i went on sunday. he was good, as in hes still animated and expressive as a performer but the musical content isnt up to much.
the sound setup at the 02 is a piece of shit - all blaring midrange, much louder than the speakers can handle it seems and the actual sound of princes band is bland, MOR, and a bit vegasy (and he could do with getting rid of the two generic big voiced backing singers and attractive but painfully cabaret dancing girls).
that part where his sax player did a soft porn channel 5 soundtrack sounding version of what a wonderful world was dire, esp as prince said 'real music y'all, check it out!' half way through. funny he said that cos towards the end, he was triggering loops of his hits (like when doves cry, sign o the times etc) and singing along, only for a verse each though, presumably as he only had them on loop, so couldnt do the whole song. he actually came in at the wrong time for SOTT though, which was a bit lame.
basically though, yeah, this is prince at that sort of rolling stones level now, where people go to see him just cos its prince. people and critics are giving him all the praise now just cos hes still around, and cos he belongs to a bygone era of 'weird'/gifted popstars that they miss, so it doesnt matter that it sounds like crap, or that hes mostly just rolling out ersatz, pretty bland versions of his hits, they just want to see him.
what the 'loop' part made me think though was that a lot of princes songs have always sounded shit live, like kiss, or when doves cry or 1999. basically cos theyre so reliant on the sound of his drum machine, that whenever he tries to overmaximise the instrumentation or have it played in a more trad 'live' way, they really lack something (the generic big arena sound doesnt help obviously).
i liked his foo fighters cover but mostly, the funk tracks in the show, esp the new songs musiclogy and black sweat, are really awful. i dont know if its cos he doesnt have a rhythm guitarist anymore or that the songs just arent funky or good to begin with but he drags them out for too too long, and inviting ppl from the audience to dance on stage for 20 mins and sometimes even sing was lazy filler.