Watching some footage from the recent LA gigs, I felt fairly bored with his performances for the first time ever. I'm not knocking the guy's tremendous skills and charisma but he seems to have got stuck in a rut where he is just going through the motions (literally). The same facial expressions and lines ('Can I play my guitar?') appear at the same time in the same songs and it all seems so perfunctory and polished. I know most artists have their schtick but I think Prince's shows have become too polished and he needs to incorporate some of the spontaneity and looseness from his aftershow gigs to energise things IMO. Simply changing your setlist doesn't make much difference - I wish he'd get some of the Dirty Mind/Controversy tour energy back (he's not too old to do this!)

Are there any routine things that Prince does in concert that seem contrived, overly rehearsed or just plain annoying to you? For starters, he needs to stop Shelby waving that flag during PR!!!

There were tons of things that started to seem contrived at The Forum shows...

"I'm in rehab" - when he starts playing Darling Nikki

"Who wrote this song" - when he goes into Cool

Even pulling people up on stage at the end got tired.

And I agree with you about the PR flag.

What was on that flag anyways?

damn, sooo sick of haters. give the guy a break, if u dont like it, dont go. simple as that. and if ur getting sooo damn annoyed stop listening to him for awhile, then maybe u wont get so damn irritated

I haven't seen any of his recent performances. So I honestly do not have an opinion to offer but oh my!

bigbrother said:

Watching some footage from the recent LA gigs, I felt fairly bored with his performances for the first time ever. I'm not knocking the guy's tremendous skills and charisma but he seems to have got stuck in a rut where he is just going through the motions (literally). The same facial expressions and lines ('Can I play my guitar?') appear at the same time in the same songs and it all seems so perfunctory and polished. I know most artists have their schtick but I think Prince's shows have become too polished and he needs to incorporate some of the spontaneity and looseness from his aftershow gigs to energise things IMO. Simply changing your setlist doesn't make much difference - I wish he'd get some of the Dirty Mind/Controversy tour energy back (he's not too old to do this!)

Are there any routine things that Prince does in concert that seem contrived, overly rehearsed or just plain annoying to you? For starters, he needs to stop Shelby waving that flag during PR!!!

I wonder if its just a combination of him doing it so many times and his 'nature'. It doesnt help that ive seen him 3 times since 2002 and its been pretty much the same show every time (the middle(one was actually the worst Prince gig Ive ever been to and I left feeling disappointed with the sinking feeloing that his live shows had gone teh way of his recording output...up his own velvet clad botty )

Lets give him the benefit of the doubt - Perhaps its like handwriting...its ingrained into him as his style so he can try to deviate away from the 'norm' flourishes but its always a different version of the same thing....I know precisely what you mean though, I can sing along to gigs Ive never heard and know exactly what song is coming next, what 'improvised' segues are coming up, and what ad-libbed shouts hes going to give. Or, worse still, you'll get whole bits 'cut & pasted' from various eras with a suspicion that nobody will notice.

Maybe its like the old theory that, there are only so many keys on piano, eventually we will get all teh combinations - maybe Prince has run out of ways to join together the songs that he plays.

Its changed over the years purely because he doesnt tour albums anymore - just greatest hits shows. Lovesexy show had lovesexy song, lovesexy segues and was played in the lovesexy years, same with Diamonds and Pearls, Act 1 & 2....theres only so many ways you can play the hits and you can almost put your house on U've got the Look merging into Kiss etc.

Nice to see a few long forgotten 'hits' like the beautiful ones being d usted off..... The guy cliams hes got 'too many hits' but, since 1991 Ive only once seen him playThe Beautiful Ones, Little Red Corvette once , Cream once, never ICTTPOYM,never when Doves Cry .

"Too many hits, so little variation"

[Edited 6/11/11 23:38pm]

Y'all can't just realize the guy is starting to rest on his laurels, can you?

Timmy84 said:

Y'all can't just realize the guy is starting to rest on his laurels, can you?

Starting to?

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

Timmy84 said:

Y'all can't just realize the guy is starting to rest on his laurels, can you?

Starting to?

I'm talking to the fams.

I saw 2 shows - back to back - on this recent tour and have to say whilst there were certain "stock standard" deliveries he gave in songs and moments when it felt like a stage routine I cut him some slack. After all you have to think of each show as a first for some people - so the schtick isn't schtick to them just funny off the cuff remarks.

Either way the shows I saw were very entertaining, especially one that went for 3 hours.

TheKid94 said:

damn, sooo sick of haters. give the guy a break, if u dont like it, dont go. simple as that. and if ur getting sooo damn annoyed stop listening to him for awhile, then maybe u wont get so damn irritated

you took the words right outta my mouth...

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

I haven't seen any of his recent performances. So I honestly do not have an opinion to offer but oh my!

WHy is that video here? It is so lame - like this group. THey showed the world how lame they were at the Super Bowl. Ridiculous that they are even famous. That is why - though I agree with some of the criticisms here, I thank God for Prince and his real music every day. If he were gone tomorrow, the void and the sucking chasm of nothingness that would be left behind would make the pop music world simply implode upon itself and mutate into some post-apocalyptic brain numbing sewer...though I fear it already is.

This is true of most musicians who perform live. And they all use the same schtick; Prince's live schtick was old when it was being done by the people he appropriated it from. But most people don't go to enough concerts to notice, and even fewer people sit around watching bootleg live videos from the same tour.

freedomrider said:

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

I haven't seen any of his recent performances. So I honestly do not have an opinion to offer but oh my!

WHy is that video here? It is so lame - like this group. THey showed the world how lame they were at the Super Bowl. Ridiculous that they are even famous. That is why - though I agree with some of the criticisms here, I thank God for Prince and his real music every day. If he were gone tomorrow, the void and the sucking chasm of nothingness that would be left behind would make the pop music world simply implode upon itself and mutate into some post-apocalyptic brain numbing sewer...though I fear it already is.

Because I've been on the Org for a mighty long time and when someone posts a thread critizing Prince's "schtick", it's usually the indicator of some "good good nights" on here.

As for the pop music world imploding upon itself and mutating into some post-apocalyptic brain numbing sewer. You're correct...it already has...even with Prince being very much in it.

This seems like a weird thing to criticize. It's a show. Some things repeat. People who go to every show--or people who download every show--will probably notice many things appearing over again that many other concert attendees won't.

This is hardly new either. If you've heard one Lovesexy show, you've pretty much heard every single Lovesexy show.

And really--the flag Shelby waves is bothersome? Why? And why not just look somewhere else if you don't like it?

there's joy in repetition

Efan said:

This is hardly new either. If you've heard one Lovesexy show, you've pretty much heard every single Lovesexy show.

Exactly. Everything you see it a part of the show, and you should expect it to be. This is why you don't go to 8 shows on the same tour, and later complain that it was mostly the same thing. That's what you get for going to 8 shows.

802 said:

Efan said:

This is hardly new either. If you've heard one Lovesexy show, you've pretty much heard every single Lovesexy show.

Exactly. Everything you see it a part of the show, and you should expect it to be. This is why you don't go to 8 shows on the same tour, and later complain that it was mostly the same thing. That's what you get for going to 8 shows.

exactly, i went to the last 3 nights of the 21 night stand and it was my first time seeing him live. ive heard many of his live boots, and concerts and i dont understand why people complain about him saying certain things when interacting with the crowd. and changing up the setlist was a good way to keep things fresh.

802 said:

Efan said:

This is hardly new either. If you've heard one Lovesexy show, you've pretty much heard every single Lovesexy show.

Exactly. Everything you see it a part of the show, and you should expect it to be. This is why you don't go to 8 shows on the same tour, and later complain that it was mostly the same thing. That's what you get for going to 8 shows.

People trip me out. Maybe next time, go to one show. But if Prince had done eight different shows, they'd be mad about that because they didn't get to see 'em based off one ticket to see one of the shows.

Damn if you do, damn if you don't.

Timmy84 said:

802 said:

Exactly. Everything you see it a part of the show, and you should expect it to be. This is why you don't go to 8 shows on the same tour, and later complain that it was mostly the same thing. That's what you get for going to 8 shows.

People trip me out. Maybe next time, go to one show. But if Prince had done eight different shows, they'd be mad about that because they didn't get to see 'em based off one ticket to see one of the shows.

Damn if you do, damn if you don't.

Just can't let that slide! Because Prince...himself...has been more than happy to incorporate bragging on how much music, he has in his arsenal to shoot from! YET, when it comes right down to the dollars and cents...as much as he may not have wanted to.

He's simply had no other choice but to...resort back to his HITS! Time and time and time and time and time and time...again! There is NO denying that!

Carry on.

I don't give a fuck what Prince thinks about copyrights and shit, I know he's stingy on that shit but I ain't gonna pull a Riot Act on his ass just because of it.

Now we can carry on.

Timmy84 said:

I don't give a fuck what Prince thinks about copyrights and shit, I know he's stingy on that shit but I ain't gonna pull a Riot Act on his ass just because of it.

Now we can carry on.

Copyrights? It ain't a damn thing in this thread about copyrights!

See...

My Daddy told me SO! He let his daughter KNOW!