Prince, during his current love story with Los Angeles (he is playing 21 shows and I have no idea how many he has already played), had decided to play two ‘secret’ shows at the Troubadour on Wednesday night, a small venue for his large persona used to arenas and other big places. I did not go, the tickets cost $100, which was way too much for me and my mild interest in the purple one, but he had no trouble selling the tickets of course, and even a few celebrities were there.
But reading a few reviews, my perception of his weird highness did not change, since as expected:
– security guards were deleting photos of anyone daring to take some, Prince wants to have full control of his visual representation being the official reason.
– he played obscure setlists: album cuts, instrumentals and overs, and even jazz improvisations.
– he did tons of covers: first show: Joni Mitchell’s ‘A case of you’, Billy Cobham’s ‘Startus’, Zapp & Roger’s ‘Computer love’, and “I wanna be your man’, and second show: Troggs’s ‘Wild Thing’, India Arie’s ‘Brown Skin’, Dorothy Moore’s ‘Misty Blue’, Tommy James’ ‘Crimson and Clover’, The Ohio Players’ ‘I want to be free’, Wild Cherry’s “Play that funky music’, Billy Cobham’s ‘Startus’, and Bob Marley’s ‘Waiting in Vain’ and “Get Up Stand up’… whereas a few weeks ago he was just complaining about the fact he had no control over his songs being covered by others and was asking for some kind of law against covers!
– he did not play any of his major hits, sorry no ‘Purple rain’
– he did two shows the same night one at 7pm another at 11pm, but was still fresh as a new born after the second one.
– some Kardashian, Nicole Richie and other reality show stars were there.
A few funny reactions from people who were there and that I found on blogs and twitter:
‘last night i went to see Prince at the Troubadour, which is a club that can hold about 400 people. and i was bored to tears. he only played one hit song “Pop Life”. mostly it was jazz funk and so mellow i wanted to take a nap.’
‘American Idol top 12 contestant Paul McDonald and Twilight's Nikki Reed held hands leaving Troubadour night club’
“Saw Prince last night at the Troubadour. The man did everything but cook us pancakes’.
Note: the pictures, from a blog, are said to have been taken at the show, Prince may censor them later!!