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Reply #210 posted 07/14/14 12:32pm

KCOOLMUZIQ

Astasheiks said:

Did he play Purple Rain in its entirety, doing all the verses and the solo? cool

nod

eye will ALWAYS think of prince like a "ACT OF GOD"! N another realm. eye mean of all people who might of been aliens or angels.if found out that prince wasn't of this earth, eye would not have been that surprised. R.I.P. prince
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Reply #211 posted 07/14/14 8:02pm

kidmelody2012

yes he even did the end part where he ran out the superdome breathing hard like a fat chick them went back for encore and kissed demaris lewis who was crying in hallway biggrin

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

Astasheiks said:

Did he play Purple Rain in its entirety, doing all the verses and the solo? cool

nod

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Reply #212 posted 07/14/14 9:05pm

Astasheiks

avatar

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

Astasheiks said:

Did he play Purple Rain in its entirety, doing all the verses and the solo? cool

nod

Very good! cool

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Reply #213 posted 07/14/14 9:07pm

Astasheiks

avatar

kidmelody2012 said:

yes he even did the end part where he ran out the superdome breathing hard like a fat chick them went back for encore and kissed demaris lewis who was crying in hallway biggrin

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

nod

"What are you talking about Willis" (kidmelody)? lol Damaris crying in the hallway?

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Reply #214 posted 07/15/14 7:49pm

freakdogg

Regarding my previous review. Charlie Wilson is obviously not a better performer than Prince but he had the best connection with the Essence crowd. I saw Uncle Charlie at the Arizona Jazz Festival last summer and the show wass exactly the same. It's an entertaining show but nothing close to a great Prince show. All of the songs are played like the album version with extra dance sequences here and there and he performs Roger & Zapp songs such as "I wanna Be Your Man" & More Bounce to the Ounce which every inner city kid growing up in the 80's bumped as an adolescent. It is very much like a Vegas show. Prince made up his mind to perform only top 40 hits, not play guitar or bass, and not to perform many of his greatest R&B jams. IMO the combination of those decisions handicapped the show a bit.

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Reply #215 posted 07/17/14 5:15pm

peanut298

Uh, I never post here, however I happen to disagree with the reviews. The crowd was excellent and very into his set. The 90% black crowd, (probably 95+%) was up the entire set!

Very interesting the reviews here but everyone is entitled. My wife and I were there for most of the main stage performances and Prince was universally reconized as the performer of the weekend. I've been a fan from the beginning and have seen his shows all over the country over a 30 + year period. At anytime he could pick 12 songs and someone will not be happy. But a disappointing show?? Nope. Also funny to me how guitars were basically featured throughout the weekend however there are a few here trying to state what we (Black people) need to hear. You are wrong, period. I guess Black people don't like horns either, uh? Also to say this wasn't the best use for the band? Oh well, you are entitled.

Anyway, Charlie Wilson was great, too bad for Lionel Richie but we left as well. That wasn't good scheduling and easy to predict what would happen. However, to say Charlie had a better connection with the crowd than Prince is ridiculous. Jill Scott was great, Mary had her game face on, and Nile Rogers was the suprise of the weekend. Tank & Ledisi were what you would expect, and if you could get to the superlounges those shows were packed! The after parties were packed as well everynight.

I don't list songs, review every second Prince breathes on stage. What I know is it flowed and the crowd responded in kind. He didn't disappoint, Great show.

[Edited 7/17/14 17:29pm]

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Reply #216 posted 07/17/14 7:35pm

Astasheiks

avatar

Prince should have thrown a snippet of "God Is Alive" on them, if not the Whole song!!! cool razz lol eye yes wildsign crysball

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Reply #217 posted 07/19/14 4:49pm

Tykiad

Well, the people that were actually at the festival and not frequent Orgers LOVED Prince performance. I'm still hearing people talk about it.

So I have to say it was shocking(but kinda not) to come on here to see all the negativity.

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Reply #218 posted 07/20/14 3:20am

purplerose7

Allanya said:

Wish I could go but the hotels are very expensive. Been to the festival before and all the hotels near the venues sold out so fast. sad

The hotel I used to stay at during the festival was $500 a night. neutral

[Edited 6/11/14 13:19pm]

I flew from Germany to see Prince - I had a blast. I seen him with his return as Prince in Tokyo abd London for his 21 Days in London I attended the first show I loved it so much went back for a second show! lol

You can't compare his tours cause the entire show is his from start to finish - with Essence they were two acts before hime Janelle and Niles Rogers with Chic (great performances). He has too many #1 songs to try and play all in such a limited time span. There were songs that his obviously wanted to here that he will not perform again i.e. Nicky, Cream etc.. Great performance ready for the next one.

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Reply #219 posted 07/20/14 2:17pm

xenophobia2002

purplerose7 said:

Allanya said:

Wish I could go but the hotels are very expensive. Been to the festival before and all the hotels near the venues sold out so fast. sad

The hotel I used to stay at during the festival was $500 a night. neutral

[Edited 6/11/14 13:19pm]

I flew from Germany to see Prince - I had a blast. I seen him with his return as Prince in Tokyo abd London for his 21 Days in London I attended the first show I loved it so much went back for a second show! lol

You can't compare his tours cause the entire show is his from start to finish - with Essence they were two acts before hime Janelle and Niles Rogers with Chic (great performances). He has too many #1 songs to try and play all in such a limited time span. There were songs that his obviously wanted to here that he will not perform again i.e. Nicky, Cream etc.. Great performance ready for the next one.

wow !! please let me know if you want to sell me your used concert ticket (hard copy) from this show. I collect Princeconcert tickets
I am very much interested
THANKS
Roald Bakker
The Netherlands
roaldbakker@hotmail.com

I AM LOOKING FOR USED PRINCE CONCERT TICKETS ... https://www.facebook.com/...erttickets
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Reply #220 posted 07/20/14 10:13pm

Astasheiks

avatar

purplerose7 said:

Allanya said:

Wish I could go but the hotels are very expensive. Been to the festival before and all the hotels near the venues sold out so fast. sad

The hotel I used to stay at during the festival was $500 a night. neutral

[Edited 6/11/14 13:19pm]

I flew from Germany to see Prince - I had a blast. I seen him with his return as Prince in Tokyo abd London for his 21 Days in London I attended the first show I loved it so much went back for a second show! lol

You can't compare his tours cause the entire show is his from start to finish - with Essence they were two acts before hime Janelle and Niles Rogers with Chic (great performances). He has too many #1 songs to try and play all in such a limited time span. There were songs that his obviously wanted to here that he will not perform again i.e. Nicky, Cream etc.. Great performance ready for the next one.

Flew in from Germany to New Orleans to see Prince....gone with your bad self....that takes "BANK" to do! biggrin cool

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Reply #221 posted 07/25/14 9:15pm

Rhastus

This is the long review I did on my Facebook page. If you are just interested in Prince's actual performance, feel free to start at the setlist

I went and saw Prince at the Essence Fest in New Orleans on July 4, 2014. I'm not sure how many times I've seen him in concert, but it in double digits.

I use to be a Prince Fanatic. Prince was at his peak when I was 14. I was well aware who Prince was, but it was Let's go Crazy that convinced me to buy the Purple Rain tape. After that it was all over. I had to have everything. Every album, every 45, every thing he wrote or produced by anybody else. This continued and as I got on the internet in the mid 90's the pursuit became even worse and expanded into bootlegs. I had hundreds of live shows and outtakes. For one reason or another I never saw him in concert until the JOTY tour. My first concert in Atlanta was a mild disappointment. It was Prince, but this was the living legend and I expected more. Well I went to another one and it was better and I just kept on, each one getting better. I ended up going to 5 or 6 shows on that tour, one one night alone show and 5 or so Musicology shows including with the Essence Fest in 2004. After that, my interest in Prince slowly faded. I still bought all his albums, but I didn't have to have everything. I stopped with the bootlegs and all the other things that fanatics do. I didn't even buy the singles he had to download. Then I heard he was going to play the Essence Fest. I hadn't seen a live show by him in ten years, since the last time he played there. My current interest in Prince may have been at a low point, but I would be crazy to pass up seeing him that close, especially considering how epic the 2004 show was.

I got up on the forth and got ready. Jason and Ashley showed up sometime after noon and we loaded up the car and got on the road. We got some gas and nasty ass Hardee's and headed on down the road. We had to stay in Diamondnead, Ms. All the rooms were booked up in New Orleans and Slidell. We had time to kill so we went to the Time's Grill and grabbed a hamburger steak. We then drove back to Diamondhead, got ready for the show and headed to New Orleans. The traffic was light until we got off at the Superdome exit, then it was insane. We had to park in the parking garage at the Hyatt and walk a block or so. Security was tight getting in, but after we got in I didn't see any. We were plenty early since we wanted to be there in case Prince showed up with any of the other groups. We got there at 7 something with the first act scheduled to play shortly after 8 p.m.. We wandered around, found our seats, got something to drink and just chilled.

The first act was Janelle Monae. I vaguely remembered she had some Prince connection. She was Ok. I didn't know any of her stuff, but she did a decent James Brown cover. She launched into a cover of Let's Go Crazy toward the end of her set. Really you are gonna do that with Prince in the house. The first surprise of the night, Prince came out and ripped the first half of the solo at the end before letting her guitarist finish it. The crowd went ape shit. That was cool and everything, but it had us thinking he wouldn't play it too. Luckily we were wrong.

Next up was Chic. They were fucking Awesome. I can't rave enough about Nile Rodgers. That man is a Fucking Genius!!! I wish I had my audio going so I could give a proper setlist. They did all that cool ass disco skating rink music and a selection of stuff he produced for other people in the 80's and beyond. One of the chicks from Sister Sledge came out and they did We are family. Prince came out during their rendition of Bowie's Let's Dance channeling Stevie Ray Vaughn and off course the crowd lost its mind again. That and La Freak were the highlights of a great show for me.

Doug E Fresh was acting as MC between acts. I thought that was pretty cool at first, but he started getting on my nerves. Atleast he did parts of The Show and La Di Da Di. That reminds me of that time we were hanging out with Slick Rick, but that's another story for another day.

Well on to the main show and the reason we came. To see the man, the myth, the living legend Prince. Forget the line up. He had like 30 Mother Fuckers up there at various times during the night.

Here is the setlist with my comments to follow:

  1. Let's Go Crazy

  2. Take Me With U
  3. Raspberry Beret

  4. U Got the Look

  5. Cool

  6. When Doves Cry

  7. Sign “☮” the Times

  8. Hot Thing

  9. Controversy

  10. 1999

  11. Little Red Corvette

  12. Nothing Compares 2 U

  13. Kiss

  14. Sometimes It Snows in April

  15. Funknroll
  16. Act of God
  17. What Have You Done for Me Lately
  18. Theme from "Which way is Up"
  19. Dancing Machine
  20. Partyman
  21. The Bird
  22. Jungle Love
  23. The Glamorous Life
  24. Purple Rain
  25. Days of Wild

The stage went dark. Dearly beloved we are gathered here to get through this thing called life. The song that got me into Prince 30 years ago opened the show. This was the slow downed bluesy version. Kick ass!!! Next was the dreaded Take me with you/ Raspberry Beret combo. I had glanced at the setlist he was doing at recent shows on the net and I was like really, he's still doing that, but surprisingly they were both better versions than I had previously seen him do. 3rdeyegirl was backing him and I was impressed. They should have done the whole show with out all the extra back up singers and what not. Next was U got the look with Horns. Nice. Cool was the following song. I thought I was gonna hate this since I can't imagine anybody singing this, but Morris. Surprisingly I dug the Hell out of it and it was cool to hear it with horns. We even did the hand gestures. At this point Prince said the sound check was over. The hits kept on coming with When Doves Cry and Sign o the Times. Prince said earlier he was gonna do 14 hits in a row, but I wouldn't call Hot Thing a hit. I love that song though and it was awesome to hear it. I was surprised he threw Controversy in there and it was cool to hear 1999 again since he had quit playing it for some time around 1999. A jazzy Little Red Corvette followed. We were thinking this might be best concert we had ever seen. Too bad the rest of the show didn't live up to this awesome start.

He did a good version of Nothing Compares to you, but that's not one of my favorites. Kiss was Cool and Sometimes it Snows in April was a nice surprise. I could have done without the two recent songs and the covers that followed. Sure its Prince and its still pretty damn Cool, but compared to all the other material he has it was kind of a let down. I also could have done without the covers and backup singers doing the lead vocals. The horns were nice in small doses, but I thought they were over used. Partyman was a surprise and the two Time songs were nice, but it wore off the novelty of Cool. Where were the Time? Where was Sheila for the Glamorous Life like in 2004? This was 30 years since Purple Rain. If you are gonna do those other songs bring those guys out. I enjoyed hearing them, but I wouldn't want to see it again.

The encore was an epic version of Purple Rain. I'm so glad he kicked ass on that since he only had the guitar out for Let's go Crazy. Surprisingly, he came back out for a sweet version of Days of Wild(even if it was PG) The show was right around 2 hours. We found out later they had a 1 a.m. cutoff and he didn't even start till a little after 11 p.m. since they show was running late.

We got lost trying to find the car, that took 45 minutes. It took us 45 minutes to get out of the parking garage and then we got lost again until the GPS finally got us back on the right track so we didn't get back to the hotel until almost 4 a.m.

That was a great show, the best one of the year so far. Hopefully he decides to play some more gigs in my neck of the woods sometime soon.

We don't need no microwave


http://www.facebook.com/rhastus.hybosky
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Reply #222 posted 07/27/14 8:51am

stillwaiting

Finally, I have decided to share my thoughts on Prince's concert at the2014 Essence Festival on July 4, 2014. Considering that I have listened torecordings of 14 Prince shows this year either in full, or at least a thirdof the concert, I have many points of reference to draw on. My opinion is thathe sort of phoned it in, and went through the motions through much of theshow. I have to rate it as a good show, but since he is capable of doing better, I can't begin to call it a great show, but it would be unfair tosay it was a bad show either.


Another strong point I'd like to stress is that in a crowd of about 35,000(some reports have it at 50,000...but there were way too many empty seats in the still awesome Louisiana Superdome for it to be that many.) Prince did not truly play the songs that most in the crowd expected. I would guess Iwas one of 2,000 or less non-black fans there. These were really expensivetickets for what has become a huge festival that you could argue is cateredto people over 35 with money to spend. I got in for a fraction of what my ticket would have cost, as I got my ticket through one of the opening act's management in one of those cheap under the table deals.


My point about the crowd being mainly an over 35 black audience is that
Prince got his first big breaks on black radio, and there were certain songs,
including many that he has been performing lately, that he sadly kept off the
setlist this night. Do Me, Baby, Adore, Uptown, Let's Work, How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore, Scandalous, I Wanna Be Your Lover, I Would Die 4 U, Baby I'm A Star, and to a lesser degree, Diamonds And Pearls, The Most Beautiful Girl In The World ,are just some of the staples of black radio Prince has dominated over the past 35 years. Not one of those songs. Not ONE. He did sort of attempt to perform"Controversy," but it was perhaps the weakest performance of the night, ashe didn't really sing much of it, mainly screaming and pretending to be hisown crowd flunky.


What went well? Well, a lot of things went well and were awesome, it's just impossible to have Prince leave out so many great songs and not makeit a part of this review. His current all-girl band was supplemented with other musicians who he's been playing with the last few years, and theywere adequate, but it was strange to have such a huge horn section thatdidn't really sound huge...
Prince entered the stage with lots of excitement with a slow tempo versionof his monster hit "Let's Go Crazy," that while I'm not a huge fan of thenew arrangement, it was simply awesome. The band has played this enough nowto be a well-oiled machine, and both Prince and guitarist Donna Grantis played stunningly exciting guitar parts getting this show off to a super start."Take Me With U," was also as wonderful. I know some Prince fans are gettingtired of this one, but Prince's vocals were on point, and the live drummingof Hannah Ford was a sure highlight. "Raspberry beret," was next, and justa tiny portion of the song....this practice is annoying, but I'll let it slide.
Another rock number, "U Got The Look," was stripped down with a new
arrangement, that seems to fall flat. Prince did not play many instrumentsthis night, so the show was losing a little steam from the big start. It wasodd hearing a rock/dance song that had little guitar, and not much to incitedancing. Prince then kicked into my favorite song he wrote for The Time, "Cool," this got the crowd up dancing, and was a great performance, as it
always is...but it still seems strange without Morris Day on vocals. Up next,
Prince went through a little routine that he's been doing for the last 7 years
now, where he basically sings over a tape of past hits. As Prince likes to say
"Real music by real musicians," I can't seem to understand what I call "Prince
Karaoke," and I'll not comment on this pointless section of the show any more.


The aforementioned awful performance of "Controversy," came and wentwith little excitement, but here's where Prince got back on point for a spell:"1999" may not have been the end of the world Prince may have been half
jokingly predicting back in 1982, but the band was able to get the classic sound of this wonderful song, and Prince sang all the lyrics, which he doesn't
always do anymore. Truly a stunning performance, and worthy of all the fussmade about his live reputation. "Little Red Corvette," followed, and it was
another much slower tempo version that he's been doing the last few years.
Although I wanted the original version, his singing was great, and the band has mastered this one. "Nothing Compares 2 U," was next, and it was the 3rdconsecutive song that he truly nailed. He sang with passion, and easily gotacross the deep emotion this song has. Brilliant!


"Kiss," one of his biggest hits, sounded a little flat, like he's kinda
bored, and some parts were awesome, but it was kinda like watching a movie that
you've seen five times trying to get that original rush...enjoyable, but Prince
held the mic for the crowd to sing a bit too much for me...remember Prince,
we're paying YOU to sing! Prince obviously didn't hear me telling him that, as
the sparse ballad "Sometimes It Snows In April" was next. One of his latestfemale singers sang most of it, Lianne La Havas. She did fine, but like Tamar,Andy Allo, Bria, etc...she will be gone before it truly matters. The show got
back on track with a new song, "Funk N Roll," but the crowd had no idea what
the song was, and I was the only one within 10 feet of me actually on my feet. The studio version of this is a little better, but I love this song, and Prince did not let me down.


The show kind of sputtered and meandered from there. "Partyman" was pretty
good, and "Act of God," from 20Ten was pretty close to awesome, but again, I
was the only one standing up within sight. A section of remakes including
Janet Jackson's "What Have You Done For Me Lately" with background singer
Shelby on vocals was pointless. As was Prince performing several songs by The
Time and Sheila E. By the time Prince got around to playing "Purple Rain," many fans had left, and this concert was maybe an hour and 45 minutes at most....but "Purple Rain" was awesome. Yes, I've heard him do it live a billion times, but how he can put so much passion in a song he's played this much is simply amazing.

My opinion is it was a little better than the 21 Nights in London, and
much better than the 1997 and 1998 Atlanta shows. I know I probably sound like
a bitter spoiled fan...but his 1987, 1988, 2002, and 2004 tours set a high
standard that he is capable of meeting, but like many artists, he seems to get
bored sometimes. But even at his worst, there are always legendary moments with
Prince.
In conclusion, I had a great time, but having a recording of Prince's show
in Birmingham, UK from 5-15-14 made this show pale in comparison. Had I hadany contact with Prince personally, I would have politely requested that heplay 60% of that show, and throw in 6-8 of the songs I mentioned earlier(Do Me, Baby, Adore, Uptown, Let's Work, How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore, Scandalous, I Wanna Be Your Lover, I Would Die 4 U, Baby I'm A Star, Diamonds And Pearls, The Most Beautiful Girl In The World). So it wasn't a great show, but a good
show, and I'm glad I went. Here's the full setlist, and my memory of thequality of the performance.

The setlist:
Full Band:
Let's Go Crazy-great

Take Me With U-great

Raspberry Beret portion- so so

U Got The Look-so so

Cool-great
(Prince singing over a tape, no intense band involvement)-so so to pointless

When Doves Cry Nasty Girl (instrumental) sample Sign "O" The Times Hot Thing


Full Band:

Controversy -awful

1999-great

Little Red Corvette-great

Nothing Compares 2 U-great

Kiss-so so

Sometimes It Snows In April w/ Lianne La Havas singing much of it-so so

Funknroll--great

Act Of God- great to so so

What Have You Done For Me Lately Shelby J. lead - good but pointless

Which Way Is Up? Shelby J., Liv Warfield, Elisa Dease co-lead so so

Partyman-good

The Bird- good

Jungle Love -so so

The Glamorous Life-so so

Purple Rain-great

Days Of Wild-good

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Forums > Concerts > PRINCE To Headline The 20th Anniversary Essence Festival In 2014 Part III