The Purple One Wows 'Em in L.A.

Abridged from USA Today - article by Edna Gundersen, March 30, 2009:

LOS ANGELES - Churning out hits, covers, obscurities and new tunes, Prince thrilled audiences at three back-to-back concerts Saturday night in Los Angeles. The electrifying sprint, which found the funk-rock legend dashing from the Nokia Theatre to the Conga Room to Club Nokia to perform with different bands, was to promote his new triple-disc bundle, LOtUSFLOW3R, MPLSoUND and Elixir, available at Target.

Despite battling sound systems in each venue, Prince was animated and engaged. He invited fans on-stage during the first show, packed with such crowd-pleasers as 1999, Let's Go Crazy, Purple Rain and Kiss and capped by Sheila E's appearance for Glamorous Life.

With Ron Wood looking on, the Conga Room unleashed the guitar fiend in Prince during a hard-rocking set that boasted Jimi Hendrix' Spanish Castle Magic and the new Colonized Mind and Dreamer.

The final show kicked off at 1:00 a.m., an hour late because of sound-check delays. The concert spotlighted Chaka Khan on her soulful Sweet Thing and closed with Insatiable, Scandalous, The Beautiful Ones and Nothing Compares 2 U.

Note: Elixir is actually the debut album by Bria Valente, produced by Prince.

Photo of Prince and Sheila E. by Ryan Muir (flickr).