The Bataclan show was amazing, the best aftershow (that was definitely not a second ONA show, despite what he had announced on the NPGMC site and in Germany) I've seen in my whole life (better than the Marquee in London which was already da bomb). His energy level was amazingly high ("you're gonna have to kick me outta here" was for real), and everybody who has ever been to a prince concert knows that in the end it matters much more than actual set lists. He actually played for about 2 hours and a half, that is longest aftershow so far in the tour.

I won't give any because I don't take notes and also because a quarter of the show was 100% pure jammin'. Basically the show was divided in two parts: a "rock part" (after starting with a jazz-flavoured instrumental jam) in which he played Bambi, whole lotta love, she's always in my hair ... + LOTS of long and amazing guitar solos ; a "funky part" that began after an hour or so, in which he really tore the roof off, playing Something in the Water, All the critics love U in Paris..., covers (Brick house, Hair...) interrupted by lines+solos on the bass he had stolen from Rhonda in the middle of a song if I remember correctly (I felt a bit embarassed for her but what a funky bass player prince is: he played the bass for about half an hour! (The craziest part was when he traded incredibly funky grooves with Renato for quite a long time: he said something like "if you wish come back to your house. We are jammin' y'all"). Once again set lists may not be particularly impressive, but the show truly was!!! He made us sing "party till the sun come up" during several minutes with him leading us on(funky!) guitar, then did the same thing on a different groove asking us "what time is it?" (it was already almost 5am ndlr!), to which the answer obviously was "time to get Ffffuuunnnkkkyyy!!!".

He did two encores. After the second one, he came back on Renato's keyboards and did crazy improvisations on this small red keyboard (one of Renato's keyboards, not the golden axe, but its sound is seemingly funky) with a techno/house groove in the back. He also improvised on come on, I don't even remember on what instrument...

These are just a few impressions from a truly memorable night. They are admittedly vague, but to me this is also what an aftershow is about, loosing all your references, letting yourself loose and leave the venue in the early morning with blurred memories but a strong feeling that you have witnessed something unique. It is this emotion, this magic, not set lists, that you will remember for ever.

After he made us pay 100 dollars I thought to myself that this confirmed what an asshole prince is. Well, even those who still belive it after this show will have to admit the evidence: what a fascinating little asshole he is. Il est sublime, je l'aime!!!

Hope you'll have the opportunity to listen to that gig.

Peace

I was there too, and it was terrific...
I was in the first row, just in front of him, and it was pure energy, pure joy, pure guitar...
Inbelievable...
He was possessed by the FUNK!!

DrD is right. I was there and the little man managed to make it worthwhile. The overall sound was a bit rough at times, the colour was rough as well but it was all good!

Added later:

Having rested a little and feeling more human I can say that the show was all good and great but not the greatest.
Not the greatest due to the songs chosen for the setlist. I have to agree with Spaceboy here. I feel that if some special, rare, unknown or other tracks would have been performed (somewhat like e.g. Just My Imagination in 1988) in a brilliant way the status of this show would have been more towards 'greatest'.

This is not to knock down the Bataclan performance; I really enjoyed this great aftershow (it was announced as such at the Zenith ) although I was tired.

udo
[This message was edited Wed Oct 30 1:46:54 PST 2002 by udo]

Nice to see that everyone seems to agree that he saved so brillantly the NPGMC from failure (in France of course: there were LOTS of angry fans, even while we were queuing in front of the Bataclan).

can't forget this night!!!

I'm willing to do the work...but so far not mine. I'll try to work (a bit) harder this afternoon.

Peace

I can only agree what the previous post say... it was a incredible concert, i would say a 2hrs30 jam improvisation with some songs threw in there... all versions were completely different and re-arranged (including "The Work" - how could he play a normal version at Le Zenith while he plays this incredible jam at Le Bataclan?)

There was no guest, no special effects... only a Prince in great form, who didn't wanted to stop.

What ?

You have really disappointed me this time...
I've come to expect more from you.
MUCH more...

Come on people I am sure there are many things you didn't like... The color of his hair ? His choice of clothes ? The length of his fingernails perhaps ?

Don't stop when you are on a roll...


[This message was edited Tue Oct 29 5:36:21 PST 2002 by FunkyStrange]

well if you insist...the sound quality was not as good as usual.

a french proverb says "qui aime bien chatie bien" (something that could be translated as "who loves the most bitches the most"): perhaps fans love him so much that they come too expect too much of him and are therefore meant to get disapointed and angry. They would be less severe with someone they do not care about, like a Billy Crwaford for instance.

That might be an explanation for all the bitching, at least that's how I interpret it. But actually I try (but do not always manage) to avoid this. My advice: be aware of prince's limits (he's no god, he's incoherent, he's amazingly egomaniac) and you'll come to appreciate his music much more than you do (actually hard-core fans are in practice not the most enthousiastic, because they come to expect prince to play their own-private set-list while taking notes to post it on www.prince.org...)

Conclusion: he might be an asshole at times (always?), but that should not prevent you from emjoying his music more than ever.

Okay FunkyStrange:

If he played for 10 hours in a row, with a 30 min. version of Empty Room, a 50 min. version of America and if he played all the songs of Sign Of The Times PLUS LoveSexy and if that concert was even considered as the nr. 1 highlight in rock, funk, pop, jazz and even world history, he still did this not right:

He changed the rules of the game. This WAS an aftershow. If he played a normal ONA concert, I did not complain and lauched side by side with Prince.

On the other hand, even for a normal ONA show $100 is way to much. You understand, way to much.

If you pay for a concert, you bought a consumer article, understand, so you may complain when it is to expensive. The same way if you go to your favorite restaurant, just to find out the price of your favorite meal has changed from $30 to $100. And that's not it, because you were a member of the restaurant's elite club, you expected to have the beer for free, but no the restaurant owner decided to call the beer, wine, so you still have to pay a lot of bucks for your beer.

If Prince don't wants to be a consumer article, he must play for FREE or only play for a warm meal or very sheap ($5). But, no, Prince and his crew are real capitalists, so they need to pay the bill for that.

Cheers,

J

I completely agree. The NPGMC provides real and interesting advantages, but yet it is much too expensive. For a french national, the only advantage was access to the soundcheck (both the concert and the aftershow were accessible to anyone at the same or even a bit lower price). So basically I paid 100 dollars for one piano CD, one triple live CD and a soundcheck: I call this very expensive.

This does not really matter to me (I prefer paying more and attending an incredible show like that of last night!), but I think it is fair to say that the NPGMC deal is not a bargain, which will always prevent non-hardcore fans (and even some hardcore dones from what I've seen yesterday) from joining.

FunkyStrange said:

your an ass..

DrD said:

Well, it's really not that expensive if you break it down:

1 piano CD -- $15.99
1 Triple CD --$24.99
Souncheck -- $40.00
Front row -- ?
Aftershow -- $50

Basically, if you add all that up, it comes to a little over $130, and that's without adding in an amount for access to the front rows that non club members don't have.

So, if you receive the CDs and if Prince came to your town or a town near you and you enjoyed the benefits of the club, then you have received about $100 worth of services. If you got in free to an aftershow, then you got more than $100 worth of services.

Batdance said:

Again:

1x 30 min. Piano EP -- $10,-
1x Triple live CD (we didn't hear that yet) -- $25,-
Soundchecks -- Free. Since when needs an artist make extra costs to let some fans in? Yeah, I know the soundscheck are a privilege, but you can't label a price tag on it.
Front row -- Free. I've been to 37 concerts of Prince and ~ 25 of them where frontrow, without paying an extra dime. I just was there early.
Aftershow -- $30

Yes this only when you visit one conecrt, but that is what Prince wants, isn't?

That's a total of $65 and than he still breaks the rules, shame on him.

Plus the fact I'm still recovering from the 2001 edition of the NOGMC (financialy). I had to pay $300 for extra phone costs, because that year we didn't had broadband yet here in my town. All downloads were not faster than 1 a 2 Kb/s that time, because of those amateurs.

Cheers,

J

DrD said:

I am glad you enjoyed yourself DrD, but like you say, your memory is already a bit vague. So I have a question (because I am curious)... was the aftershow so good, but your memory lacking so much that you are already wishing for a copy of it, so you can hear the show again... and again... and again? If not, okay then... But if so, how much would you be willing to pay for 1 copy of this "greatest paris aftershow ever"?

100$?
200$?
more???


-
[This message was edited Tue Oct 29 7:15:55 PST 2002 by Abrazo]

Sorry but where do the 50$ came from for french nationals (I did not talk about other countries)? We actually paid 10 euros more than non members! And I don't value the soundcheck 40 dollars.

Above all, I am worried about the future of the NPGMC: we can not be satisfied with what we got in terms of music for 2002 (let's wait though, but honnestly so far it is worse than year 1, which was already below our expectations of getting at least some concerts, let alone tracks, from that mythic vault), so there is reason for concern for 2003. Most importantly, since he probably won't tour out of the US next year, the advantages that non-US members got this year will vanish.

Once again I am more than pleased with my concert experience, I have no problem with the club, but I think that despite what prince might think, the number of members will decline significantly next year unless he tours again...this would mean the end of the NPGMC at some point, because the tour has shown that the number of members is currently already surprisingly low: probably 500 in France, 1500 in the UK...Overall I would bet that the number of members worldwide is less than 20.000. This is too little for him to give up some material from his vault, which makes the deal little attractive, reducing the number of members... I'm afraid there is a vicious circle at play

Abrazo: quite honnestly no, I would not pay more to get a copy of it, my memory is enough so far. I'll be glad to listen to a copy at some point, but I would not pay more than 40 euros for it (OK maybe a bit more if that was a soundboard recording, but I do not dream). "good things come to those who wait", so I'm really in no hurry.

But what a concert!

DrD said:

good for you DrD! Too bad Prince will not let his fans share copies for free of his performances. He will sue their broke **s if he finds out and demand more than 100.000 dollar for each ingringement made...

I hope your memory is kind of photographic, but I am afraid Prince doesn't even want you to download a show in your brain for your own personal use...

still trying to understand WHY he's supposedly an asshole...

And why the phacgk aren't we talking about the aftershow on this thread? We wanna know every little detail!

...and just for the record, I would gladly have paid the money to see this show, if it wasn't in Paris.

MAGNIFIQUE

Let's be honest...The two shows in Paris were totally amazing. I'm surprised some of you mentio sound problems???

It was just pure genius. Unbelievable.

Paris was an unforgettable experience: soundcheck + show + second show = 7 hours of great music!!!

DrD said:

That is beautiful and makes me even more jealous, cuz I never witnessed an aftershow. Thanx DrD

CalhounSquare said:

100% agree with u Calhoun , this "show" was the best I've ever seen in my life.Calhoun tu es 1 mec trés sympa!

Hi,
I was at the 2 shows in Paris. 2 great shows and I mean it. The Bataclan was 1 of the best aftershows I've seen in 15 years i followed him.

But I have 2 points I've mailed 2 the NPGMC about this weird monday night :

- 1 / When I'm paying 100 extra dollars for an aftershow (originally supposed free when I joined the club), I don't expect to be treated like s*** by the staff (mostly the french I agree). A girl almost stuck to death besides me. I was at Bataclan in 99, it was the same thing. I know Frenchs are undisciplined but the Bataclan Staff is well reputed here to be a bunch of jerks. Don't come back there.

- 2 / I don't mind paying 100 bucks 4 a show. But I think it was unfair 4 the members 2 pay 4 the Bataclan, a "second show" in Paris the same night settled up at the last moment. Until now, I thought I was a member of something now I know I'm a "prince" customer. I know this is "what U do 4 living" and I respect that but, as a customer, and despite 2 great shows last night, I don't think I'll renew my membership.

Proove me I'm Wrong. (and not by me paying more again)

Peace.
DAVID.

DrD said:

You're exactly right. I couldn't have said it better myself. Wish I could have been there. Cheers,

Sbacon1999

This is definitely 1 show besides Copenhagen that I wish I had seen. It sounds Amazing. Prince sounds like he's having a Brilliant time in Europe. It's great for him and the fans overseas.

Lots of people were sleeping at the Bataclan...all so tired in the end. I would say that I saw 30 to 40 people doze off.

dualboot said:

I saw them too, really funny!!

If you can't handle the funk, you better stay home!
[This message was edited Wed Oct 30 3:11:56 PST 2002 by dazzler]

Been there...was the best show I have ever seen of the man...GREAT!!!

Natasha said:

Yes, those two late night shows must be every Prince fan's wet dream!