Thing, and my heart melted right there at The Forum. Just take a minute to watch this. Amazing. At some point Larry Graham joined him on stage for a few songs.
The show went on until Midnight, and I lost track of the number of Encores that night. I just know that I’ve been a little down lately as I make my way through the stages of grief, and this concert experience helped me feel better. I left that show feeling so alive and energized. It was that boost I needed to let me know that things are going to be okay. Yes, I’m still sad, but I’m not as sad as I was only a few weeks ago.
At the end of the show, past midnight, Joe and I had made our way to the front row of LOG 5, and as it was clearing out, we just sat there in disbelief of what we had just experienced. For me, personally, and remember I have been to so many concerts by some of the greatest artists, but that Saturday night is easily the best concert experience of my life. The energy, the vibe, the positivity, the music, everything came full circle and that night, The Forum was the place to be. It made Friday’s show seem like a dress rehearsal…but Prince also has this thing about asking them to turn the house lights on so he can see the crowd, and as an artist he feeds off the energy of the crowd. On this particular Saturday night, the crowd was alive and I feel that influenced him. On Friday the crowd was not as loud. You can see more short clips here.
On that Saturday night, I didn’t know if I would ever want to go see Prince again because this night had set the bar too high. That experience could never be topped…but we all know how this story ends…I had to go back…
To be continued…
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