zobilamouche said:

Phase3 said:

GeurtWalraven said: I do Prince got better and better over time with each tour. Purple rain tour is great but he focused on too much theatrics...like talking to God,stopping songs just to get people to snap their fingers or talk dirty I prefer the welcome 2 america tour because Prince was more focused on his musicanship SOTT concert was really good as well

At this stage the Prince Live shows were "best off" shows with very little own personality while SOTT and PR were tied in with the look and feel of the albums. Welcome 2 america was pretty much the same as the 2007 London shows and the 20ten shows (aside from stage design). And indeed, though Shelby, Live and Elisa are great singers, they take too much of the spotlight.

You could say that his shows between 2007 and 2012 he was focussing too much on the hits. You basically heard the same songs year after year with largely the same band.

Except the Montreux 2009 shows where brilliant (some of his best ever and in his later years too). Live Out Loud tour was great as well. (Hits or no hits)

kewlschool said:

zobilamouche said:

At this stage the Prince Live shows were "best off" shows with very little own personality while SOTT and PR were tied in with the look and feel of the albums. Welcome 2 america was pretty much the same as the 2007 London shows and the 20ten shows (aside from stage design). And indeed, though Shelby, Live and Elisa are great singers, they take too much of the spotlight.

You could say that his shows between 2007 and 2012 he was focussing too much on the hits. You basically heard the same songs year after year with largely the same band.

Except the Montreux 2009 shows where brilliant (some of his best ever and in his later years too). Live Out Loud tour was great as well. (Hits or no hits)

Indeed, one of my all time favoricte concerts! It was so different in song choice and feel! But it was exceptionel.

FunkyStrange said:

So am I seriously the first one to mention the obvious distortion on P's vocal?

Apparently.

.

But it's all good (according to Susan Rogers).

FunkyStrange said:

So am I seriously the first one to mention the obvious distortion on P's vocal?

100% with you on this. I even extracted the channels from the 5.1 mix to listen more closely.

I don't think the Estate can really be blamed for this one - Prince's mic is too hot and as a result, his vocals are distorted. You can hear it on some of the soundboards from the Inglewood shows as well.

zobilamouche said:

tomds said:

master said:

tomds said:

If you look at the setlist of the blue ray and the tracklists of all the other concerts from the 21 nite stand, the released concert is the least attractive one. Don't know why they picked this one. I watched it but I skipped more than half of the songs. Too much covers and too much shelby.

Were there any other concerts from the tour that were professionally recorded?

I've been assuming they chose this show not necessarily for its set list, but because its one of the few professionally recorded and looks/sounds great, regardless of which songs were performed?

tomds said:

bluegangsta said:

FunkyStrange said:

So am I seriously the first one to mention the obvious distortion on P's vocal?

100% with you on this. I even extracted the channels from the 5.1 mix to listen more closely.

I don't think the Estate can really be blamed for this one - Prince's mic is too hot and as a result, his vocals are distorted. You can hear it on some of the soundboards from the Inglewood shows as well.

And... no one can un-distort a vocal once it has been recorded that way.

Cinny said:

bluegangsta said:

100% with you on this. I even extracted the channels from the 5.1 mix to listen more closely.

I don't think the Estate can really be blamed for this one - Prince's mic is too hot and as a result, his vocals are distorted. You can hear it on some of the soundboards from the Inglewood shows as well.

And... no one can un-distort a vocal once it has been recorded that way.

It's funny how Prince liked a bit of overdrive distortion on his vocals at times... even in the studio.

"Little Red Corvette" is the most famous studio offender, I think it's clear on the lyric "But it was Saturday night, I guess that makes it all right And you say, "What have I got to lose?"

FunkyStrange said:

seand67 said:

Too bad they Estate failed to include a CD version of the concert like they did with the previous Super Deluxe Editions.

.

They really are doing everything they can to make us think this live BluRay is extremely valuable. It's not available unless you shell out the BIG $$$ for the deluxe packages, even the cheapest way to get get it on the japanese version is around $80-90, so with the regular album coming in at say $15, they want us to believe the live concert is worth at least $65.. you cant watch it on youtube, you cant even hear the audio on streaming services, seems like they are trying to get it into our heads that Prince live concerts are very valuable, you can ONLY get it with the big $$$.. It is a PREMIUM product

.

so later on when they eventually get to releasing live shows, we're already conditioned to pay through the nose for them. that's what it seems like to me. Is there any other logical reason?

.

also taking into account the BluRay isn't perfect, the distortion on P's vocals is very disappointing. We know they are hopeless with their quality control, this just seems to be yet another misstep.

.

[Edited 8/2/21 23:18pm]

For one of the LEGENDARY Welcome 2 America shows, they should be charging $100 more.

tomds said:

ufoclub said:

Cinny said:

And... no one can un-distort a vocal once it has been recorded that way.

It's funny how Prince liked a bit of overdrive distortion on his vocals at times... even in the studio.

"Little Red Corvette" is the most famous studio offender, I think it's clear on the lyric "But it was Saturday night, I guess that makes it all right And you say, "What have I got to lose?"

Yep. He was the one who showed Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis to record in the red (for The Time's debut) and it turned out to be a nightmare for the personnel mixing Janet's Control.

highcalonic said:

TheEnglishGent said:

master said:

TheEnglishGent said:

For one of the LEGENDARY Welcome 2 America shows, they should be charging $100 more.

Yes. There should be a prince Legendary nights W2A series. These should b expensive & by law come with a LP . I think rest can b cheaper, as they not certified as legendary. The pinnacle of live music.

To be honest, if the sets don't also include 8 track tapes, I'm not buying them.

lurker316 said:

tomds said:

If you look at the setlist of the blue ray and the tracklists of all the other concerts from the 21 nite stand, the released concert is the least attractive one. Don't know why they picked this one. I watched it but I skipped more than half of the songs. Too much covers and too much shelby.

Were there any other concerts from the tour that were professionally recorded?

I've been assuming they chose this show not necessarily for its set list, but because its one of the few professionally recorded and looks/sounds great, regardless of which songs were performed?

Not sure if you just mean Forum shows, but there were other Welcome 2 shows recorded. There are probably more than this, but I'm certain of these.

Welcome 2 America - North Charleston, SC - March 30, 2011

Welcome 2 Australia - Brisbane, Australia - May 18,2012

Welcome 2 Chicago - Chicago, IL - September 25, 2012

TheEnglishGent said:

TheEnglishGent said:

tecstar said:

TheEnglishGent said:

Wasn't included in my CD version. I'm not spending £100+ for vinyl I'm never going to be able to use and all the other fluff in the set. Would have happily paid extra for a reasonably priced release in the UK of a CD+Blu-Ray set. I know about the Japanese release, it's way overpriced to import, not worth it.

Got mine in the UK from Amazon France - £70. Much more reasonable although an inexplicable price differential! [Edited 8/4/21 2:05am]

That's definitely much better still way too much for me to just have the Blu-Ray disc. Vinyl set is now at £99 on the UK store.

TheEnglishGent said:

why is prince so serious in these later years though? he sounds sooooo serious when hes speaking. all rigid and hectoring/preachy.

that aside, its a very good show, yes.

the concert is fun for the most part and likely relegated to the box set due to the less than perfect audio .. i still cant stend renato and letting him butcher joy in repetition for 15 minutes was a tough slog to open with .. shelby is ok thruoughout except when the p band turns into a karaoke machine for some american idol level of bland cover work .. i cant help but think prince is in the back popping more pills to get through the show as he was jumping around a bit much for a guy with hip issues .. i also wonder if his hip played into not wanting the guitar on his body much for the first part of the show .. not till later when the drugs kicked in did he finally strap on the guitar for a while and shut renato up from "jazz hand" ing up the prince songs .. start the show around 17 days and skip the covers where prince isnt even on stage and you have a pretty good show .. nothing great but fun .. i would definately say the 1983 birthday show soundboards wipes the floor with this w2a show if we are comparing

TrevorAyer said:

TrevorAyer said:

I was fortunate enough to have seen Prince in concert 5 times. Jam of the Year twice, Musicology twice and Welcome 2 America. I thought I was pretty experienced with his live shows, but I've been impressed and thankful by how knowledgeable some of you are about Prince's tours. I really enjoyed this blu-ray, but understand some of the gripes. It was kinda weird how long it took him to finally pick up a guitar and play. I hope the Estate will start releasing the concert vids we know they must have stored away. I love it all...the good and the "bad."

Of the tours I saw, I'd rank Welcome 2 America at the bottom. But that said, I've never not enjoyed a live show and would still like a good release from each tour.


(My top 5 are all very close)

2014 Hit And Run

1988 Lovesexy

1986 Parade Hit And Run

1995 The Ultimate Live Experience

1987 Sign O The Times

1994 Interactive

2002 One Nite Alone

1993 Act 1

1990 Nude

1992 Diamonds & Pearls

1993 Act 2

2007 The Earth Tour

1998 Jam Of The Year/NPS

2004 Musicology

2010 20Ten

2011 Welcome 2 America/Canada

dadeepop said: