Prince April 28, 2001 Oakland, CA @ Oakland Arena - Hit N Run Tour SBD > Assisted Listening Device > ? > Sabotage #SAB 310-311 "Oakland 2001" CD > flac > CDR Disc 1: 1. DAT Intro 2. Uptown 3. Controversy 4. Mutiny 5. The Work, Part 1 6. Cream 7. Little Red Corvette 8. I Wanna Be Your Lover 9. Sexy Dancer 10. Housequake 11. The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker 12. Four 13. Prince Talks About NPGMC 14. Someday We'll All Be Free 15. U Make My Sun Shine 16. Angel So Divine 17. Prince Talks About Celebrities in Attendance 18. I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man - Summertime 19. Do Me, Baby 20. Scandalous 21. Diamonds And Pearls 22. The Beautiful Ones 23. Nothing Compares 2 U Disc 2: 1. Interlude 2. Let's Go Crazy 3. Take Me With U 4. Raspberry Beret 5. Darling Nikki 6. When Doves Cry 7. Father's Song 8. Computer Blue (instrumental) 9. The One (intro) - I Would Die 4 U - Baby I'm A Star (In The True Sense Of The Word) 10. God (instrumental) 11. Purple Rain --------- 12. Hit N Run Tour DAT Intro Hit N Run Tour - San Jose : 8th December 2000: 13. Controversy 14. Mutiny A Celebration Tour - Milwaukee : 28th June 2001: 15. Bambi - And God Created Woman (snippet) 16. If I Was Your Girlfriend Hit N Run Tour - San Jose : 8th December 2000: 17. I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man - Summertime Hit N Run Tour - Unknown Location / Date : 2000: 18. Pop Life (outro) Hit N Run Tour - Ruby Skye, San Francisco : 3rd December 2000: 19. Gett Off Hit N Run Tour Aftershow - Brick's, Salt Lake City : 26th April 2001 (am): 20. Hair (intro) 21. Northside (instrumental) Paisley Park - 13th June 2001 (am) (Guests w/ Maceo Parker): 22. We Gon' Make It Funky Paisley Park : 15th June 2001 (am): 23. The Good Life 24. Tell Me What It Is Paisley Park : 1999 / 2000: 25. Whole Lotta Shakin' - Courtin' Time Paisley Park : June 2001: 26. A Celebration 2001 - Thank You COMMENT Sourced from the same soundboard/ALD (assisted listening device) source recording as the fan release 'Oakland 28th April 2001' and the 'Oakland So Divine' pressed disc, this is Sabotage's effort to present the Oakland 2001 soundboard recording in the best possible quality, and in truth they do a pretty decent job all things considered. The recording itself was already something of a beauty excluding some annoying crackling interference in certain tracks, and Sabotage have replaced the majority of the glitches with portions lifted from the excellent quality audience recording (circulating on the 'Oakland 2001' fan release) to minimise any annoyance. The results are varied and whilst it works well in places, and the lack of any crackling is a major positive, the difference between the audience recording (excellent as it is) and this soundboard recording are really rather vast and one can easily notice the corrections made. It's not necessarily a bad thing, and I certainly don't mention it in a negative way - I simply mention it to point to the fact Sabotage have done some work on the recording and this isn't simply a straight-rip of what many of us already have. The bonus material differs from track to track in terms of quality varying from EX+ to VG+. For instance the opening 'DAT Intro / Controversy / Mutiny' are crisp and clear, whilst the following 'Bambi / If I Was Your Girlfriend' sounds compressed, tinny and woeful in comparison. No doubt due to the quality they were made available on the NPG Music Club video files, but damn. Still, it's a small portion of the release, and they are superior to the horrendous quality versions release on the Oak Tree pressed release. The remainder of bonus material contains audio downloads made available by either NPG Online or NPG Music Club and all are rather exceptionally impressive, clear and sharp - no complaints from me on these. The fact this is the only (almost) complete soundboard recording to exist from the Hit N Run tour made it inevitable it would appear on a pressed release, and rightly so as recordings of this nature deserve to be pressed onto a disc, and I'm glad Sabotage have turned their hand to improving/tweaking the audio in an attempt to make it sound as good as possible - whether they have achieved it with using passages from an EX audience recording is up to the listener, but I like it. The accompanying artwork and packaging is, as one would expect from these guys, rather pleasing to the eye with a 14 page booklet documenting the content of the discs, along with a nice 10 page review of Prince's schedule from 2000 and 2001. Whether this is the best release (pressed or otherwise) documenting the Oakland 2001 soundboard is a matter of taste, however it's unquestionably a very high quality product presented in very high quality packaging with some (but not all!) high quality bonus extra's. Notes from other versions: "from an ALD (assisted listening device) or in-ear monitor. It's a specific mix from the soundboard, constructed for a broadcast feed into one of those devices. Technically it's a combination of soundboard and in-house broadcast" As with most Prince tours from 1997 to 2002, this won't be winning any prizes for being the peak of his live career. It's pedestrian, undemanding and very methodical.......yet I can't help but enjoy it. The main reason for my enjoyment of this particular show is the quality of the recording which deserves a round of applause to whomever is responsible (perish the thought that I would congratulate a taper). The concert is extremely clear with Prince's vocal being far and above any audience noise which is present - in turn the minimal amount of audience noise which is on here adds a very receptive atmosphere. In my book all the ingredients for an EX audience recording - which is what we get. The show itself doesn't stray too far from the norm for a 2001 Hit N Run show, in fact this is about as basic as it gets for the tour. The recording is incomplete and missing 'Housequake' which should be there following on from 'Sexy Dancer', however the remainder appears to be complete and free of an major problems. Najee is far less intrusive on here than on many other shows from the tour and what little solo action he grabs is pretty minimal thankfully. There is a lengthy speech following 'Four' which has Prince waxing lyrical about the NPG Music Club, religion and Larry Graham and has Najee wailing in the background as Prince preaches - however it's more laughably pathetic than annoying. The only time the set list strays from the norm is the inclusion of 'Someday We'll All Be Free', however the vocals are sung by Kip Blackshire. If anyone is looking for a challenging musical experience or something which showcases Prince's talents to the max - look elsewhere. If someone is looking for an excellent audience recording of a man going through the motions (admittedly fairly enjoyably) - then step right up. Has since (March 2009) become available as a soundboard recording on the 'Oakland 28th April 2001' fan release, and in April 2009 on the pressed releases 'Oakland So Divine' by Oak Tree and 'Oakland 2001' by Sabotage.