For some reason, I've never heard this show before. It's on the YT. It's just fucking amazing. He says this isn't a concert, it's a dance. He really approaches it that way, too. They feel like a jam band at a party, not a proper concert.

He starts with "Bambi," but Bobby is playing double time which gives it that rockabilly "Jack U Off" or "Delirious" feel. He goes ham on the guitar soloing. Then he gets into "All the Critics" and just jams on it for a while. It's different, amazing, unique. Then "When You Were Mine" gets broken down into just him on guitar and the audience clapping.

It's also noted as a new song, since 1999 wasn't released until October that year. He says the album may not be out until "next year." That sort of threw up a flag to me, in that maybe he was already feeling hesitation from WB even more about the frequence of albums, etc.

SorrynotSorry if I'm late to this dance, but I'm glad I found it.

For those that have heard it, thoughts?

Tracklist:

Bambi

All The Critics Love U In New York

When You Were Mine

Sexy Dancer

Still Waiting

Head

Sexuality

Dance 2 The Beat

The Stick

Partyup

runtime: 82 minutes

The "Critics" from this show is one of the most stunning performances of his career, in my opinion!

Rest of the show is obviously great as well. I think the one thing that could be better is Head. On paper it seems like a recipe for a legendary performance (early 80s, first ave, etc) but I think it comes off slightly flat here.

It's definitely one my all-time favorite Prince shows. It tends to get overshadowed by other legendary First Avenue shows. I particularly love the 'alternate' versions that he plays. The performance of 'All The Critics Love U In New York' is amazing, easily my favorite version of the song. Those guitar parts after he says "Three!"...nothing better than that. The 'When You Were Mine' pefromance is also outstanding. Changing the guitar and vocals really gives the song a different feel. Prince had an excellent ability of creating 'alternate' versions of his songs even at this point of his career.

Been listening to this for the last few weeks. P and Dez are raising hell on their guitars on "Bambi" and "Critics". Incredible show.

Great show indeed! I love it mainly 4 "Still Waiting".

Yep, it absolutely rules.

If anyone from the Estate has any sense then a "Complete First Avenue shows" boxset should be high up on the agenda when it comes to live releases. It's like an alternate history of him through the 80s.

[Edited 7/23/20 3:23am]

This is the one with that punk hardrock Bambi version right? The version he did on the Rolling Stones opening act.
This show is awesome, good you found it

My favorite live version song ever > ATCLUINY......So punk & New Wave....what a fucking performance.......the Pro-shot (1 or 2 camera Video like 1st av83 )is rumoured to be in circulation among big collectors !!

jaawwnn said:

Yep, it absolutely rules.

If anyone from the Estate has any sense then a "Complete First Avenue shows" boxset should be high up on the agenda when it comes to live releases. It's like an alternate history of him through the 80s.

At one point, I predicted Piano and a Microphone was a test for a future series. Not sure if that is a thing.

But a series of First Avenue or small club type shows would be excellent. Pepper them in with the vault stuff coming out, if there's video then include that. Audio & DVD. Most times it'd be a good 2-disk set, maybe 3 at most. Price point would be good for the estate & fans. There's a good sized short list of things to start with:

Paris, Minneapolis, or New York 1981

First Ave 1982

First Ave 1983

Birthday 1984

First Ave 1984 (August)

Parade Pre-show 1985

Sheridan 1986

Valium 1987

Small Club 1988

I have a much-poorer quality version of this on a CD bootleg somewhere, I think it's called Live in the USA 1982 or something like that. In any case, hearing this in so much better quality is awesome!

"All the Critics" is jaw-dropping. One of my favorite Prince songs in any case, and to hear it being worked through like this is wonderful.

TrivialPursuit said:

jaawwnn said:

Yep, it absolutely rules.

If anyone from the Estate has any sense then a "Complete First Avenue shows" boxset should be high up on the agenda when it comes to live releases. It's like an alternate history of him through the 80s.

At one point, I predicted Piano and a Microphone was a test for a future series. Not sure if that is a thing.

But a series of First Avenue or small club type shows would be excellent. Pepper them in with the vault stuff coming out, if there's video then include that. Audio & DVD. Most times it'd be a good 2-disk set, maybe 3 at most. Price point would be good for the estate & fans. There's a good sized short list of things to start with:

Paris, Minneapolis, or New York 1981

First Ave 1982

First Ave 1983

Birthday 1984

First Ave 1984 (August)

Parade Pre-show 1985

Sheridan 1986

Valium 1987

Small Club 1988

First Ave 1984 (August), Sheridan 86 and FA 87 is not what i'm looking for, you can replace it without any debate with real aftershows like for example :

-Paris New Morning 86

-Paris New Morning 87

ah yes, that "all the critics love u in new york" peformance is nuts!

TrivialPursuit said:

jaawwnn said:

Yep, it absolutely rules.

If anyone from the Estate has any sense then a "Complete First Avenue shows" boxset should be high up on the agenda when it comes to live releases. It's like an alternate history of him through the 80s.

At one point, I predicted Piano and a Microphone was a test for a future series. Not sure if that is a thing.

But a series of First Avenue or small club type shows would be excellent. Pepper them in with the vault stuff coming out, if there's video then include that. Audio & DVD. Most times it'd be a good 2-disk set, maybe 3 at most. Price point would be good for the estate & fans. There's a good sized short list of things to start with:

Paris, Minneapolis, or New York 1981

First Ave 1982

First Ave 1983

Birthday 1984

First Ave 1984 (August)

Parade Pre-show 1985

Sheridan 1986

Valium 1987

Small Club 1988

With all respect, it amaze me these kind of wish lists hoping for an official release of material we already know or even own already. If the sound quality was particularly poor I'd understand the need of an upgrade, but most of the gigs listed above circulate in moderately nice to even top notch quality already. I'd much rather something that I've never heard or even figured out could exist in the vault.

psyche2 said:

With all respect, it amaze me these kind of wish lists hoping for an official release of material we already know or even own already. If the sound quality was particularly poor I'd understand the need of an upgrade, but most of the gigs listed above circulate in moderately nice to even top notch quality already. I'd much rather something that I've never heard or even figured out could exist in the vault.

To each his own. I think there could be better quality out there, or a better video than some stuff circulating. Maybe not. While the sound on First Avenue 1983 is good from the video, we know there's soundboard since at least 4 songs were recorded in an audio truck. That soundboard audio alone is worth the effort, to me.

To my knowledge, there's no leaked video of the 1982 show I mentioned, nor Small Club (and only 2 pics exist of it). We don't have a full Sheridan show (although it's just a standard Parade era show). Video of the 1984 Birthday show, audio/video of pre-Parade First Ave show... there's a lot of shit we own on some version of a bootleg. There's also plenty in my quick list (not meant to be a complete list) that we could get a serious glow-up with, really.

There is a version of this show circulating now that is a cleaned up and tweaked version of the sounboard and it sounds great

TrivialPursuit said:

psyche2 said:

With all respect, it amaze me these kind of wish lists hoping for an official release of material we already know or even own already. If the sound quality was particularly poor I'd understand the need of an upgrade, but most of the gigs listed above circulate in moderately nice to even top notch quality already. I'd much rather something that I've never heard or even figured out could exist in the vault.

To each his own. I think there could be better quality out there, or a better video than some stuff circulating. Maybe not. While the sound on First Avenue 1983 is good from the video, we know there's soundboard since at least 4 songs were recorded in an audio truck. That soundboard audio alone is worth the effort, to me.

To my knowledge, there's no leaked video of the 1982 show I mentioned, nor Small Club (and only 2 pics exist of it). We don't have a full Sheridan show (although it's just a standard Parade era show). Video of the 1984 Birthday show, audio/video of pre-Parade First Ave show... there's a lot of shit we own on some version of a bootleg. There's also plenty in my quick list (not meant to be a complete list) that we could get a serious glow-up with, really.

I've seen video footage of Prince performing Dance To The Beat with The Time, but maybe it was a different gig?. It was like the tiniest thumbnail of a screen resolution, but I remember seeing an exchange between Prince and Morris, as well as the performance of Dance To The Beat, with Prince dancing around on stage.

[Edited 7/24/20 20:48pm]

SchlomoThaHomo said:

psyche2 said:

TrivialPursuit said:

At one point, I predicted Piano and a Microphone was a test for a future series. Not sure if that is a thing.

But a series of First Avenue or small club type shows would be excellent. Pepper them in with the vault stuff coming out, if there's video then include that. Audio & DVD. Most times it'd be a good 2-disk set, maybe 3 at most. Price point would be good for the estate & fans. There's a good sized short list of things to start with:

Paris, Minneapolis, or New York 1981

First Ave 1982

First Ave 1983

Birthday 1984

First Ave 1984 (August)

Parade Pre-show 1985

Sheridan 1986

Valium 1987

Small Club 1988

With all respect, it amaze me these kind of wish lists hoping for an official release of material we already know or even own already. If the sound quality was particularly poor I'd understand the need of an upgrade, but most of the gigs listed above circulate in moderately nice to even top notch quality already. I'd much rather something that I've never heard or even figured out could exist in the vault.

I'm assuming upgrades exist for most of them, just based on Prince tending to record everything rather than any knowledge. I also just think i'd make a good package, could have a designed to look like the front of First Avenue perhaps. There'll always be more leaks and more unreleased tracks to come out, I want both not either/or. People can make their arguments about what is and is not "commercially viable" all they like, I have little interest.

I love how this show starts out

Bambi took on a hard rock direction