im sure some will say 'they never did!' and i guess for some tours, like the stint at the 02 arena in the UK, or the musicology tour, he didnt get too loose, but id say from when he left warners, or maybe even during the gold experience tour (kinda), things started to get much looser.

for instance, i was reading back about the coachella show this week (as theres been a lot about coachella), and in the rolling stone piece it says that a lot of the audience didnt quite know what to make of the performance, even if creep did get a lot of coverage. and i imagine that a lot of that was because he basically gave them an aftershow performance - so weird that he would think the way to endear himself to that kind of audience would be to bring out the time and sheila e for about half the set! i guess you could see that as challenging the typical coachella audience member, but in my view, thats something youd do for hardcore fans.

but anyway, yeah, from bringing up the audience to dance (not always well) on stage, to doing lots of covers (starting around 95 i guess, but getting much heavier with the later 90s tours which were abundant with sly, santana, etc etc), to very long jamming and improvising, prince def seemed to bring the aftershow vibe to the main concerts he played a lot of the time in the later tours he did (prob as just playing the hits, or even keeping things tight, like say, the rolling stones, was just never an option for someone like him, who always thought he was better than an oldies act, and got restless with the same old routine). i think this is why stripping it down on the very last tour was so cool.

[Edited 4/24/22 9:35am]

[Edited 4/24/22 9:35am]

Not to sound churlish, but isn't the more important question... When did his music start to sound aftershowy at all? New Year Eve's gig '87 into 88, at Paisley Park after the clocks chime 12?

LoveGalore said:

Blurry like my eyes go when they try reading this big ass wall of text. Can I get a carriage return, damn.

Punctuation, sentences, proper capitalization. I can't read it at all.

LoveGalore said:

Blurry like my eyes go when they try reading this big ass wall of text. Can I get a carriage return, damn.

Edited twice and it's still a glaring TL;DR.

I associate that with Maceo and Rosie Gaines getting solos, where Prince would move off to the side, and let people take lead for short periods. After Grafitti Bridge, and I guess by the
New Power Soul tour.

in 1995? he did a concert over here in Belgium, in Ghent and an aftershow in Vorst Nationaal.

That aftershow wasn't an aftershow at all. It was in a concert venue, with a big stage and lightning and a big PA, with tickets and all .. the same way the previous concert was organized.

It did not feel as an aftershow to me at all.