Prince: In Concert On The Big Screen — What Is It? #PrinceCelebration2019
Tickets to Prince: In Concert On The Big Screen are available here, the event takes place on April 26th, 2019.
Let’s start this article off with a fun fact. This event is happening at The Armory in Minneapolis — you might recognise it from a music video to a song by the name of “1999”.
That’s right — 37 years after the release of that iconic album, Prince returns to the Armory stage, in concert on the big screen. But what is it, we hear you ask? And should we go?
Let’s break it all down.
First of all, this is the second event of it’s kind. Last year, at the Target Center, The Prince Estate put on an event with a very similar name — at that time it was called Prince Live On The Big Screen, and we at The Violet Reality were there!
As you may or may not know, Prince recorded all his concerts, starting very early on in his career. Both video and audio were always professionally captured, which means there are literally hundreds, if not thousands of Prince live shows in The Vault. Very few of them have been released, which is a huge shame and something we hope The Estate will rectify in due course. The flipside is that they can use some of those concerts to do events like this!
Prince: In Concert On The Big Screen is a brilliant combination of unseen Prince concert footage with a full live experience. What they’ve done is expertly taken the professional audio and video of an unseen Prince concert, and then isolated Prince’s vocal track and his lead instrument playing, usually guitar, sometimes piano or bass (and maybe even drums on the odd occasion!). Then, an all-star line-up of Prince musicians is assembled. This year, the band is comprised of Adrian Crutchfield (sax), Chance Howard (keyboard/vox), Ida Nielsen (bass), Joey Rayfield (Trombone), Kat Dyson (guitar/vox), Keith Anderson (sax), Kip Blackshire (vox), Kirk Johnson (drums), Lynn Grissett (trumpet), Michael “Fish” Herring (guitar), Renato Neto (piano), Shelby J (vox), Sylvester Uzoma Onyejiaka (sax) and Xavier Taplin (keyboards).
The band then performs all the music live, in perfect sync with the audio and video of Prince. The effect is incredible, moving and even a little eerie (in a good way) — you might well find yourself looking around the stage, half convinced that Prince really is there somewhere. That’s how seamless the production is. One thing that helps bridge the gap is that, at least last year, many of the performers on stage, including Shelby J and Ida Nielsen, were actually in Prince’s band at the specific show used for the audio/video footage.
What you can expect to hear is the closest recreation of a Prince gig possible, so the setlist is generally a mix of hits and whatever other songs Prince felt like playing that night, so it’s perfectly possible that you’ll hear a few gems snuck in there. After all — this event is for fans and the general public alike, just as Prince’s shows were when they happened. The effect was incredibly impressive — Prince was known to change arrangements live, in the moment, and command the band through changes, new songs, jams at his whim, so to recreate those twists and turns of a true live concert experience is no mean feat.
One thing we must not forget is that whilst we have lost Prince, we haven’t and will never lose his music. Prince put more of himself into his music than perhaps any other artist who ever lived, and it’s always a joy to hear his music played in a live setting by talented musicians. To hear his voice and playing, in a large concert setting, with his own musicians, is truly a beautiful experience (play on words totally intended). Would we recommend that you go? 100% yes, if you can!
Prince: In Concert On The Big Screen will be happening on April 26th at The Armory in Minneapolis. Tickets are available here.