I'd say it would be either the Gold Experience tour or the Diamonds And Pearls tour. Way too much shitty rapping, idiocy, and the use of pre-recorded sounds made the Gold tour really boring,

Jam of the Year.

Pre-recorded backing tracks, weak band, short concert, little guitar playing by Prince, weak song selection. (Though, the tour had its moments including "Face Down.")

i hate to say it but 93's act 1..or was it act 2
it had some highlights..like thunder..
Seems like the tour had Segues...like the album 0+>
and the tony.m raps...ugggg..his raps..were..ok..
but at shows it sounded like he was yelling...

I enjoyed the hell out of those Jam Of The Year gigs. Maybe it was because he danced for the last time...lol

His bass solo on Face Down was amazing.

2freaky4church1 said:

U are right... about the Gold experience tour of 1995 I saw that one and that was the worst ive ever seen with me own eyes.

Diamond and Pearl is one of his best tho

Jam Of The Year or Nude.

I didn´t like Jam Of The Jear at all, though there were some great aftershows!

The Nude Tour.

Well, the shows on the ONA tour's latter, internatial leg weren't that great from what I have seen of footage and heard recordings. They were just lazy and the arrangements were beginning to be really straightforward bubblegum funk dross. The first shows obviously were a LOT better, but they had their own problems as well, as you can probably see here:

The gold tour (Ultimate Live Experience Tour) is my firm favourite out of every tour I've seen between 86 and 06.

The worst was the European Jam Of the year/NPS shows. The whole larry and Doug E fresh thing just didn't work.

Novabreaker said:

Really?? A lot of hardcore fans have elevated those shows to legendary status. And I think the European part of ONA were better than a lot of the US shows.

For me the 2000 Hit N Run tour with Geneva is a low point. O.k it introduces John Blackwell but the footage I've seen just looks so lifeless.

how to choose ? there were so many !!!

let's start off with the first crappy HITS tour he did in 1990 Nude tour just sucked - shows averaged at about 90 minutes and they were just bloody rubbish.

then we skip to the JOTY 97 shows, just total and utter shite with the WORST band he has EVER had - Kirky J on drumz OH YEAH !

then a short skip to the 1998 European tour with bloody Larry and his load of crap

then back to another HITS tour - 2000 Hit N Run - pretty crap band and the shows were just lifeless. Continued into the 2001 Hit N Run Tour

and then yet another HITS tour tour in 2004, while it was probably the best HITS show has put together, it was still pretty garbage in my opinion and I saw a few of them...

bring on 2006

JAA said:

Are your referring to 2004 Musicology? Do you attend a show, because it sure was NOT GARBAGE!. As a matter of fact Musicology sprung those who left him back into the saddle as fans.

None as I have never seen a concert before, but it seems his tours are magic, even the ones following ok albums were hot.
But apparently his first show at the Capri was very amateurish and some of the Purple Rain shows included some self indulgent stiff that tested the audience, such as frolicing in a purple bath tub, a sit down piano conversation with god and Sheila E's 15 minutes uninspired drum soloing.

jsb23nc said:

The thing that bothered me about Jam of the Year was there were way to many medley's. P was such a tease, starting to play Darling Nikki's first few chords than going into something else.

SquirrelMeat said:

I concur on both counts - although I was lucky to catch the Sign O The Times extravaganza in West Berlin and it was a killer show - and also my first Prince gig.

Shapeshifter said:

Funny thing is, although SOTT is my favourite album, the show is not one of my favourites. I saw it in Holland and Belguim, and each time, I felt it was too calculated and "show" like. But I'll totally contradict myself, because I loved the lovesexy shows which were even more controlled!

I adored the Parade shows (my first) and maybe becasue we all love the first show we ever saw. Excluding aftershows, my favourite tours in order are:

Ultimate live (gold)
Hit & Run (Parade)
Lovesexy
Nude
SOTT
Act 1

then the rest!
[Edited 5/18/06 5:57am]

Well, for me, the Hit N Run show I saw in 2000 was awful. JOTY was OK, but just because it was my first Prince concert I attended.

I totally agree Hit and Run was the worst!

jsb23nc said:

cosign. You said it all.

Any tour involving Larry Graham.

Novabreaker said:

blame oakland's public education..not prince. fyi: i talk my morning jog right by there every mornin..kinda neat-o seeing its pic here on the org.

sosgemini said:

Well, if you "talk" your morning jog by there, chances are you were the one responsible!!!

i got my education!! i got my education....miss thing..miss thing...

Jam of the Year was pretty bad.

It's funny, I'd seen the Gold show at the Palladium in New York, but I didn't know any of the songs (think it was in that weird period between Most Beautiful Girl and the actual album). It sounded like one big funk jam, and he barely played any old stuff. I'd like to go back in time to see that show again, now that I know all the music.

The ACT II tour it was just a shitty hits re-hash with no heart to it...he was merely doing it because he'd started out on a proper tour (ACT1) and had a tantrum mid way through

tane1976 said:

I was watching the Syracuse show last week , there are a few moments where youre wondering , right , where are you heading off to now Prince , but for every self-indulgent minute theres some equally funny moments when Prince is flirting with the crowd , and musically its pretty good too , not brilliant
but enjoyable , though I've never seen a live performance of 1999 without wishing he would just sing ALL the lyrics of the verses and not leave it to
Lisa and Dez or whomever is in his band at the time

New power soul!!!!! touring with larry graham

Horrendous tours:

1990 "Nude Tour"...
1997 "Jam Of The Year"/"Love4OneAnother"
1998 "New Power Soul Festival"
2000 "Hit 'N Run" Tours
2004 "Musicology"

All too boring for words...

Neversin.

isnt Nude the lovesexy tours?

sosgemini said:

Nude was 1990.