Tell us the following:The best artist you've seen perform live and the worst: (from a musical standpoint) The best is Prince, of course, no one comes close. I've seen him live 21 times over the last 20 years in 6 different cities. Every show was different, and better than the one before. Except the one he did with Tamar in 2006. It was kinda shitty except for the 4 of his own songs he performed. Some performers just walk out, play the same playlist they did in the last 24 shows, say one sentence in between songs, do the obligatory encore, then leave. Prince ain't never had a show like that. Prince plays the music that blows your mind, showing off a skill that has risen to the level of genius. He also talks to the audience throughout the whole show, making you feel like you're a part of something rather than a spectator. Finally, it is damn entertaining (at least to me) to watch him operate as a band leader. Beyond just playing guitar, keyboard, and singing, he's calling out orders to the band, arranging and re-arranging songs on the fly. That's why he has top notch musicians who can handle anything a madman like him throws at them. If anyone walks out of a Prince concert without, at the very least, bobbing their head or humming a tune, then they need to have their meds readjusted.
The worst concert is pretty hard to nail down. I've been to some shitty shows. The very worst concert I've ever attended was Music Midtown in Atlanta. First of all there was no parking so I had to walk for miles and miles to get there. It was a 2-day concert, and I only wanted a 1-day ticket,but they "sold out" of the single-day tickets. Then it was hot and sooo dusty. I got to see some shitty groups/performers like Freddy Jackson, and Steppenwolf. The only good guys were Night Ranger and Loverboy, but they were like 20 years out of their prime. So they sucked. I never went back and they quit holding them. Good riddance.
The concert with the worst audience: Richie P and I went to some rap concerts in New Orleans back in the early 1990s. We were the only white guys there. It was before rap was mainstream and we got some weird looks. Then somebody stole my badass Ice Cube cap. What was I gonna do? Cry like a bitch? Go tell the security guy? "Scuse me officer, have you seen a black guy with a black baseball cap?" The most expensive concert and the least expensive: The most expensive concert was in 2002. Gabino and I spent a week in Minneapolis watching 7 nights of Prince concerts. The tickets weren't that expensive, but I had to buy 7 of them and hotel and airfare. But it was worth every fucking penny. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
I've been to tons of free concerts, many of them I got through connections at work.
That's crazy - I was just telling Christa about the "hat incident" a few weeks ago! I forget how it came up in our conversation, but I remembered it like it was yesterday. I also recall turning around after you told me what had just happened, and there was nothing but a sea of eyeballs staring at us. And you know 10 or 15 people witnessed what happened, and they didn't miss a beat. Ah, those were the days.
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