Prince at the Forum

Great things: 

Prince and his gigantic catalog of hits. I'm sure your aware of it. How many artists and even sub genres have come and gone since he came on the scene?

Prince's sense of showmanship. The stage was shaped like that symbol, there were dancers, hella costume changes, lights, video screens, etc. The guy's a pretty good dancer too. 

Happy people act happy. Everyone in the massive crowd was in a good mood and very polite. It is such a contrast from going to shows where every wannabe tough guy brings an extra chip for their other shoulder. I didn't see one single fight or even a square off in preparation. It was nice. 

Ticket Prices: I paid 25 bucks for mine. It was way up high, but I still had good sight lines.

Encores. I think he did 5. I was out in the parking lot when the last one started. I zipped back in and watched him do covers of Play that Funky Music and Hollywood Swingers with the house lights on. 

Guest appearances: Chaka Khan opened the show and came back out to do a couple of songs. Besides that Larry Graham came out and jammed on some Sly tunes and Sheila E performed for a good portion of the set as well as doing a couple of her solo hits. She did a timbale solo during Glamorous Life that literally made me shed tears. 

Prince's band: Incredible, but what else would you expect?

Weird things: 

The girls in front of me checking their facebook newsfeeds every 10 minutes. If you aren't transfixed by a live performance by one of THE great performers of the last 40 years, how do you get through the workweek? The purple man commented on this as well. He said something like "tweet about it later; be here now!"  

No live horns. All the horns were played on keyboard. They sounded good, but it was a little strange. 

Prince used an instrumental DAT for about 10 minutes at one point during one of the encores. That's something I NEVER thought I would see, but minor compared with all the autotuned lip synchers that get love these days. 

Parking at the forum was 25 bucks, cash only. Figure that into your costs.

Bottom line...If you can go, you need to go, even if you have to rock the ramen and PBJs for a week or so.