Friday night my friend Brad and I headed down to the Great Western Forum to see Prince perform. He is currently in Los Angeles for his "Welcome to America" Tour. He played Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at the Forum and is set to play 17 more shows in the upcoming weeks. I highly recommend checking out one of the remaining dates if you can-his show was incredible!
The stage presence Prince portrays in concert is unlike anyone else. We were on our feet dancing the entire time and his fabulous outfits, backup singers and dancers didn't fail to impress. I've always loved his music, but I never considered myself the biggest Prince fan. However, since Friday-I've had 'Purple Rain' on repeat! He is 52 years old and still rocking out like he's 25.
The show was full of surprises. Besides playing every great song you'd want him to play (he actually exclaimed half-way though a montage of songs 'I have too many hits!!'), he had some pretty exciting guests join him on the stage. While playing and dancing to Michael Jacksons 'Don't Stop Till You Get Enough,' Prince pulled Cuba Gooding Jr. onstage and they danced together for a solid 5 minutes. Turns out, Cuba can hang.
Towards the end of the show, the place went dark and a loud, booming voice started singing. The lights came on and as Prince played the piano, Alicia Keys walked on stage. Homegirl can SING. I wasn't ever the biggest Alicia Keys fan either, but seeing her live has definitely changed that. She's got some set of pipes.
After 3 encores and an epic show stopping performance of 'Purple Rain,' Prince finally left the stage. The entire audience sat for about 30 minutes waiting for him to come back out. We even did the wave. After 45 minutes, 2/3 of the attendees were gone. Brad insisted we stay, promising Prince would be back, so we sat. One hour after the show ended, sure enough, Prince came out...and rode a bike around the forum. That was the last we saw of him that night. And it was well worth the wait.
Prince on a Bike
The Shape of Prince's Stage: His famous Symbol
