We're all always full of Prince's live performances,

but I've seen him many many times live,

and there were some very dissapointing performances as well.

Which was yours and why?

Mine was for example, Juli 10, 2010, Werchter, Belgium.

It was more a 'hey, hooo' chant, actually too many demands for chants throughout the show.

Very un-Prince, just a boring performance on automatic pilot of unispired performed hits.

Not even one song from his new album.

Overall sound wasn't good, and people even left before the end of the show.

-

Same for the November 8 performance in Antwerp, Belgium.

Differnt playlist, but actually an overall uninspired performance.

As if he did that tour just for the money.

-

July 5 & 6, 2011, in Ghent, Belgium, both also quite dissapointing.

I even attended a soundcheck, and you could feel he wans't having it for whatever reason.

[Edited 1/30/26 9:46am]

Vannormal said:

Mine was for example, Juli 10, 2010, Werchter, Belgium.

It was more a 'hey, hooo' chant, actually too many demands for chants throughout the show.

Very un-Prince, just a boring performance on automatic pilot of unispired performed hits.

Not even one song from his new album.

Overall sound wasn't good, and people even left before the end of the show.

Interesting, I have a completely contrary memory of that show. Sound and energy were great. Weather was bad that day. He decided to perform Purple Rain quite early in the set during strong rain, it was magical. Hot Summer was the only new song played. But as it was the release day of 20Ten I think it was a good decision for such a huge show, as nobody had the chance to listen to the new record yet. It was my wifes first Prince show and afterwards she said "Now I finally understand why you are raving about him all the time".

Yeah, 'Hot Summer', not even from 20TEN.

He also did 'Ol' School Company'.

Vannormal said:

Mine was for example, Juli 10, 2010, Werchter, Belgium.

.

They literally couldn't give tickets away for that show. Initially they halfed the prices by making it "buy one get one free", then they gave thousands of tickets away for free via newspapers. And then still the audience number was terrible.

I only saw him 5 times (yeah, I know...)

1992 was great (first experience, I was only 15).

1993 (x2) was mindblowing (two nights in a row at front row at 16, it was utterly insane, it felt like being on ecstasy years before I ever tried ecstasy).

1998 was cool (the "greatest hits" setlist wasn't that much my thing, but great show nonetheless, super long overall, and he played DOW which was a song I wanted to see live once before I died—so I could actually have died in peace 27 years ago, + Larry and Chaka opening).

2010 was really disappointing (it was the Arras show and he really seemed not to care at all—Mint Condition and Larry Graham seemed to have much more fun than him that night, + Frédéric Yonnet really got on my nerves—nothing against him personally, I just didn't think his contributions worked in that context, but it's on Prince not on him, + the tracklist wasn't so great, though I listened to the bootleg not so long ago and it worked better than I remembered).

PS: Technically the true WORST concert was later in 2010: the cancelled show in Geneva that we never got refunded for because this Daniel Quarcoopome crook stole our money and ran.

I still have a bounty out on that MF in case anyone knows where to find him

Seems like 2010 was a bad Prince year.

December 19, 2011 in Tacoma, Washington. The show was only about 1:40 including an encore, and it was the first show where I really felt like he was just phoning it in. It was nothing but the greatest hits, followed by the sampler set. When the lights came up at the end, the entire crowd seemed surprised that it was over already.

He redeemed himself a bit with a decent aftershow at a nightclub in Seattle later that night, but the main concert was just so lame.

Mmmh... Luxembourg in 2011 was rather weak. Now in retrospect it wasn't that bad if one look at the set list, but Andy Allo was in full swing by then and Prince seemed more concerned in making the show about her than anything else. It felt a bit embarrassing to see him that much after her on stage.

Mine was his last show on the 3rdeyegirl tour in Leeds. It was decent , but I had seen him at the Manchester academy show earlier in the year which was a genuinely great show and performance.

said:

Seems like 2010 was a bad Prince year.

It is interesting that the sentiment runs that way. Personally I think 2010 was underrated.There were some amazing video of the European shows that year.

andrewm7new said:

said:

Seems like 2010 was a bad Prince year.

It is interesting that the sentiment runs that way. Personally I think 2010 was underrated.There were some amazing video of the European shows that year.

We were at the Berlin show and it was actually really good!
Yes, it was undersold, but after Prince shouted something like,
"...all y'all up in the back, I wanna see you!",
the crowd just moved in masses to the front

andrewm7new said:

Montreux 2007, maybe? Not a bad show, really, but far from his best performances, I think.

antonb said:

Mine was his last show on the 3rdeyegirl tour in Leeds. It was decent , but I had seen him at the Manchester academy show earlier in the year which was a genuinely great show and performance.

That was my very last gig, sadly. Rather disappointing. The average greatest-hits-in-autopilot-mode from those years. He looked fragile and definetely wasn't in a good mood. I remember he complained about the sound and had Joshua to fix whatever it was

Vannormal said:

Mine was for example, Juli 10, 2010, Werchter, Belgium.

It was more a 'hey, hooo' chant, actually too many demands for chants throughout the show.

Very un-Prince, just a boring performance on automatic pilot of unispired performed hits.

Not even one song from his new album.

Overall sound wasn't good, and people even left before the end of the show.

-

Same for the November 8 performance in Antwerp, Belgium.

Differnt playlist, but actually an overall uninspired performance.

As if he did that tour just for the money.

-

July 5 & 6, 2011, in Ghent, Belgium, both also quite dissapointing.

I even attended a soundcheck, and you could feel he wans't having it for whatever reason.

[Edited 1/30/26 9:46am]

yes, the Ghent 2011 concert on Sint Pietersplein - he was going through the motions, even faking it. And the audience was too large and very distracted. Definitely my worst experience of him

Mine was one of the Vegas shows (i think it was) where Prince had diahrea or something because he kept on letting Renato/the band noodle on stage while he pased around doing nothing and then every coupole of minutes move back backstage to do whatever.

Most of the London O2 residency was kinda bad imho. Not his best band, a terrible venue for music, a much older and more distracted crowd than he was used to, folk just milling about getting drinks, going to the loo, watching on their phone etc. The aftershows were sometimes great but the main shows were a bit blah.

Also later like post 2010, I developed a bit of a distaste for his constantly roaring "sing it!!!" at the audience, the participation stuff. I just felt he relied too much on that at times with his stagecraft.

I'm also not a fan of the 3rdeye tour. The band was OK, just hate those sluggish arragements.

Lastly... imho the Game Boyz ruined every show they were a part of. Hot take!

andrewm7new said:

said:

Seems like 2010 was a bad Prince year.

It is interesting that the sentiment runs that way. Personally I think 2010 was underrated.There were some amazing video of the European shows that year.

Still, I find it interesting that we haven't heard about a single bad show from the 80's. I've read that some of his Nude tour shows weren't that great.

Cologne 2011

https://prince.org/msg/12/363834?&pg=2

Cologne 1998 wasn't that great either. But the aftershow was very nice.

[Edited 2/2/26 16:08pm]

[Edited 2/2/26 16:08pm]