Amgoing a week from tonight, can hardly wait. I guess it is the last date for the tour. It will be so interesting to be sitting in a room of mostly all Prince fans. Many times I am the only one in a group that could name more than one of his songs. (oh, yes, they all stick with PR, someone might actually guess WDC!)

Anyhow, will be refreshing, probably will have to drag out some paisley from the closet. Was glad to hear how most everyone who has already gone thought it was worth their time.

I saw the show in Louisville, KY at the Palace Theatre on Friday, October 12.

I must have seen a different show than everyone else here who thought it was "great", etc. I was very disappointed and Questlove should be ashamed of himself for being involved in this "symphony". My neice's high school orchestra could have done as well as this.

The positive points in the show were:

I did enjoy the tracked music (some unreleased) played before the show began and at intermission.

The female violinist was great. She was one of 2 people on stage that had any energy, attitude, or funk. The other person was the white male guitar player he was good. The other guitar player swayed back and forth mindlessly.

The rest of the players were boring - the conductor - boring. (I know it was a symphony, but it is also Prince music - you can move a little bit...)

So, here is what was hugely disappointing:

A recording of Questlove introduced the show. Questlove said that the first half of the show was going to be rare and hidden gems, the second half the hits. Maybe I'm a snob or I know too much of Prince's music, but the first half was not hidden gems, most of the songs were hits or minor hits. The only hidden gem was All My Dreams. You can look at the set list and see these "hidden gems". Some had videos made, one was a number 1 hit - these are hardly hidden gems and I expected more from Questlove the "curator" of the show.

Second half - the expected "hits". (not so disappointing)

The other disappointing aspect to the show was the 2 large video screens. These could have really highlighted the show. But to me, they were confusing. Random photos or video clips of Prince were shown - why did the photos/videos not match the time period of the song being played? It was confusing to me. Also when Irresistible Bitch played, they only had half the title of the song on the screens - it just said Irresistible???

The DJ was horrible. He was obviously playing the tracked music that for some reason a full orchestra could not recreate. As a DJ, he was boring. He should have been off stage - he contributed nothing. AND it bothered me that he constantly threw up the "devil's horn" music hand sign. This is Prince, why not throw up a Wild sign?

There were recordings of Prince from interviews that were interspersed throughout. The Palace is a great venue (Prince played there with 3rd Eye Girl and also for Rainbow Children) but these recordings were garbled and I could not hardly understand anything Prince was saying.

The rendition of Purple Rain was OK. But also odd. The screens played the song from the Syracuse video. The 2 guitarists were absent from the stage - they should have been playing along.

If you check the set list, there was nothing played after Sign of Times 1987 (and then only Starfish and Coffee - which probably should have been in the first half with the other "hidden" gems).

My brother, who I went with said I was too critical, but...if you are going to do a show, do a SHOW.

I don't think Prince would have been pleased with this production.

Random thoughts about it...

Why not have Clare Fischer Orchestra participate? (I know Clare has passed, but his son Brent is still involved)

Why not have the orchestra dressed in cloaks like the "orchestra" in the Raspberry Beret video?

Why not have the orchestra dressed in something-fun, other than black? Dress in Purple. Dress in Peach and Black. Dress in something Princelike?

I think I just expected something more along the lines of Bob Belden or something...

I hope everyone who goes has a wonderful time...maybe things were just off in Louisville?

How has attentance been? I was planning on going this Saturday to Tulsa and just buy the tickets at box office to avoid fees but I'm hearing it's been cancelled?

i24u said:

How has attentance been? I was planning on going this Saturday to Tulsa and just buy the tickets at box office to avoid fees but I'm hearing it's been cancelled?

In Louisville, the theatre was about 1/2-3/4 full.

aaronoraa said:

i24u said:

How has attentance been? I was planning on going this Saturday to Tulsa and just buy the tickets at box office to avoid fees but I'm hearing it's been cancelled?

In Louisville, the theatre was about 1/2-3/4 full.

I'd say about the same for the Brooklyn show. The venue had a mezzanine which was closed/empty so all ticketholders were seated in the orchestra section.

i24u said:

How has attentance been? I was planning on going this Saturday to Tulsa and just buy the tickets at box office to avoid fees but I'm hearing it's been cancelled?

i24u, just out of curiosity, where did you hear that? My family has tickets to the Tulsa concert. I rushed over to my email and Ticketmaster after I read your post, but for now, Ticketmaster.com is still selling tickets to it, and I haven't received any cancellation email. They DID change the venue for it a little over a week ago. The event was originally scheduled to take place at the BOK center. Now it has changed to The Cox Business Center Exhibit Hall C, a smaller venue. But tickets are only about half sold. I hope they can give away some tix or something or the small crowd might be a little depressing, lol.

princeiscool said:

i24u said:

How has attentance been? I was planning on going this Saturday to Tulsa and just buy the tickets at box office to avoid fees but I'm hearing it's been cancelled?

i24u, just out of curiosity, where did you hear that? My family has tickets to the Tulsa concert. I rushed over to my email and Ticketmaster after I read your post, but for now, Ticketmaster.com is still selling tickets to it, and I haven't received any cancellation email. They DID change the venue for it a little over a week ago. The event was originally scheduled to take place at the BOK center. Now it has changed to The Cox Business Center Exhibit Hall C, a smaller venue. But tickets are only about half sold. I hope they can give away some tix or something or the small crowd might be a little depressing, lol.

I saw it on the facebook page for the concert. I saw a couple people saying they got a refund and were wondering if the show was cancelled. It is not. I was going to wait and buy tickets at box office and avoid fees from ticketmaster but I'm now seeing that the tickets are selling better. I'm debating if I really want to spend money or just get the cheap seats in the back. Maybe someone can chime in that has gone. Is there really any need to sit close to the stage?

i24u said:

princeiscool said:

i24u said:

I saw it on the facebook page for the concert. I saw a couple people saying they got a refund and were wondering if the show was cancelled. It is not. I was going to wait and buy tickets at box office and avoid fees from ticketmaster but I'm now seeing that the tickets are selling better. I'm debating if I really want to spend money or just get the cheap seats in the back. Maybe someone can chime in that has gone. Is there really any need to sit close to the stage?

Yeah, lots more tickets are gone today. Not sure if radio was giving some away or what? Lol. My family bought the cheap tickets in the back. I bought them way back on June 7, Prince's Bday. I figured, heck, it's not actually Prince, soI don't have to be all up in The Tulsa Symphony's grill. Besides the lights, video screens, and the music, and the comraderie is what I'm after. But if you can avoid the fees that's great because our $17 dollar tickets turned into $30 plus dollar tickets after fees. 😳

I didn't chance it and brought the last 2 together in section 101 that were $17. I has $5 off so mine ended up being $56 for 2. Hate ticketmaster fees. I'm coming from OKC and didn't want to chance the cheap seats being gone by the time I got there around 6. Plus ticketmaster says they are riser seats which might be a bonus.

i24u said:

princeiscool said:

i24u, just out of curiosity, where did you hear that? My family has tickets to the Tulsa concert. I rushed over to my email and Ticketmaster after I read your post, but for now, Ticketmaster.com is still selling tickets to it, and I haven't received any cancellation email. They DID change the venue for it a little over a week ago. The event was originally scheduled to take place at the BOK center. Now it has changed to The Cox Business Center Exhibit Hall C, a smaller venue. But tickets are only about half sold. I hope they can give away some tix or something or the small crowd might be a little depressing, lol.

I saw it on the facebook page for the concert. I saw a couple people saying they got a refund and were wondering if the show was cancelled. It is not. I was going to wait and buy tickets at box office and avoid fees from ticketmaster but I'm now seeing that the tickets are selling better. I'm debating if I really want to spend money or just get the cheap seats in the back. Maybe someone can chime in that has gone. Is there really any need to sit close to the stage?

I sat in the third row for the Brooklyn show and it was too close. I couldn't see any of the musicians in the back. For this type of show, it's better to sit a little further away to get a view of the entire orchestra.

Went to the Tulsa show. Been a prince fan my whole life. Went to the tribue concert in St. Paul in Oct. It was Meh. Nothing is going to come close to him being there but this this blew me away. Prince would of so approved of this. It was that good and if they do more dates you must go. I felt him in the building. It was that good.