hw3004 said:

Alexandernvrmind said:

thisisreece said: Oh shut up.... He knows his audience. Those people didn't shell out that money to hear him play Endorphine machine lol.

....exactly.

Too much cooler than thou, willful obscurity on here. Get real people!

Of course they didn't, but I doubt they shelled out for The Bird or Cool either. Prince played arenas accross the UK this year with lots of casual fans, and they were hits shows with a few sprinkled rarities, and the crowds loved them. I'm not saying he shouldn't play his hits with larger shows like Essence, but a few rarer songs might make a casual fan think, 'I haven't heard that, and that was really good,' and it might urge them to look deeper into Prince's discography.

thisisreece said:

hw3004 said:

....exactly.

Too much cooler than thou, willful obscurity on here. Get real people!

Of course they didn't, but I doubt they shelled out for The Bird or Cool either. Prince played arenas accross the UK this year with lots of casual fans, and they were hits shows with a few sprinkled rarities, and the crowds loved them. I'm not saying he shouldn't play his hits with larger shows like Essence, but a few rarer songs might make a casual fan think, 'I haven't heard that, and that was really good,' and it might urge them to look deeper into Prince's discography.

It seems to me you're contradicting yourself - you want Prince to play rarer songs but at the same time are criticising him for playing rarer songs?

SeventeenDayze said:

I think some folks left early because they want to get ahead of traffic. I see the same thing at virtually every sporting event and concert.

Exactly! Peeps here make any excuse to downplay 's per4mances. Some peeps dont like 2 b trampled on when they are trying to get back to their rides.. So they leave early. Plus most casual fans dont know does many encores. But its no us! They'll continue to hate on 4 any reason they can find......

SeventeenDayze said:

thx185 said:

hw3004 said:

thisisreece said:

Of course they didn't, but I doubt they shelled out for The Bird or Cool either. Prince played arenas accross the UK this year with lots of casual fans, and they were hits shows with a few sprinkled rarities, and the crowds loved them. I'm not saying he shouldn't play his hits with larger shows like Essence, but a few rarer songs might make a casual fan think, 'I haven't heard that, and that was really good,' and it might urge them to look deeper into Prince's discography.

It seems to me you're contradicting yourself - you want Prince to play rarer songs but at the same time are criticising him for playing rarer songs?

I'm not criticising him for playing The Bird or Cool. I'm saying casual fans aren't going to a Prince concert to hear these songs, the same as they aren't going to hear Endorphinmachine.

thisisreece said:

hw3004 said:

It seems to me you're contradicting yourself - you want Prince to play rarer songs but at the same time are criticising him for playing rarer songs?

I'm not criticising him for playing The Bird or Cool. I'm saying casual fans aren't going to a Prince concert to hear these songs, the same as they aren't going to hear Endorphinmachine.

Says who? wrote the songs and they're both very well known songs, that he should get credit 4..

thisisreece said:

hw3004 said:

....exactly.

Too much cooler than thou, willful obscurity on here. Get real people!

Of course they didn't, but I doubt they shelled out for The Bird or Cool either. Prince played arenas accross the UK this year with lots of casual fans, and they were hits shows with a few sprinkled rarities, and the crowds loved them. I'm not saying he shouldn't play his hits with larger shows like Essence, but a few rarer songs might make a casual fan think, 'I haven't heard that, and that was really good,' and it might urge them to look deeper into Prince's discography.

Cool is badd arse song anytime. Regarding your last sentence... Thank you!

[Edited 7/7/14 8:10am]

thx185 said:

V10LETBLUES said:

From the clips online, it looked and sounded the most schmaltzy Vegas ever. Instead of passion,every song was sung with that fake Vegas and beauty pageant smile and shimmy.

Would have made JonBenet Ramsey proud.

I was there and this is exactly how it came across to me. The problem wasn't with him playing all hits, it was that they were done in a very overblown medley. You would get 1 verse, 1 chorus, then on to the next song in the "megamix". Many of the hits were done in "reloaded" versions, with no exciting new elements, and no energy of the original versions.

.

Again, hits were not the problem. Nile Rogers and Chic played their solid set of all hits (including covers of a few that Nile produced and co-wrote, including Get Lucky), and it was one of the best concerts I've ever seen. Nile had such a natural winning personality and rapport with the audience. He presented himself as a human being, grateful to be there, and he presented his music with class, style, and FUNK.

.

Any true funk fan was in heaven during Chic. As for how the true funk fan would feel about Prince.. I can only speak for myself, but I left about 3 songs before the end judging by the setlists posted.

.

Now keep in mind, my seat was on the floor.. I paid some dollars for that ticket.. Suffice it to say I had gotten my moneys worth with the absolutely stellar Chic set, and so had no problems exiting early from the overblown and bland Prince performance.

.

Something I haven't seen mentioned yet, there was a steady stream of people leaving from the floor during the last third of Prince's set.. I watched them leave, he watched them leave, and I joined them as "The Bird" was starting.

.

I'm glad I saw him, it was Prince I was there to see, he is a legend and a treasure, but he is at a phase in his career where he's phoning it in.

[Edited 7/6/14 21:25pm]

I haven't written my review yet, but Controversy was awful, just him singing a little bit, and doing one of his trademark screams a bunch. For many songs, and of course, Kiss, he just held the mic for the crowd to sing. Some fool paid $2,500 for floor seats to hear the audience sing a bunch...it was a good show, but considering he had over 40,000...not buying that it was 50,000 there....it should have been a legendary show. The bootleg of 5/15 Birmingham was a better show.

And considering the crowd at the Essence festival...complete versions of The Beautiful Ones, Do Me Baby, I Wanna Be Your Lover, perhaps Uptown and/or Delirious, and Adore would have been much appreciated.

It was a very good almost great show, but Prince was in FULL DIVA mode, and not in MUSICIAN mode. Since he has the talent to put on an amazing show, just seeing a very good one was kind of a letdown, but this is Prince. At least nobody was shouting "Put Your Hands Up," And at least Doug E Fresh's HORRIBLE shouting in the mic was left to his own "show."

stillwaiting said:

thx185 said:

I was there and this is exactly how it came across to me. The problem wasn't with him playing all hits, it was that they were done in a very overblown medley. You would get 1 verse, 1 chorus, then on to the next song in the "megamix". Many of the hits were done in "reloaded" versions, with no exciting new elements, and no energy of the original versions.

.

Again, hits were not the problem. Nile Rogers and Chic played their solid set of all hits (including covers of a few that Nile produced and co-wrote, including Get Lucky), and it was one of the best concerts I've ever seen. Nile had such a natural winning personality and rapport with the audience. He presented himself as a human being, grateful to be there, and he presented his music with class, style, and FUNK.

.

Any true funk fan was in heaven during Chic. As for how the true funk fan would feel about Prince.. I can only speak for myself, but I left about 3 songs before the end judging by the setlists posted.

.

Now keep in mind, my seat was on the floor.. I paid some dollars for that ticket.. Suffice it to say I had gotten my moneys worth with the absolutely stellar Chic set, and so had no problems exiting early from the overblown and bland Prince performance.

.

Something I haven't seen mentioned yet, there was a steady stream of people leaving from the floor during the last third of Prince's set.. I watched them leave, he watched them leave, and I joined them as "The Bird" was starting.

.

I'm glad I saw him, it was Prince I was there to see, he is a legend and a treasure, but he is at a phase in his career where he's phoning it in.

[Edited 7/6/14 21:25pm]

I haven't written my review yet, but Controversy was awful, just him singing a little bit, and doing one of his trademark screams a bunch. For many songs, and of course, Kiss, he just held the mic for the crowd to sing. Some fool paid $2,500 for floor seats to hear the audience sing a bunch...it was a good show, but considering he had over 40,000...not buying that it was 50,000 there....it should have been a legendary show. The bootleg of 5/15 Birmingham was a better show.

And considering the crowd at the Essence festival...complete versions of The Beautiful Ones, Do Me Baby, I Wanna Be Your Lover, perhaps Uptown and/or Delirious, and Adore would have been much appreciated.

It was a very good almost great show, but Prince was in FULL DIVA mode, and not in MUSICIAN mode. Since he has the talent to put on an amazing show, just seeing a very good one was kind of a letdown, but this is Prince. At least nobody was shouting "Put Your Hands Up," And at least Doug E Fresh's HORRIBLE shouting in the mic was left to his own "show."

"It was a very good almost great show, but Prince was in FULL DIVA mode, and not in MUSICIAN mode."

This sound like ORG B.S. I have checked out a lot of urban blogs and urban stations and the reviews are steller. Why are you not buying 50k when the Essence people are saying all 50k seats they were avalible were sold out. The last person to do this was Prince in 2004 but I guess you do not believe he did it in 2004.

-----

stillwaiting said:

I haven't written my review yet, but Controversy was awful, just him singing a little bit, and doing one of his trademark screams a bunch. For many songs, and of course, Kiss, he just held the mic for the crowd to sing. Some fool paid $2,500 for floor seats to hear the audience sing a bunch...it was a good show, but considering he had over 40,000...not buying that it was 50,000 there....it should have been a legendary show. The bootleg of 5/15 Birmingham was a better show.

And considering the crowd at the Essence festival...complete versions of The Beautiful Ones, Do Me Baby, I Wanna Be Your Lover, perhaps Uptown and/or Delirious, and Adore would have been much appreciated.

It was a very good almost great show, but Prince was in FULL DIVA mode, and not in MUSICIAN mode. Since he has the talent to put on an amazing show, just seeing a very good one was kind of a letdown, but this is Prince. At least nobody was shouting "Put Your Hands Up," And at least Doug E Fresh's HORRIBLE shouting in the mic was left to his own "show."

Yeah, I agree with what you're saying here. I would have been happy with any setlist as long as it was done with musicianship and a connection to the audience. But I too would have thought, and I went in with some hope, that Prince was going to do a more classic R&B set for the Essence crowd.

.

Because, for those of you that were not there, the dome was FULL of old-school vibe and energy all night. Most of the crowd was in their 30s, 40s, and 50s. It was not a young casual crowd that needed hits only. There was a lot of purple experience up in there. I was among my people, not among a bunch of casual fans. You think casual Prince fans going to pay $200 and up for a ticket?

.

And consider this yall- it was July 4th. The man was on stage with a big horn section. I just knew he was going to play America and let those horns have their fun with that horn line.. u know the 1.. that they did live on the Parade tour.. that shit is sooooo goood. But no.

.

And you know yall- it was right around the 30th anniversary of Purple Rain.. so he mentioned that a couple of times in the show, great. But other than those verbal mentions, nothing special for the occasion.

.

The diva mode / vegas / casino medley show came across to me like a $400 jukebox. Because that's how much I paid to see Prince, because I absolutely LOVE and "Adore" Prince 4 ever.

.

So I am one of U. Not a hater or a spreader of "ORG BS".

.

And I am here to tell you that on that night in NOLA, 3rd Eye Girl had no on-stage chemistry with one another or with the audience. The oversized horn section, which other orgers have commented on in this and other Prince concert threads, was overblown. It is spectacle, not funk. It does not come off as cool as you would expect. I am a sax player myself, and LOVE the horn-elements of Prince's music up to the present day. What he is doing right now in his stage act with the oversize section is not anything worth writing home about.

.

Prince himself brought the fire and the jam sauce for his appearance with Nile Rogers, because Prince was playing guitar and being Prince. It was electrifying and I was euphoric. But during his own show, Prince was more of an MC, full Diva, acting aloof from the crowd, playing that cheezy over-baked-ham thunder sound effect between every medley of songs (while the sampler loaded the next medley). Prince very rarely played any musical instrument except for the guitar in the 1990s-grunge-throwback version of Let's Go Crazy (Reloaded).

.

I'm not here to say anybody else should agree with me or that it was a bad show for everyone. But for me, as a musician myself and Prince NUT, it was not all that.

.

Art is better with criticism. Any artist surrounded only by syncophants will get weaker.

thx185 said:

stillwaiting said:

I haven't written my review yet, but Controversy was awful, just him singing a little bit, and doing one of his trademark screams a bunch. For many songs, and of course, Kiss, he just held the mic for the crowd to sing. Some fool paid $2,500 for floor seats to hear the audience sing a bunch...it was a good show, but considering he had over 40,000...not buying that it was 50,000 there....it should have been a legendary show. The bootleg of 5/15 Birmingham was a better show.

And considering the crowd at the Essence festival...complete versions of The Beautiful Ones, Do Me Baby, I Wanna Be Your Lover, perhaps Uptown and/or Delirious, and Adore would have been much appreciated.

It was a very good almost great show, but Prince was in FULL DIVA mode, and not in MUSICIAN mode. Since he has the talent to put on an amazing show, just seeing a very good one was kind of a letdown, but this is Prince. At least nobody was shouting "Put Your Hands Up," And at least Doug E Fresh's HORRIBLE shouting in the mic was left to his own "show."

Yeah, I agree with what you're saying here. I would have been happy with any setlist as long as it was done with musicianship and a connection to the audience. But I too would have thought, and I went in with some hope, that Prince was going to do a more classic R&B set for the Essence crowd.

.

Because, for those of you that were not there, the dome was FULL of old-school vibe and energy all night. Most of the crowd was in their 30s, 40s, and 50s. It was not a young casual crowd that needed hits only. There was a lot of purple experience up in there. I was among my people, not among a bunch of casual fans. You think casual Prince fans going to pay $200 and up for a ticket?

.

And consider this yall- it was July 4th. The man was on stage with a big horn section. I just knew he was going to play America and let those horns have their fun with that horn line.. u know the 1.. that they did live on the Parade tour.. that shit is sooooo goood. But no.

.

And you know yall- it was right around the 30th anniversary of Purple Rain.. so he mentioned that a couple of times in the show, great. But other than those verbal mentions, nothing special for the occasion.

.

The diva mode / vegas / casino medley show came across to me like a $400 jukebox. Because that's how much I paid to see Prince, because I absolutely LOVE and "Adore" Prince 4 ever.

.

So I am one of U. Not a hater or a spreader of "ORG BS".

.

And I am here to tell you that on that night in NOLA, 3rd Eye Girl had no on-stage chemistry with one another or with the audience. The oversized horn section, which other orgers have commented on in this and other Prince concert threads, was overblown. It is spectacle, not funk. It does not come off as cool as you would expect. I am a sax player myself, and LOVE the horn-elements of Prince's music up to the present day. What he is doing right now in his stage act with the oversize section is not anything worth writing home about.

.

Prince himself brought the fire and the jam sauce for his appearance with Nile Rogers, because Prince was playing guitar and being Prince. It was electrifying and I was euphoric. But during his own show, Prince was more of an MC, full Diva, acting aloof from the crowd, playing that cheezy over-baked-ham thunder sound effect between every medley of songs (while the sampler loaded the next medley). Prince very rarely played any musical instrument except for the guitar in the 1990s-grunge-throwback version of Let's Go Crazy (Reloaded).

.

I'm not here to say anybody else should agree with me or that it was a bad show for everyone. But for me, as a musician myself and Prince NUT, it was not all that.

.

Art is better with criticism. Any artist surrounded only by syncophants will get weaker.

"Prince was more of an MC, full Diva, acting aloof from the crowd, playing that cheezy over-baked-ham thunder sound effect between every medley of songs (while the sampler loaded the next medley). Prince very rarely played any musical instrument except for the guitar in the 1990s-grunge-throwback version of Let's Go Crazy (Reloaded)."

The only problem is that your comments are the exact opposite of about a 100 other reviews on other sites and FACEBOOK and the general media which has no reason to pump Prince up. Everybody is entilted to their opinion but when the reviewes on this board are so widely different than those on other boards. Something is wrong.

Your comment that he did not play enough instrutments tells me you do not know what sort of audience he was playing to. Black crowds are not going to respond well too long instrumental jams and they like the hits. If you think you paid too much for this show than you need to rethink going to anymore Prince concerts because I do not expect them to get cheaper.

Learn the difference between syncophants and fans. This is suppose to be a fan message board.

[Edited 7/7/14 10:36am]

thisisreece said:

utopia7 said:

thisisreece said:

Of course they didn't, but I doubt they shelled out for The Bird or Cool either. Prince played arenas accross the UK this year with lots of casual fans, and they were hits shows with a few sprinkled rarities, and the crowds loved them. I'm not saying he shouldn't play his hits with larger shows like Essence, but a few rarer songs might make a casual fan think, 'I haven't heard that, and that was really good,' and it might urge them to look deeper into Prince's discography.

Great Post my sentiments exactly. I think Prince's paranoia of being filmed or bootlegged.Has turneD him into a broken-record constantly playing the hits.No longer working to hard, because the backup singers and horns will do it for him.I get that the casual fan wants to hear old songs.I find it odd he stays away from a vast catalog to play and re-imagine live

I think most casual fans are lazy and can't appreciate albums such as NEWS or any other of the obscure pieces of music that he's recorded. They just think of Raspberry Beret and that's it. As far as I'm concerned, that's their loss if they never hear Anasthesia live like I have before!

I wasn't at the concert but I do know some people who were and they said the show was fantastic! Who cares if he was in "FULL DIVA mode" or not... who cares if it wasn't what past shows have been... who cares if he didn't play this or that... Prince is Prince and I would imagine he knows EXACTLY how he should be wherever he is performing and what he should play and if he should play instruments for a certain amount of time etc.

I read this site but RARELY comment because it usually is just a "Prince bashing" site. I thought when I found a site called "Prince.org" it was for fans who want to share excitement over a show or new music, not alot of fans who find the need to criticize every song or performance.

The reviews I've read of his performance at the Essence festival have ALL been positive. And we all know reviews of concerts can be pretty harsh and negative. So I am happy to think that the majority of people that went thoroughly enjoyed themselves in the presence of such an icon and walked out of the SuperDome with pure Prince fulfillment.

laurarichardson said:

This sound like ORG B.S. I have checked out a lot of urban blogs and urban stations and the reviews are steller. Why are you not buying 50k when the Essence people are saying all 50k seats they were avalible were sold out. The last person to do this was Prince in 2004 but I guess you do not believe he did it in 2004.

-----

No, this is your bullshit. I went to 7 Musicology shows in 2004, and just like the tour before Musicology, One Nite Alone in 2002, those tours were filled with great musicianship, and FULL LENGTH SONGS with PRINCE SINGING most, if not ALL THE LYRICS. So I would be shocked if the 2004 Essence Festival Peformance was not an awesome show. Had he been there on the 1997 Jam/Medley of the Year Tour in 1997, I would have expected it to be an underwhelming but ok performance.

You should have seen the rush of people going to the bathroom during Act of God, Funk N Roll....and it's not like the crowd were paying attention to Lianne La Havas singing most of Sometimes It Snows In April. Nobody cared about the girls singing What Have You Done For Me Lately, and there wasn't much love for Which Way Is Up Either.

I could give an over-glowing positive review, or give a ridiculous Bart type negative review. But no, I give MY TRUTH...not some bullshit where I fall in line with what you read on facebook. It was not a terrible show by any means, but fans I talked to after the show were not glowing like fans leaving Musicology. Before I write any review, I discuss with the people around me, and go out of my way to talk to tons of fans to try to give other people's perspective as well as my own.

How long did Prince play?

His average arena set has been 3 hours.

I heard the set this year was 2 hours.

That probably explains the setlist . . . ahem . . . Controversy on this thread. Less time makes it less likely big fans are going to get the "deep album cuts" or B-sides they might otherwise hear.

Plus, for big fans, there's bound to be a point of "diminishing returns" when going to see an artist they've seen perform for perhaps as long as 3 decades.

That says at least as much about their expectations as it does the quality of the performance itself. I'm always going to be excited to see a Prince show, but can't expect to have my mind blown like it was in the 80s or 90s. Different times and circumstances for audiences and artist alike.

stillwaiting said:

laurarichardson said:

This sound like ORG B.S. I have checked out a lot of urban blogs and urban stations and the reviews are steller. Why are you not buying 50k when the Essence people are saying all 50k seats they were avalible were sold out. The last person to do this was Prince in 2004 but I guess you do not believe he did it in 2004.

-----

No, this is your bullshit. I went to 7 Musicology shows in 2004, and just like the tour before Musicology, One Nite Alone in 2002, those tours were filled with great musicianship, and FULL LENGTH SONGS with PRINCE SINGING most, if not ALL THE LYRICS. So I would be shocked if the 2004 Essence Festival Peformance was not an awesome show. Had he been there on the 1997 Jam/Medley of the Year Tour in 1997, I would have expected it to be an underwhelming but ok performance.

You should have seen the rush of people going to the bathroom during Act of God, Funk N Roll....and it's not like the crowd were paying attention to Lianne La Havas singing most of Sometimes It Snows In April. Nobody cared about the girls singing What Have You Done For Me Lately, and there wasn't much love for Which Way Is Up Either.

I could give an over-glowing positive review, or give a ridiculous Bart type negative review. But no, I give MY TRUTH...not some bullshit where I fall in line with what you read on facebook. It was not a terrible show by any means, but fans I talked to after the show were not glowing like fans leaving Musicology. Before I write any review, I discuss with the people around me, and go out of my way to talk to tons of fans to try to give other people's perspective as well as my own.

So the few you spoke to and 100 or so people you saw leaving out of 40,000 gave you a sense of what the majority (40k-50k) of people think?

Its cool to leave your honest opinion, good or bad but its just an opinion and not fact. What you may not like other people enjoy.

Now there are exceptions. some concerts are just downright bad and you can tell the artist is going through the motions and their mind is elsewhere

[Edited 7/7/14 12:23pm]

namepeace said:

How long did Prince play?

His average arena set has been 3 hours.

I heard the set this year was 2 hours.

That probably explains the setlist . . . ahem . . . Controversy on this thread. Less time makes it less likely big fans are going to get the "deep album cuts" or B-sides they might otherwise hear.

Plus, for big fans, there's bound to be a point of "diminishing returns" when going to see an artist they've seen perform for perhaps as long as 3 decades.

That says at least as much about their expectations as it does the quality of the performance itself. I'm always going to be excited to see a Prince show, but can't expect to have my mind blown like it was in the 80s or 90s. Different times and circumstances for audiences and artist alike.

The SuperDome had a curfew and he started later than planned because of the performances before him. I do know that he changed his originally planned set, so maybe songs were left out because of the time crunch.

wonder505 said:

stillwaiting said:

No, this is your bullshit. I went to 7 Musicology shows in 2004, and just like the tour before Musicology, One Nite Alone in 2002, those tours were filled with great musicianship, and FULL LENGTH SONGS with PRINCE SINGING most, if not ALL THE LYRICS. So I would be shocked if the 2004 Essence Festival Peformance was not an awesome show. Had he been there on the 1997 Jam/Medley of the Year Tour in 1997, I would have expected it to be an underwhelming but ok performance.

You should have seen the rush of people going to the bathroom during Act of God, Funk N Roll....and it's not like the crowd were paying attention to Lianne La Havas singing most of Sometimes It Snows In April. Nobody cared about the girls singing What Have You Done For Me Lately, and there wasn't much love for Which Way Is Up Either.

I could give an over-glowing positive review, or give a ridiculous Bart type negative review. But no, I give MY TRUTH...not some bullshit where I fall in line with what you read on facebook. It was not a terrible show by any means, but fans I talked to after the show were not glowing like fans leaving Musicology. Before I write any review, I discuss with the people around me, and go out of my way to talk to tons of fans to try to give other people's perspective as well as my own.

So the few you spoke to and 100 or so people you saw leaving out of 40,000 gave you a sense of what the majority of people think?

Its cool to leave your honest opinion, good or bad but its just an opinion and not fact. What you may not like other people enjoy.

You're comparing his show in 2014 to shows you saw in 2004, 2002? I would imagine you compare ANY singers' shows that far apart in years they're going to be pretty different. And the "tons" of fans you talked to don't nearly represent the 50,000 that were there. And honestly, anybody could find anything to say negative about a concert they see, even if they basically loved the show. Maybe people just need to go to Prince's concerts and ENJOY that he is even doing concerts and ENJOY what he gives the crowd INSTEAD of comparing each show to others that they saw, whether last week or 10 years ago.

seasideterror said:

namepeace said:

How long did Prince play?

His average arena set has been 3 hours.

I heard the set this year was 2 hours.

That probably explains the setlist . . . ahem . . . Controversy on this thread. Less time makes it less likely big fans are going to get the "deep album cuts" or B-sides they might otherwise hear.

Plus, for big fans, there's bound to be a point of "diminishing returns" when going to see an artist they've seen perform for perhaps as long as 3 decades.

That says at least as much about their expectations as it does the quality of the performance itself. I'm always going to be excited to see a Prince show, but can't expect to have my mind blown like it was in the 80s or 90s. Different times and circumstances for audiences and artist alike.

The SuperDome had a curfew and he started later than planned because of the performances before him. I do know that he changed his originally planned set, so maybe songs were left out because of the time crunch.

He was not singing that much, holding the mic out to the crowd to sing, and shortening songs in a short show is not good. Also playing Act of God, Funk N Roll, Which Way Is Up, What Have You Done For ME Lately, THe Bird, Jungle Love, and The Glamorous Life was foolish...

Had he replaced those with full length versions of :

Adore, Baby I'm A Star, Uptown, I Wanna Be Your Lover, The Beautiful Ones, How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore....

now that would've fit the crowd he had...and had he actually sung the lyrics to Controversy instead of playing crowd hype guy...that would've been awesome...but no....he didn't.

Not a awful show by any means, but seeing him in a large crowd like this was an opportunity...and he sometimes blew it.

Nothing Compares 2 U, Take Me With U, Little Red Corvette, Let's Go Crazy, Egg N Roll, and Purple Rain were pretty much great....but he's been playing all of those other than Egg N Roll over and over again.

Nevermind what some fans think......how is PRINCE satisfied with these type of performances? He set the bar as a live performer! You would think he would want to introduce different songs from his catalog (many of which he has never played live). But there he went with another predictible setlist, a dozen horn players and disjointed band lineup. To make matters worse he has managed to make the actual SOUND of the shows really sterile. Recent performances of COOL sound pretty generic, for example.

seasideterror said:

I wasn't at the concert but I do know some people who were and they said the show was fantastic! Who cares if he was in "FULL DIVA mode" or not... who cares if it wasn't what past shows have been... who cares if he didn't play this or that... Prince is Prince and I would imagine he knows EXACTLY how he should be wherever he is performing and what he should play and if he should play instruments for a certain amount of time etc.

I read this site but RARELY comment because it usually is just a "Prince bashing" site. I thought when I found a site called "Prince.org" it was for fans who want to share excitement over a show or new music, not alot of fans who find the need to criticize every song or performance.

The reviews I've read of his performance at the Essence festival have ALL been positive. And we all know reviews of concerts can be pretty harsh and negative. So I am happy to think that the majority of people that went thoroughly enjoyed themselves in the presence of such an icon and walked out of the SuperDome with pure Prince fulfillment.

This is definitely not a site for a new fan or an over enthusiastic fan. This site will make U want to follow another artist and leave alone..

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

seasideterror said:

wonder505 said:

So the few you spoke to and 100 or so people you saw leaving out of 40,000 gave you a sense of what the majority of people think?

Its cool to leave your honest opinion, good or bad but its just an opinion and not fact. What you may not like other people enjoy.

You're comparing his show in 2014 to shows you saw in 2004, 2002? I would imagine you compare ANY singers' shows that far apart in years they're going to be pretty different. And the "tons" of fans you talked to don't nearly represent the 50,000 that were there. And honestly, anybody could find anything to say negative about a concert they see, even if they basically loved the show. Maybe people just need to go to Prince's concerts and ENJOY that he is even doing concerts and ENJOY what he gives the crowd INSTEAD of comparing each show to others that they saw, whether last week or 10 years ago.

Uh, listen to the 5-15-14 show in Birmingham on bootleg. It's obvious Prince can sing full length songs when he is in the mood. His setlist did not reflect much awareness of the crowd. Older 30-50 types with very few young people don't want to hear Act of God and Funk N Roll. I liked those songs, but strange choices.

I even said it was a good show, just not a great one.

It seems you are one of those OVER positve people. Everybody has to be positive, if you have an opinion, then you are Bart Van Halen. Not me. I give my opinion, and refuse to fall in line with anybody.

thisisreece said:

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

seasideterror said:

namepeace said:

How long did Prince play?

His average arena set has been 3 hours.

I heard the set this year was 2 hours.

That probably explains the setlist . . . ahem . . . Controversy on this thread. Less time makes it less likely big fans are going to get the "deep album cuts" or B-sides they might otherwise hear.

Plus, for big fans, there's bound to be a point of "diminishing returns" when going to see an artist they've seen perform for perhaps as long as 3 decades.

That says at least as much about their expectations as it does the quality of the performance itself. I'm always going to be excited to see a Prince show, but can't expect to have my mind blown like it was in the 80s or 90s. Different times and circumstances for audiences and artist alike.

The SuperDome had a curfew and he started later than planned because of the performances before him. I do know that he changed his originally planned set, so maybe songs were left out because of the time crunch.

How do you know he changed his original planned set?

stillwaiting said:

seasideterror said:

You're comparing his show in 2014 to shows you saw in 2004, 2002? I would imagine you compare ANY singers' shows that far apart in years they're going to be pretty different. And the "tons" of fans you talked to don't nearly represent the 50,000 that were there. And honestly, anybody could find anything to say negative about a concert they see, even if they basically loved the show. Maybe people just need to go to Prince's concerts and ENJOY that he is even doing concerts and ENJOY what he gives the crowd INSTEAD of comparing each show to others that they saw, whether last week or 10 years ago.

Uh, listen to the 5-15-14 show in Birmingham on bootleg. It's obvious Prince can sing full length songs when he is in the mood. His setlist did not reflect much awareness of the crowd. Older 30-50 types with very few young people don't want to hear Act of God and Funk N Roll. I liked those songs, but strange choices.

I even said it was a good show, just not a great one.

It seems you are one of those OVER positve people. Everybody has to be positive, if you have an opinion, then you are Bart Van Halen. Not me. I give my opinion, and refuse to fall in line with anybody.

Well I am one of those "older 30-50 types" and I like Funk N Roll. Maybe you shouldn't categorize people by age and assume you know what they will and will not like to hear.

Good for you for having your opinion and not "falling in line with anybody"... so why not let others have THEIR opinion without your "this and thats" of why they should agree with your opinion.

And yes I am a positive person... I try to find the positive in things, which I think is way better than looking to find the negative.