Astasheiks said:

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

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

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

Astasheiks said:

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

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

Astasheiks said:

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

Very good!

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

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

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

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.

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]

Prince should have thrown a snippet of "God Is Alive" on them, if not the Whole song!!!

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.

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.

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

[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!

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.

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.

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

[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!

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

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.

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

[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!

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!

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