Ever since his passing, I've become more and more fascinated by Prince as a performer, the way he structured his shows, his seemingly boundless energy, his interaction with the crowd and his bands, etc. Each tour seems to offer something different, whether it be a serious artistic statement or a loose party type of atmosphere.

I'm not sure if this has been discussed here before, but I thought I'd open up a discussion on Prince's most and least memorable tours.

My personal rankings:

1. Lovesexy - in terms of presentation, length, focus and energy, this is Prince at his peak, and in many ways I don't think he was ever as daring or intense onstage again. I love the early run of pre-Purple Rain tracks, the last time I feel he performed most of those songs with any real verve. The piano set, the Black Album tracks, the encores, everything was great this tour.

2. Dirty Mind - the tour where Prince seemed to fully evolve into his definitive image, pushing the envelope of sexual expression onstag, as well as fine tuning his signature live sound.

3. 1999 - I love this tour because it Prince in between the somewhat cult-ish following he had before 1999 but before the mega-stardom of Purple Rain seemed to somewhat pigeon hole him for a bit. He still has the mystique of his previous tours, and with the Revolution really falling into place, his live sound has been perfected.

4. Musicology - I feel like this is where Prince fully recovered from his somewhat disappointing 1990s' phase and really connected with what made him Prince again. I loved everything about this tour - the song selection, the pacing, the band, the acoutic set. The hits sounded vital again and Prince just seemed energized like he hadn't been in a long time. The opening night in L.A. is one of my three favorite Prince bootlegs.

5. Welcome 2 America - I just love this tour; I know some think it was corny, but Prince just seemed to be enjoying himself so much, especially during the L.A. tour. Certain songs - Controversy, The Beautiful Ones, Little Red Corvette - sounded better than they had in years, and the shows were long and often unpredictable at points (the hits medley aside).

Worst:

1. Hit N Run Tour 2000 - Dull. Lifeless. Rushed. I've listened to three shows from this tour and found each of them more boring than the next. The Purple Rain songs - that marching band piece at the beginning of Darling Nikki - were performed like he was waiting for a bus.

2. Welcome 2 Australia - As much as I love Welcome 2 America, I hate this tour. It was pretty clear that Prince had run the format into the ground, and the shows just seem completely devoid of energy and involvement.

3. Jam of the Year - I've seen lots of hate for this tour, and while I do enjoy certain shows (Mobile, for example) the shows just seem so poorly thought out and scattered. The electric piano set is almost cringe-worthy for me. The band had no character, and Prince didn't really play all that much guitar. One bright spot: this tour has the best versions I've heard of When Doves Cry.

5. Nude - Prince's first real 'greatest hits' tour, the first one where he didn't really play with a sense of purpose and just went through the motions. There are some consistently strong performances of songs throughout the tour and some good shows (Tokyo), but overall I often pass over this one.

Where is SOTT Tour?

214 said:

Where is SOTT Tour?

The tour that never came to the US.... His biggest mistake of his entire career...

Lovesexy was certainly his most ambitious and theatrical, and I love the inclusion of the Black Album tracks (Superfunkycalifragisexy particularly). Unfortunately, I was too young to experience these first hand, but from the recordings I’ve heard I’d struggle to choose between Lovesexy and SOTT. I also love the raw intensity of some of the early-mid 80s shows.

I’m I correct in thinking that the SOTT film was intended as a substitute to touring in the U.S? It may have been a mistake not to tour, but I’m glad that the film exists.

IamBryan said:

Best Tour: ONA Tour. The bootlegs from this tour blow me away. Unusual setlists pulling from his deeper catalogue (with a few favourites sprinkled in), with an even stronger focus on musicianship than usual. Prince absoultely slays on the guitar and keys, and its possibly the best configeration of his live band: John Blackwell on drums (!), Rhonda Smith on bass, and Renato Neto (I know others think different, but I love Renato's sound).

Worst: From what little I have seen of it, it is the Jam of the Year tour. The bootlegs bore me and I have no incentive to explore than further than I have.

.

That's a hard one. There are 4 on par tours imo, for different reasons.
PR tour: the mystique, the 'mega', those songs!

Parade Tour: the music - what songs and how they were played
SOTT: the decor, the grandeur
Lovesexy: the originality and cheer genius

Personally, perhaps SOTT is just a little tad below the other 3.

The 'Parade' is the one I would listen to mostly, but (cliché) the PR tour must be the winner - that was the only one which felt like 'once in a lifetime' - seeing the biggest one on the height of his popularity.

All what came after, I couldn't really care for.

PS wow this forum has an 'edit' button, i wonder why almost nobody uses it!

[Edited 4/11/17 3:34am]

[Edited 4/11/17 3:35am]

This is limited to the ones I have heard or seen, which means many of the less ballyhooed tours aren't included.

Best

1. Parade

2. Piano and Mic

3. TGE tour

4. Lovesexy/Purple Rain

5. One night alone

Worst

1. 20ten

sonshine said:

IamBryan said:

The tour that never came to the US.... His biggest mistake of his entire career...

I saw it in the U.S.

Ruperts.

Best: Musicology, Purple Rain, Lovesexy.

Worst: Nude, 3121

Best: Parade,

sro100 said:

Best: Musicology, Purple Rain, Lovesexy.

Worst: Nude, 3121

lol 3121? The residency? or 21 nights?

I just heard Prince parade tour in Tokyo and man combined with the other shows on the Tour this has to be top 5 with LoveSexy, Sign O' The times, Dirty Mind, ONA. Purple rain was also fantastic.

Musicology, 1999, Nude (minus outside concerts sometimes but La coruna and tokyo are awesome testiments), and Diamonds and Pearls were Good tours.

Jam of the year, Hit N Run 2000, LOL, were yuck.

Inconsisent tour has to be Welcome 2 tours Like madison sq garden and Chicago night 2 are supposed to be legendary possibly top 25 all time. but then other dates complete fell flat.

Honorable mention. Piano and Microphone very good stuff just different type of tour.

Never hear anyone talk about NPS , Act 1, Act 2, controversy tours

IamBryan said:

riocoolnes said:

Um. The Live Out Loud Tour. AWESOME. Should be on the list. Montreux 2009 is great too.(Not really a huge tour there though.)

I've seen some hate for them but I enjoy all the Act 1 and 2 shows I've heard. It was the last time for me that Prince felt close to his prime for me before the symbol period.

Live Out Loud was a very strong tour. The Ogden boot is one of my favorites.

Welcome 2 has some fantastic shows (MSG and several of the L.A. shows - 4/14 being my favorite) but the concept got tired after awhile. Australia was lame and utterly lifeless. I wish there were quality recordings of the Chicago shows, those seemed like a step up.

Top 3 for me no doubt are Parade, SOTT, and ONA.

His worst imo - NPS, Hit n RUn 2001, D&P

Overrated - Lovesexy

Underrated - Controversy, Nude

If you've only listened to shows from a tour, then it's very difficult to make a judgement - you're missing half of the show. And if you've watched it on a screen, you may have a much better idea, but it's still difficult to feel the energy that was there in the moment.

Saying that, it's still a valid exercise....

(excluding aftershows).

Best:

Lovesexy

Sign O the Times

Parade/Hit N Run

One Nite Alone (attended)

3rdEyeGirl/HitnRun I (attended)

Least good (this is tough):

Nude

Jam of the Year

Hit n Run 2000 wasn't his strongest, but at the time I would have said it was the best show I'd ever been to by anyone, period.

Have yet to watch a Piano & a Microphone show.

ufoclub said:

The Nude Tour had some of his best dancing.

I just never cared for the dancing... even though he had Jerome Wally Gregory / Cat Wally Gregory, the dancing was a lot different, not as focused on the dancing as much as it being visual cherography.

The Nude tour dancing was another sign of him 'following trends' to me, a lot of the dances were stuff people were already doing. It was too obvious to me.

I love his 1999 moves, or the moves that were like someone in their room dancing to music and then doing the dances at the club on the weekened.

the best thing about this Prince fan forum is the distinct lack of taste in it's members.

You like all the stuff I hate.

mothyham said:

the best thing about this Prince fan forum is the distinct lack of taste in it's members.

You like all the stuff I hate.

Hard to believe that someone would hate the Parade, PR, SOTT, Lovesexy, and Musicology tours, which are the ones most frequently mentioned here. So which ones do you prefer?

OldFriends4Sale said:

ufoclub said:

The Nude Tour had some of his best dancing.

I just never cared for the dancing... even though he had Jerome Wally Gregory / Cat Wally Gregory, the dancing was a lot different, not as focused on the dancing as much as it being visual cherography.

The Nude tour dancing was another sign of him 'following trends' to me, a lot of the dances were stuff people were already doing. It was too obvious to me.

I love his 1999 moves, or the moves that were like someone in their room dancing to music and then doing the dances at the club on the weekened.

Pre-Parade era, his dancing style in concert never appealed to me. It was too much like someone in their room dancing and then going to the club and dancing... which was regular people. I was impressed by the superhuman, the too quick to be real, or the stylistically cool and bizarre. The SOTT movie really illustrated his potential to me with things like Housequake and Hot Thing being completely different styles of movement that no one was doing at any local scene where I was.

By the time of the Nude tour and even beyond like Rock in Rio... Prince was moving like a funk superhero to me. Even the Tick Tick Bang stuff in the movie was great and bizarre.

Since everyone seems to hate the Jam of the Year tour, I'll defend it: It was a good tour, at a good time. Prince was finally over his often pointless fixation with hip-hop, and he'd yet to start jazz-ifying everything in his catalogue. He was still cursing like a motherfucker, and jumping from his piano to the splits without any apparent effort -- both would end soon enough. Larry Graham wasn't around. It wasn't an intimate tour, but Prince made it feel that way. He was drawing from his hits (without turning them into samples), and Emancipation (which still felt fresh), and Newpower Soul (another underrated fan un-favorite). The band weren't flashy, but they seemed to do exactly what Prince wanted and needed.

I wonder if the reason people like to slam on JOTY is that, at the time, everyone was pissed at Prince about their Crystal Ball orders. I get that it wasn't all-the-time, white-hot Prince-at-his-best, but there was nothing out of place on this tour.

I see the Nude Tour frequently indicated here on the org as one of the worst of P career.

To my direct experience (I was in Nice 1990) the only reason I can try to understand that judgement is that it came after the stellar Lovesexy Tour.

It was funky, it was funny, it was trendy (yes it was, but in the nice meaning of the term) and it was simply well played with a nice band.
Obviously the Lovesexy Tour was more original and special, but it isn't a fault of the Nude Tour.

ufoclub said:

Pre-Parade era, his dancing style in concert never appealed to me. It was too much like someone in their room dancing and then going to the club and dancing... which was regular people. I was impressed by the superhuman, the too quick to be real, or the stylistically cool and bizarre. The SOTT movie really illustrated his potential to me with things like Housequake and Hot Thing being completely different styles of movement that no one was doing at any local scene where I was.

By the time of the Nude tour and even beyond like Rock in Rio... Prince was moving like a funk superhero to me. Even the Tick Tick Bang stuff in the movie was great and bizarre.

If you know of a club where regular people dance like Syracuse's "Irresistible Bitch/Possessed" and "Baby I'm a Star", give me the address, quick!