Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, CA 10/11/97

Just got back from the Hollywood Bowl concert last night. Now going in, since I'd been hearing the less-than-funky tapes of some of his recent shows, I was skeptical, but I was in for a surprise. In retrospect, most of my friends who went to this show consider this to be the worst show Prince has played in LA that they’ve seen, and with the relatively short setlist, and Prince having to stop due to the curfew at the Hollywood Bowl, I can understand why, but I actually liked this show. A funny moment came after the show, where I ran into a friend of mine who is only a casual fan and though we both saw exactly the same show, he HATED it and was really upset that almost none of the songs he wanted to hear were played complete, while I came to expect (though not accept) that Prince just does that.

From the moment we got there, we could hear the soundcheck from behind a curtain, which was:

Jam of the Year (they jammed on this for about an hour)

Bleed to Love her (sung by Marva, I think), this is a cover of a Fleetwood Mac song

Ballad of Dororthy Parker/4 (2 takes).

Before the concert, they played the "long and live" version of Days of Wild, presumably from Crystal Ball cd.

Larry Graham and Graham Central Station opened up for the Artist, and he was surprisingly good in concert. Though I must say that I don't know many of the GCS songs, I had a good time during the show. Probably because I’d never seen Larry play before. However, on the fourth gothrough of the same exact set, they’re about as exciting to watch as The Time for the 20^th time. But, despite the Sly Stone cover hour, they were really funky.

The songs of theirs I recognized were:

A family Affair

Hair

The Jam

Dance to the Music

Everyday people

I wanna take you higher

Thank you falletinmebemiceelfagain

About an hour later, Prince went on stage with Jam of the year. He was wearing a sparkly versace-type outfit with orange ruffles on his collar.

The set was funky as hell. He played:

Jam of the Year

Talking Loud and Saying Nothing

Let's Work (the full song!)

Little Red Corvette

Purple Rain

Get Yo Groove on/6

TMBGITW/Glamorous Life

Face Down

A Case of U

The Cross

One of Us

When u Were Mine

Do Me Baby Medley

Sexy MF

If I was your girlfriend

Piano Medley:

Diamonds and Pearls

The Beautiful Ones

Darling Nikki (!!!)

Venus De Milo

Condition of the Heart

How Come u Don't call me anymore

take me with u

raspberry beret

baby I'm a star

1999

He played for an hour and a half, due to the curfew in a residential area.

One of the highlights in the concert was his comment "It's colder than a

witch's tittie in here." During the piano medley, he played The Beautiful

ones, which surprised me, then he played the first note of Darling Nikki,

pretending to have a fight with himself to play the song or not. He played

the first verse of the song on piano....which was really cool.

Anyways, the show was awesome, probably the best time I've seen him live.

He was "on" as they say, and he was MUCH better than San Diego or LA

earlier this year.

Celebs spotted (by me, at least) at the concert were:

Marlon Wayans

Malcolm Jamal Warner

Eddie Griffin

Carmen Electra

Kirstie Alley (with her boyfriend James Wilder)

Magic Johnson

Magic was surprisingly friendly, as he's usually a real jerk. Magic was

sitting a few seats away, and he was singing along with all of the

songs....that was pretty funny. He was also waving the wild sign, which

was funny too.

The afterparty was at BIllboard Live, but the club only holds 400 and

pretty much the only people who got in were not there to see Prince. I

didn't get in, and I have the sneaking suspicion that he played that night.

:(

Anyways, I'm off to Irvine Meadows tonight to see him again.....

Well, here's more celebs who were at the concert on Saturday at the

Hollywood Bowl that I forgot to mention in the last e-mail:

Tom Arnold

I can't believe I forgot about him. During the short encore (short because

of the curfew in Hollywood of 11pm), the artist called some people on stage

to dance with him. Tom Arnold came on stage with him to dance. During

1999, the Artist kept trying to get him to sing with him....he didn't

though...

Anyways, these people were there too:

Fran Drescher

All Wayans Brothers

Robin Power

John Singleton

Dan Cortese + whole cast of Veronica's Closet

Sheila E.

Kevin Spacey (I never saw him)

At the aftershow, he didn't play since Billboard live was so crowded. I

never got in, but I feel better knowing that he didn't play.... :)