Militant said:

The arena shows are hits show. The February shows were not.

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I respectfully disagree.

He played hits that night, and he played hits during the February tour.

I the OP is asking about retiring the hits, these are not examples.

They are however examples of how a balanced set mixing it up works nicely.

While not an arena, Shephard's Bush Empire isn't a club show either.

treehouse said:

Militant said:

The arena shows are hits show. The February shows were not.

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I respectfully disagree.

He played hits that night, and he played hits during the February tour.

I the OP is asking about retiring the hits, these are not examples.

They are however examples of how a balanced set mixing it up works nicely.

While not an arena, Shephard's Bush Empire isn't a club show either.

To me, the phrase "hits show" means that the setlist consists mostly of hits. The setlists in February did not consist mostly of hits. The setlists this month did.

It's always an awkward one. The fans who cram in as many gigs as possible may find themselves thinking "oh, not Purple Rain again," but those who maybe manage to go once per tour or less often than that will be thinking "Great! Purple Rain!" I've been a fan for 30 years and have seen him maybe a dozen times (including three times on this tour and once in February) and I never tire of hearing him play the hits, because they're the songs that got me on board in the first place.

When people go to a gig the majority go to hear what they know and love, and for the majority of people who shell out on a concert that's the hits, not a B-side from 1982, or an album track from a recent flop, or a cover version by an act they've never heard of. Back when Prince did the "Ultimate Live Experience" tour I went twice and loved it, as that was the height of my "fandom", when I thought he could do almost nothing wrong, and I found the shows incredibly exciting as he was playing songs I'd not heard before, but around me people were sitting down and even walking out, simply because they were "casuals" (I *hate* that term) who didn't know the songs he was singing, and as they'd paid good money to see him live they wanted him to do stuff they knew. As a result of that tour Prince seemed to lose a lot of fans, and after that his "star" seemed to fall somewhat, the arenas becoming a thing of the past, perhaps because he suddenly seemed like a contrary so-and-so, writing "slave" on his face and playing obscure stuff nobody knew and which, with hindsight, was only patchily good.

If Prince toured small venues and promised to play no hits, the fanatical fans would be delighted and lap it up, but I doubt such a tour would be financially viable and so it would never happen. Look at any other act who has been around for years, and when they tour they tend to do a set which is maybe >=90% hits, <=10% new stuff, because that's what the majority of the audiences expect. If you want to hear the new or obscure stuff, listen to the records; if you want to see the performer, go to the show and listen to whatever it is that they want to play. The last few times I've seen Prince he's often said at the start of "Purple Rain" how much he loves the song - if he didn't love it, or any of the other hits, I very much doubt he'd play them.

Militant said:

To me, the phrase "hits show" means that the setlist consists mostly of hits.

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Not arguing with you over what a "hit show" means. I was responding to someone talking about February shows in general, first of all.

More importantly, the show you went to, you heard Purple Rain and WDC... and fans need that.

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Those shows do not support the idea that Prince is best when he doesn't play hits, or the idea that Prince is belittling, stiffling himself by doing so, and that he should play sets strictly of new material or catering to a different fanbase. Why? Because he did take a sizeable amount of time to play hits. He did play Let's go Crazy, She's Always in my Hair, I could never take the place, Guitar, Something in the Water, etc. Doesn't matter if you consider them hits shows, or not. You couldn't leave that night and say "He just played new songs, he didn't play hits".

Nasalhair said:

It's always an awkward one. The fans who cram in as many gigs as possible may find themselves thinking "oh, not Purple Rain again," but those who maybe manage to go once per tour or less often than that will be thinking "Great! Purple Rain!" I've been a fan for 30 years and have seen him maybe a dozen times (including three times on this tour and once in February) and I never tire of hearing him play the hits, because they're the songs that got me on board in the first place.

When people go to a gig the majority go to hear what they know and love, and for the majority of people who shell out on a concert that's the hits, not a B-side from 1982, or an album track from a recent flop, or a cover version by an act they've never heard of. Back when Prince did the "Ultimate Live Experience" tour I went twice and loved it, as that was the height of my "fandom", when I thought he could do almost nothing wrong, and I found the shows incredibly exciting as he was playing songs I'd not heard before, but around me people were sitting down and even walking out, simply because they were "casuals" (I *hate* that term) who didn't know the songs he was singing, and as they'd paid good money to see him live they wanted him to do stuff they knew. As a result of that tour Prince seemed to lose a lot of fans, and after that his "star" seemed to fall somewhat, the arenas becoming a thing of the past, perhaps because he suddenly seemed like a contrary so-and-so, writing "slave" on his face and playing obscure stuff nobody knew and which, with hindsight, was only patchily good.

If Prince toured small venues and promised to play no hits, the fanatical fans would be delighted and lap it up, but I doubt such a tour would be financially viable and so it would never happen. Look at any other act who has been around for years, and when they tour they tend to do a set which is maybe >=90% hits, <=10% new stuff, because that's what the majority of the audiences expect. If you want to hear the new or obscure stuff, listen to the records; if you want to see the performer, go to the show and listen to whatever it is that they want to play. The last few times I've seen Prince he's often said at the start of "Purple Rain" how much he loves the song - if he didn't love it, or any of the other hits, I very much doubt he'd play them.

Last years Live out Loud tour was US west coast small venue (with a few hits, mostly new, and obscure songs that a casual fan wouldn't know) and it was awesome.

Nasalhair said:

It's always an awkward one. The fans who cram in as many gigs as possible may find themselves thinking "oh, not Purple Rain again," but those who maybe manage to go once per tour or less often than that will be thinking "Great! Purple Rain!" I've been a fan for 30 years and have seen him maybe a dozen times (including three times on this tour and once in February) and I never tire of hearing him play the hits, because they're the songs that got me on board in the first place.

When people go to a gig the majority go to hear what they know and love, and for the majority of people who shell out on a concert that's the hits, not a B-side from 1982, or an album track from a recent flop, or a cover version by an act they've never heard of. Back when Prince did the "Ultimate Live Experience" tour I went twice and loved it, as that was the height of my "fandom", when I thought he could do almost nothing wrong, and I found the shows incredibly exciting as he was playing songs I'd not heard before, but around me people were sitting down and even walking out, simply because they were "casuals" (I *hate* that term) who didn't know the songs he was singing, and as they'd paid good money to see him live they wanted him to do stuff they knew. As a result of that tour Prince seemed to lose a lot of fans, and after that his "star" seemed to fall somewhat, the arenas becoming a thing of the past, perhaps because he suddenly seemed like a contrary so-and-so, writing "slave" on his face and playing obscure stuff nobody knew and which, with hindsight, was only patchily good.

If Prince toured small venues and promised to play no hits, the fanatical fans would be delighted and lap it up, but I doubt such a tour would be financially viable and so it would never happen. Look at any other act who has been around for years, and when they tour they tend to do a set which is maybe >=90% hits, <=10% new stuff, because that's what the majority of the audiences expect. If you want to hear the new or obscure stuff, listen to the records; if you want to see the performer, go to the show and listen to whatever it is that they want to play. The last few times I've seen Prince he's often said at the start of "Purple Rain" how much he loves the song - if he didn't love it, or any of the other hits, I very much doubt he'd play them.

Agree.

I'm glad Prince does play in small venues and plays his obscure stuf.


BTW, - Casuals???