Moonraker Catalog # 218 Release Year 1997  CD Length 69:19 Date/Venue 20 November 1996 Park West Source Audience Quality VG-

Comments
Deane's Comments (rates this release 3.0/5.0)
An audience recording of a great gig played at the Park West in Chicago while he was in town for the Oprah show. A nice mix of classic Prince tunes and new stuff. I wish the the sound quality was better. Adore through Do Me baby are really just a medley and most are only played for a minute or much less, too bad.

Dale's Comments  (rates this release 2.0/5.0)
Nothing spectacular about this show. In fact, I think the packaging may be the best thing about this release. The setlist is average, the sound below average, and the content, well, is there another way to say average? On second thought, the sound is not just below average IT's AWFUL!!! The volume fluctuates so much that it almost makes you sea sick.

Mike's Comments  (rates this release 1.5/5.0)
This is a shorter version of the show Prince would play throughout much of 1997. Given that Emancipation had only just been released it is surprising that so few tracks from it are played. Compared to other bootlegs, even very early ones, the sound is woeful and this is really for die-hards only.

Fink's Comments  (rates this release 2.0/5.0)
This is a strange little show by Prince. It takes place in the wee small hours of the morning after filming the studio appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show. In essence it is a condensed version of the upcoming Love 4 One Another Charities Tour with a far looser feel to it. 'Purple Rain' is extremely long and includes 2 takes of it with the first being started again halfway through. 'The Most Beautiful Girl In The World' contains only the first few seconds of the intro before Prince decides to stop it "on the one" and launch into a great version (and evident crowd pleaser) of 'The Ride'. Moonraker have strangely decided to list and track each of the songs during the 'Do Me, Baby' medley which is rather misleading as one would assume looking at the track listing that 'Adore - Insatiable - Scandalous - How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore' were performed, when in fact they last merely 10 seconds each (if that). The closing 'Chicago Jam' is probably one of the highlights of the show, which is Prince on his bass calling out a 'C-H-I..love you' chant to the crowd. The sound quality of the recording is very disappointing. It begins rather horrendously with the crowd level being unbearable and the sound fluctuating greatly. It does thankfully settle down during the opening 10 minutes and becomes fairly average for it's time with audible, but fairly manageable audience noise. However due to the woeful quality of the first 5 minutes I have graded it as a VG- recording (so cruel). The packaging is pretty standard for a 1997 release with decent artwork, and includes the short message posted by Prince's pseudonym online after the show.