"Aladdin Seen"

Prince Live at the Aladdin Las Vegas (NPG/Hip-o)- It seems "Money Don't Matter 2 Night" when it comes to paying for a pro filming job: Live looks like it was shot by fans who snuck Super-8s into the Aladdin and had their tapes confiscated. But the music nearly makes the visual shoddiness 4-givable. Even with his dirty stuff bainished from the set, Prince works up a good, dry sweat, his current favoring of James Brown-style big-band soul revue and jazz fusion broken up by occasional blasts of rock-guitar heroism (including a "Whole Lotta Love" cover!) Grade: B

[Dang! If they would have seen the video for 'Face Down', they might have been more kind -Ben]

he he he he...

first, for the first time ever!!

Dang, I'm surprised EW gave it a B. I didn't think they'd give it such a good grade. Pleasantly surprised, I am.
BTW, did they review ONA Live? I don't normally read EW and I don't remember seeing it posted here.

have onloy just got hold of ALLADIN DVD, so dont want to be too critical having only got up to strange relationship, but does anyone else think the crowd is too low in the mix - its doesnt sound like a "real" gig,its almost quiet!
and having been on the uk tour and seen boots of US and Japan shows, the crowds have all been superb,so i dont believe the vegas crowd would have been anything different - they LOOK excited enough, but the levels of the crowd don't make them sound it

If this is not a great show, I`ll give up... The shots are good enough for me. The most important for me is that Prince delivers musically. His timing, playing and singing is great! And the band is his best ever.Very impressive performance. I saw the show in Oslo last autum, and it was fantastic. The best show I`ve ever seen. Much more interessting and impressive than his Nude-tour and Lowsexyshows. He is the best liveperformer in the world, maybe EVER. James Brown had the energy, but he did`nt have near the same versaility. The same can be said about Jimi Hendrix. He was magic on guitar, but thats all. And played mostly rock. The most overrated and boring music. As long as Prince delivers live, I can live with frustratingly boring albums like Rave.

In my opinion, I think Prince wanted the video to look like it was a "bootleg" video and thats why everyone is saying how bad the camera work is. The most important thing for me on a concert dvd, is the sound and the sound is good enough for me.

And for the crowd noise, remember on ONA live you don't hear much of the crowd either, maybe they are adding the crowd noise afterwards using what the sound board picks up.
any thoughts?

Daddypop

"In my opinion, I think Prince wanted the video to look like it was a "bootleg" video "

Quite possible. You kinda get the feeling that you're at the concert. Frustrating and exciting at the same time. I think he could've gotten the same effect with better picture and sound quality- and yeah, I also thought the crowd was a little quiet. Still, what an amazing show it was!

True fan still, yes. I am. Enjoying every moment of it!
But the imagery of the dvd really sucks. If he really had a professional team around him for doing this job, it would have looked like he wanted it to look like a bootleg!
Now it's really, really bad. I still haven't figured out what really went wrong that night. The result that we are looking at now is a desperate attempt to save what went wrong. A lot of key-moments are not on tape. The again and again returning to the lousy totalshot proves that in my opinion. It's a mess and not because somebody wanted it to look that way... Everyone with a (semi) professional eye for shooting a concert will see that the crew did a bad job.

Still enjoying it as a representation of Prince in concert at this moment in his career.

Art, Amsterdam, Holland

thebiscuit said:

The bootleg video look is most probably a rationalization from his part. Prince is tight with his own production money, so I imagine that when it was time to shoot a concert, he took the cheapest option thinking "Hey... if they buy bootleg dvds from guys with cameras in their pompadour, they'll be buy a little shaky camerawork from me. I'll do the Crystal Ball thing and pretend it's a response to booleggers and fans who keep them in bidness!"

I just received my copy and thought it was great. It really seemed like Prince was relaxed and having fun. I did feel some of the lighting was poor, but the music made up for that. His rendition of "Gotta broken heart" was great, not to mention the great guitar stuff (Whole lotta love and The Ride), Rolling Stone dosen't know shit!!!

Peace

BlaqueKnight said:

i agree...it sucked...just admit it

daddypop said:

- It may be possible, but let´s not forget that the footage of Rave 2000 was horrible too
...but IMO, the main difference between Madonna and Prince when it comes to marketing (not music) is that Madonna knows how to hire people she works with. That´s one of the main reason for such an average singer to stay on top for so much time. Everything she releases is an event. The videos are very well produced, and the remixes are made by famous DJs, for example.
Prince´s albums covers used to be great in the 80s, but now most of them suck (TRC is a good exception).The work seems to be done by amateurs or seem rushed, like he is careless about the package he releases. I know he is a musician, and the quality of the music is priority, but why not hire better people?

Why would you waste your time commenting on something you don't like? I'm sure your favorite artist has a website. Or are you all closet fans???

Had read the bad coverage on the org and I have to say:

-- camerwork is fine / good in places / it was a definite stylistic choice to go for handheld and I think that it works pretty well - widescreen looks good.

-- on the other hand, the DVD transfer is genuinely terrible - you can see the compression on screen - it looks like a load of low rez jpgs strung together. My favourite moment is when Maceo is introduced at the intro to the show and there is a 'freeze'. Which doesn't freeze - but jerks back and forth. Yuk. Somebody send this guy to Lucasfilm - they know about digital to DVD transfers.

Having said that the sound quality is pretty good and the performance is excellent. So if you have bad eye-sight, and take off your glasses, you should be fine.

czer15 said:

- well, I am a Prince fan, I love his music, but I disagree about several things he does. I am not a blind ´fam´

czer15 said:

- well, I am a Prince fan, I love his music, but I disagree about several things he does. I am not a blind ´fam´

I'll tell you guys what I think in a few days, when the post office will be open late enough so I can get the DVD. Can't wait to listen to Pass the peas Prince version, though I might be dissapointed since the JBs original is so good.

How many of u have the PAL version.Do u think it's good or excellent quality.
When I get around 2 it I'll be ordering a copy from the uk.Well,I guess I'll have 2.

HMV has the DVD instore for £14.99. Picked up my copy this week - just havent got to looking at it yet!

The sound , as on the ONA Live set, is recorded straight from the soundboard. ie. what the microphones pick up. So unless the mic is turned to the audience, it's not gonna pick up much from there. Is it just me or has anyone else noticed how quietly P sings into the mic? Then the mic is turned up to give louder vocals. Whereas all the boy bands etc (Those who can't sing) try to sing too loud with the mic set low. Therefore, the harder notes are more difficult to get right.
The picture quality of Aladdin is shaky and too "digital". However, the shakiness does give a good concert-goers perspective of things. Especially if you missed the other 2 hours of the show!

Half the people here are Prince haters posing as critics.
That DVD is awesome! Best perfomance on DVD I've seen in a while.
And thats what it is...a performance. Not a Lucas film, or Madonna marketing scam, but a performance that showcases a well polished band, and an entertainer having fun with his music.
The look was good enough to create the energy needed to pull that off so stop sniveling you haters. The man did a good job. Shut Up Already! Damn!

It iz all about da music!

Some fans do seem to be blind to the quality of his recent stuff. I got the DVD and just like with The Rainbow Children I am very disappointed.

I'm not exactly sure where all the anger towards the dvd's direction comes from. It's certainly a lot better than "Rave", which bombards the viewer with loads of quick cuts in an effort to disguise a less than stellar concert.
IMO, it's different, and as a direct result, inherently interesting to watch. One minute, we're practically standing next to Prince on stage, and the next, we get a nice long shot, displaying the energy of the NPGMC members up front.
As for the audio, it sure sounds great on my system, which is a Aiwa home surround, nothing too fancy.
And finally...this is a great concert. The talent, energy, and joy of performing on the part of the entire band continually shines through. I found myself smiling over and over as I watched for the first time, and IMO, probably his best live video since "Sacrifice of Victor", whcih crackles with similiar energy and skill.