I have a new favorite "problem".

One of things about downloading entire label collections in one sitting or collecting TBs of digital files on a hard drive, as opposed to buying or trading one or two bootlegs at a time, is that instead of absorbing each one on it's own terms, one at a time, lots get lost in the shuffle, filed away, unheard. If there's a new outtake collection or a soundboard recording, a copy gets loaded into iTunes immediately and I make sure to listen them, sometimes often. But, for the hundreds and hundreds of audience recordings, not so much.

Every once in awhile I go through the files and look for a "new" bootleg to listen to, but not often enough. This past few days I've made a point of using resources like http://www.princevault.co...=Main_Page, http://4th3funk.com/ & http://prn-archive.net/ to help me pick some shows from various tours, and giving some I've never heard (and 1 or 2 I haven't heard in years) a spin.

To think, I have enough bootlegs on the hard drive to do this a few times a week for years (decades?).

I thought it would be fun to start a thread to share what I listen to, my thoughts on them and my highlights picks for each one.

Hopefully others will join in.

EDIT: All the normal rules apply no asking for or sharing links.... discussion only, please.

[Edited 8/6/17 18:36pm]

Today I listened to EYE Records' Greenwich Mean Time. I don't know how I slept on this one. It's a huge 5CD collection of shows & aftershows from the 21 Nights In London shows. Sourced from audience recordings of various shows, the quality likewise varies, mostly between VG+ & EX.

The first disc contains a complete main show, 2007-08-24. The quality is VG. The highlights for me are the goofy "The Rules" segment of Satisfied and the Piano Medley.

Disc 2 is a compilation of tracks from various main shows, 2007-08-17, 2007-08-25 & 2007-08-28 and the first couple tracks from the aftershow 2007-08-25 am (which continues on disc 3). The quality varies between VG-EX and the highlights for me are a cover of The Beatles "Long And Winding Road" (I didn't love it, just found it extremely interesting), again the Piano Medley & Black Sweat from 08-25, and the Piano Medley from 08-28 (can you tell I dig the Piano Medleys?).

Disc 3 continues with the rest of the complete aftershow from 2007-08-25 am. The quality is EX and the highlights for me were "Baby Love", "Peach", "Controversy", "Let's Work" & "Sexy Dancer". Common is a guest performer at this show and although I like him well enough I did not like his contribution to this show.

Disc 4 contains another complete aftershow, this one from 2007-08-26 am, featuring the NPG without Prince. The quality is EX and the highlights for me were "Uptown Up" & "Baby Love".

Disc 5 is fantastic! Another complete aftershow, 2007-08-29 am, EX quality, and the whole show is one big highlight for this collection. This one is a very guitar heavy show and sounds great. This whole disc is going into regular rotation in my iTunes.

Again, I don't know how I slept on this one. Great bootleg, highly recommended.

http://4th3funk.com/bootl...mean-time/

Next up, One Nite Alone In Chicago from Sabotage.

[Edited 8/6/17 20:44pm]

that great show from disc 5 is also on Sabotage's "Indigo Chronicles - Chapter 3" and a boot called "Prince, Josh & Cora At Club 3121". I don't know which label, the catalogue number is "FT01". I think it sounds better than on Sabotage's release.

Freek99999 said:

that great show from disc 5 is also on Sabotage's "Indigo Chronicles - Chapter 3" and a boot called "Prince, Josh & Cora At Club 3121". I don't know which label, the catalogue number is "FT01". I think it sounds better than on Sabotage's release.

Thanks for the tip. I'll have to do some comparisons.

I listened to 4DaFunk's 27V2 the other day. This is 4DF's second release of Prince's 27th birthday show (the first version being "Mutiny At The Prom") but 27V2 is sourced from a lower generation recording.

It's not a perfect but it's far better sound quality than "Mutiny ..."

Unique one off gig, unique set list, band on fire (inc Sheila E) and great artwork too. I just checked P-Vault and it was also the live debut of Love Bizarre, Mutiny, ....Snows in April and is only known performance of Holly Rock.

Great release.

great suggestion, "27 v2". for anyone going to listen to this also, the sound quality improves a lot after the first 2 minutes in the opening song "A Love Bizarre".

djThunderfunk said:

Today I listened to EYE Records' Greenwich Mean Time. I don't know how I slept on this one. It's a huge 5CD collection of shows & aftershows from the 21 Nights In London shows. Sourced from audience recordings of various shows, the quality likewise varies, mostly between VG+ & EX.

The first disc contains a complete main show, 2007-08-24. The quality is VG. The highlights for me are the goofy "The Rules" segment of Satisfied and the Piano Medley.

Disc 2 is a compilation of tracks from various main shows, 2007-08-17, 2007-08-25 & 2007-08-28 and the first couple tracks from the aftershow 2007-08-25 am (which continues on disc 3). The quality varies between VG-EX and the highlights for me are a cover of The Beatles "Long And Winding Road" (I didn't love it, just found it extremely interesting), again the Piano Medley & Black Sweat from 08-25, and the Piano Medley from 08-28 (can you tell I dig the Piano Medleys?).

Disc 3 continues with the rest of the complete aftershow from 2007-08-25 am. The quality is EX and the highlights for me were "Baby Love", "Peach", "Controversy", "Let's Work" & "Sexy Dancer". Common is a guest performer at this show and although I like him well enough I did not like his contribution to this show.

Disc 4 contains another complete aftershow, this one from 2007-08-26 am, featuring the NPG without Prince. The quality is EX and the highlights for me were "Uptown Up" & "Baby Love".

Disc 5 is fantastic! Another complete aftershow, 2007-08-29 am, EX quality, and the whole show is one big highlight for this collection. This one is a very guitar heavy show and sounds great. This whole disc is going into regular rotation in my iTunes.

Again, I don't know how I slept on this one. Great bootleg, highly recommended.

http://4th3funk.com/bootl...mean-time/

Next up, One Nite Alone In Chicago from Sabotage.

[Edited 8/6/17 20:44pm]

Great review!

ONA Chicago is my go-to ONA show. I don't know what it is about it - the sounds is as good as many other audience recordings of this tour, but it just ended up being my favorite. When Prince calls out the ushers for "dropping the popcorn" because it was too funky in the house…very fun moment.

One of my favorite bootleg recordings is Club Black, March 16, 2004. A great quality audience recording and a nice Musicology-era setlist. Club Filmore February 14 2004 is another fav for the same reason. I do love audience recordings for some reason, especially when they're this good.

I'm going to choose another 4DaFunk release. It's "One Nite Alone in Louisville."

This is maybe not the best audience recording of the tour but it's still very good indeed.

This show was unique in respect that it was the only gig of the entire tour which didn't feature a horn section. It begins with a piano section too which was quite rare. It's quite odd not hearing the horns, but for various reasons including this one it's one of my favorites from the tour.

As indicated on the artwork 4DF put a lot of work into this recording to bring it to our ears.

Great quality release.

Doozer said:

djThunderfunk said:

Today I listened to EYE Records' Greenwich Mean Time. I don't know how I slept on this one. It's a huge 5CD collection of shows & aftershows from the 21 Nights In London shows. Sourced from audience recordings of various shows, the quality likewise varies, mostly between VG+ & EX.

The first disc contains a complete main show, 2007-08-24. The quality is VG. The highlights for me are the goofy "The Rules" segment of Satisfied and the Piano Medley.

Disc 2 is a compilation of tracks from various main shows, 2007-08-17, 2007-08-25 & 2007-08-28 and the first couple tracks from the aftershow 2007-08-25 am (which continues on disc 3). The quality varies between VG-EX and the highlights for me are a cover of The Beatles "Long And Winding Road" (I didn't love it, just found it extremely interesting), again the Piano Medley & Black Sweat from 08-25, and the Piano Medley from 08-28 (can you tell I dig the Piano Medleys?).

Disc 3 continues with the rest of the complete aftershow from 2007-08-25 am. The quality is EX and the highlights for me were "Baby Love", "Peach", "Controversy", "Let's Work" & "Sexy Dancer". Common is a guest performer at this show and although I like him well enough I did not like his contribution to this show.

Disc 4 contains another complete aftershow, this one from 2007-08-26 am, featuring the NPG without Prince. The quality is EX and the highlights for me were "Uptown Up" & "Baby Love".

Disc 5 is fantastic! Another complete aftershow, 2007-08-29 am, EX quality, and the whole show is one big highlight for this collection. This one is a very guitar heavy show and sounds great. This whole disc is going into regular rotation in my iTunes.

Again, I don't know how I slept on this one. Great bootleg, highly recommended.

http://4th3funk.com/bootl...mean-time/

Next up, One Nite Alone In Chicago from Sabotage.

[Edited 8/6/17 20:44pm]

Great review!

ONA Chicago is my go-to ONA show. I don't know what it is about it - the sounds is as good as many other audience recordings of this tour, but it just ended up being my favorite. When Prince calls out the ushers for "dropping the popcorn" because it was too funky in the house…very fun moment.

One of my favorite bootleg recordings is Club Black, March 16, 2004. A great quality audience recording and a nice Musicology-era setlist. Club Filmore February 14 2004 is another fav for the same reason. I do love audience recordings for some reason, especially when they're this good.

Club Black's a good one!

TheDigitalGardener said:

I'm going to choose another 4DaFunk release. It's "One Nite Alone in Louisville."

This is maybe not the best audience recording of the tour but it's still very good indeed.

This show was unique in respect that it was the only gig of the entire tour which didn't feature a horn section. It begins with a piano section too which was quite rare. It's quite odd not hearing the horns, but for various reasons including this one it's one of my favorites from the tour.

As indicated on the artwork 4DF put a lot of work into this recording to bring it to our ears.

Great quality release.

I was at that show! Of the 9 times I saw Prince, this was the best.

Last time I tried to listen to that boot, though, the quality of the recording just wasn't good enough to enjoy it. Maybe I'll try again sometime.

djThunderfunk said:

TheDigitalGardener said:

I'm going to choose another 4DaFunk release. It's "One Nite Alone in Louisville."

This is maybe not the best audience recording of the tour but it's still very good indeed.

This show was unique in respect that it was the only gig of the entire tour which didn't feature a horn section. It begins with a piano section too which was quite rare. It's quite odd not hearing the horns, but for various reasons including this one it's one of my favorites from the tour.

As indicated on the artwork 4DF put a lot of work into this recording to bring it to our ears.

Great quality release.

I was at that show! Of the 9 times I saw Prince, this was the best.

Last time I tried to listen to that boot, though, the quality of the recording just wasn't good enough to enjoy it. Maybe I'll try again sometime.

i was there, too! the best of my ten shows, for sure! that theater couldn't have been tailored to suit that tour any better.

i've listened to the boot a couple of times. i do wish it was better sound quality, but there is something special about reliving a show you were at.

Freek99999 said:

that great show from disc 5 is also on Sabotage's "Indigo Chronicles - Chapter 3" and a boot called "Prince, Josh & Cora At Club 3121". I don't know which label, the catalogue number is "FT01". I think it sounds better than on Sabotage's release.

that's definitely in my top 10 favorite boots.

djThunderfunk said:

TheDigitalGardener said:

I'm going to choose another 4DaFunk release. It's "One Nite Alone in Louisville."

This is maybe not the best audience recording of the tour but it's still very good indeed.

This show was unique in respect that it was the only gig of the entire tour which didn't feature a horn section. It begins with a piano section too which was quite rare. It's quite odd not hearing the horns, but for various reasons including this one it's one of my favorites from the tour.

As indicated on the artwork 4DF put a lot of work into this recording to bring it to our ears.

Great quality release.

I was at that show! Of the 9 times I saw Prince, this was the best.

That's cool. Do you have any idea why there were no horns that night?

ONA was the last time I attended a Prince show, great tour.

Yeah, give the show another try, it's probably not as bad as you remember.

Have you ever heard the 1994 concert at the Bataclan? Guess that name has a pretty tragic association now sadly but at the time I first listened to it I associated it more with the Velvet Underground, whom I was a massive fan of (Lou Reed, Nico, and John Cale had done a concert there in 1972.) Anyway, I think the setlist is fairly standard for 1994 but what I love about the show is how incredibly into it the French crowd seem, it's really fantastic to be transported in a little time capsule back to an amazing show where the crowd is singing along to every word, even for the songs that haven't been released yet. It's an audience recording from 4DaFunk, but it sounds great, in fact that probably adds to the atmosphere.

My favorites:

- Inglewood Forum 2/23/1985 (a fairly early PR tour show. The existing recordings don't do it justice, but what a show: a very rare version of "Controversy" for that time to open, "A Case of U," and The Boss and Madonna in the encores stand out for me.)

- Atlanta 1988 [both nights] (excellent audience tapes from the Lovesexy tour, both nights are must-haves.)

- Nagoya 1989 (I don't think I need to say much here, Prince was on fire this evening. Perfect sound as well.)

- This is the New Romance (Chicago 1993) (my favorite Love Symbol show; everything felt fresh, the set is full of energy, some great performances throughout. I love "When U Were Mine" from this tour.)

- Rock in Germany 8/27/1993 (I know this tour has its haters and as a whole I do prefer the earlier leg. But the sound here is phenomenal, there are standout performances ("The Beautiful Ones," "The Cross," and "Girls and Boys" stand out for me) and it's just a fun show.

- Fukuoka 11/26/2002 (I like this show a lot; loose, fun, and it kind of catches Prince in between his One Nite Only phase and his big comeback in 2004. I also like the rearranged, more organic take on "Sign O' the Times" from this show.)

- Los Angeles 2004 (Nothing much to say here. Perfect sound. Great energy. A palpable sense that something huge is going down. I love this show. Love it, love it, love it.)

- Coachella 2008 (this show is a microcosm of everything that makes Prince great: searing guitar playing ("Anotherloverholenyohead," "Creep"), dazzling showmanship, representation of the talent he was responsible for behind the scenes (the Time / Sheila opening double shot), ferocious vocals (again, "Creep"), and even a few well chosen covers (again, "Creep" and "Come Together". This show took my love for Prince to the next level. It's equal parts Prince the musical genius and Prince the entertainer.)

- Welcome 2 New York 2/23/2011 [Madison Square Garden] (just a really fun W2A show; probably my fave outside of the L.A. shows)

- L.A. Forum Opening Night 4/14/2011 (My favorite Prince bootleg of all time. This show is an absolute blast from start to finish: Prince and the NPG are tight and razor sharp, but at the same time loose and ready to party. "Cool" is a blast. "A Love Bizarre" is my single favorite Prince live performance ever. I've never heard a wilder version of "Peach." A perfect show.

- Live Out Loud compilation from Eye Records (this was the last tour aside from P&AM where I felt Prince had something to prove. Precious few individual shows can be found, so this 12 (!) disc comp is the perfect download. Highlights include "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad" and a reggae-fied "Joy in Repetition."

2nigunsited4westrotterdam by Global Funkschool from 2002. Now by no means soundboard but a really decent enough audience recording. Sounds raw and ready with lots of energy and a great tracklist. Hands down my favourite Prince Version of 'Whole Lotta Love' and a wonderful version of 'Beautiful Strange'. Pretty guitar heavy in places. Would recommend listening to in isolation from anything else. Anyway, Tracklist...

1.Intro

2. Instrumental Improvisation

3. Whole Lotta Love

4. Family Name

5. When U Were Mine

6. Bambi

7. The Question Of U

8. The One

9. Take 5

10. John Blackwell Drum Solo

----------------

1. I Know You Got Soul

2. Nighttown Jam/1+1+1=3

3. Funky Stuff/Bustin' Loose

4. Alphabet Street

5. 2NigsUnited4WestRotterdam

6. Dolphin

7. Calhoun Square

8. Beautiful Strange

[Edited 8/8/17 16:14pm]

Marrk said:

2nigunsited4westrotterdam by Global Funkschool from 2002. Now by no means soundboard but a really decent enough audience recording. Sounds raw and ready with lots of energy and a great tracklist. Hands down my favourite Prince Version of 'Whole Lotta Love' and a wonderful version of 'Beautiful Strange'. Pretty guitar heavy in places. Would recommend listening to in isolation from anything else. Anyway, Tracklist...

1.Intro

2. Instrumental Improvisation

3. Whole Lotta Love

4. Family Name

5. When U Were Mine

6. Bambi

7. The Question Of U

8. The One

9. Take 5

10. John Blackwell Drum Solo

----------------

1. I Know You Got Soul

2. Nighttown Jam/1+1+1=3

3. Funky Stuff/Bustin' Loose

4. Alphabet Street

5. 2NigsUnited4WestRotterdam

6. Dolphin

7. Calhoun Square

8. Beautiful Strange

[Edited 8/8/17 16:14pm]

Very interesting track list. Beaurtiful Strange could be so great in concert.

TheDigitalGardener said:

djThunderfunk said:

I was at that show! Of the 9 times I saw Prince, this was the best.

That's cool. Do you have any idea why there were no horns that night?

ONA was the last time I attended a Prince show, great tour.

Yeah, give the show another try, it's probably not as bad as you remember.

IIRC, it was something to do with travel issues? Not sure.

One Nite Alone In Boston, 2002-03-03, SAB189-190:

Excellent AUD recording. I think I listened to this one before, a long time ago. Very great show.

The highlights for me: Xenophobia, Love Rollercoaster/The Other Side Of The Pillow/Strange Relationship, Piano Medley & Anna Stesia

But really, the whole show is top shelf. Highly recommended.

I might pick a "Celebration" show next. It's been a long time since I gave any of those a spin. Any recommendations for a particular show in this set?

djThunderfunk said:

One Nite Alone In Boston, 2002-03-03, SAB189-190:

Excellent AUD recording. I think I listened to this one before, a long time ago. Very great show.


I might pick a "Celebration" show next. It's been a long time since I gave any of those a spin. Any recommendations for a particular show in this set?

Sab released great ONA recordings. I don't think there is a bad one.

Do you mean the Xenophobia celebration? Another wonderful two volume set from Sab. Apart from the fairly standard ONA night, the set lists for subsequent nights were amazing, always interesting. Sheila's set is great too. The acoustic set from this is a highlight, as is the rock set. The final show of the week was also special with Empty Room being played.

These are excellent releases and are in great quality.

Look out for T's remastered versions of the acoustic and rock set's too.

[Edited 8/9/17 10:01am]

Doozer said:

djThunderfunk said:

Today I listened to EYE Records' Greenwich Mean Time. I don't know how I slept on this one. It's a huge 5CD collection of shows & aftershows from the 21 Nights In London shows. Sourced from audience recordings of various shows, the quality likewise varies, mostly between VG+ & EX.

The first disc contains a complete main show, 2007-08-24. The quality is VG. The highlights for me are the goofy "The Rules" segment of Satisfied and the Piano Medley.

Disc 2 is a compilation of tracks from various main shows, 2007-08-17, 2007-08-25 & 2007-08-28 and the first couple tracks from the aftershow 2007-08-25 am (which continues on disc 3). The quality varies between VG-EX and the highlights for me are a cover of The Beatles "Long And Winding Road" (I didn't love it, just found it extremely interesting), again the Piano Medley & Black Sweat from 08-25, and the Piano Medley from 08-28 (can you tell I dig the Piano Medleys?).

Disc 3 continues with the rest of the complete aftershow from 2007-08-25 am. The quality is EX and the highlights for me were "Baby Love", "Peach", "Controversy", "Let's Work" & "Sexy Dancer". Common is a guest performer at this show and although I like him well enough I did not like his contribution to this show.

Disc 4 contains another complete aftershow, this one from 2007-08-26 am, featuring the NPG without Prince. The quality is EX and the highlights for me were "Uptown Up" & "Baby Love".

Disc 5 is fantastic! Another complete aftershow, 2007-08-29 am, EX quality, and the whole show is one big highlight for this collection. This one is a very guitar heavy show and sounds great. This whole disc is going into regular rotation in my iTunes.

Again, I don't know how I slept on this one. Great bootleg, highly recommended.

http://4th3funk.com/bootl...mean-time/

Next up, One Nite Alone In Chicago from Sabotage.

[Edited 8/6/17 20:44pm]

Great review!

ONA Chicago is my go-to ONA show. I don't know what it is about it - the sounds is as good as many other audience recordings of this tour, but it just ended up being my favorite. When Prince calls out the ushers for "dropping the popcorn" because it was too funky in the house…very fun moment.

One of my favorite bootleg recordings is Club Black, March 16, 2004. A great quality audience recording and a nice Musicology-era setlist. Club Filmore February 14 2004 is another fav for the same reason. I do love audience recordings for some reason, especially when they're this good.

That is by far my fave show...one I was AT that show...second, it was so damn funky!...that popcorn part is hilarious. Also "how'd you get that big ol behind in my Little Red Corvette"

The CD was stolen years back when I had a party at my old apartment. Really sucks...miss that one. I still ask people to this day who stole it.

RaspBerryGirlFriend said:

Have you ever heard the 1994 concert at the Bataclan? Guess that name has a pretty tragic association now sadly but at the time I first listened to it I associated it more with the Velvet Underground, whom I was a massive fan of (Lou Reed, Nico, and John Cale had done a concert there in 1972.) Anyway, I think the setlist is fairly standard for 1994 but what I love about the show is how incredibly into it the French crowd seem, it's really fantastic to be transported in a little time capsule back to an amazing show where the crowd is singing along to every word, even for the songs that haven't been released yet. It's an audience recording from 4DaFunk, but it sounds great, in fact that probably adds to the atmosphere.

Le Bataclan and Estandard from 1994 are legendary small club shows...

LOVE THE AUDIENCE RECORDING!!

[Edited 8/14/17 2:03am]

dodger said:

http://4th3funk.com/bootl...mynightcd/ DNA Lounge aftershow, 1993. I got this on CD from a market in 93/94 and it's still one of my favourite boots. The band including horns was on fire and P seemed in a great mood even though he sounded full of cold. . Highlights - Awesome version of the then unreleased Come, having the crowd chant C-O-M-E . Black MF In The House - you have to laugh at P getting the crowd to sing along . P on bass playing 777-9311 intro then Hair with Sonny on vocals. . The Sexy Dancer / Let's Get Satisfied jam

Sounds great. Thanks for the recommendation. There's just so much live stuff that it can be difficult to decide on what to listen to next. Can't wait to listen to this one once the download has completed.

.

Manchester Academy, Feb 2014

.

Exellent audience recording and extra special personally as I was there.

.

Small venue so had an aftershow feel and played a lot of new and rarish stuff.

.

Highlights - Something In The Water (this was put on Youtube)

.

When We're Dancing Close And Slow.

.

Great piano medley incl The Beautiful Ones

.

Final encore of Endorphinemachine, Bambi, Colonized Mind and Cause & Effect

[Edited 8/16/17 5:38am]