Show 9.2: SOTT on IMAX (feat. Cat, Prince, & Sheila E.)

If you go to my $400/month storage unit in New York City, then unlock the flimsy aluminum door and launch it upwards, in the front right corner you will see a black resin bin with a bright yellow top. The white label on the front of the bin is marked “music stuff” in what looks to be the print handwriting of a seven year old. If you lift the top, inside the bin is a color-faded DVD case of Prince’s “Sign o’ the Times” 1987 tour concert in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

It’s a bootlegged copy that I bought on Broadway in SoHo, not too far from the New York University campus. My purchase was before I saw the exact same footage in its entirety on YouTube—because I bought it before YouTube even existed.

So why would anyone feel the need to pay $23 for a movie one could watch anywhere and anytime, especially someone who has a well-used, good quality bootlegged DVD copy?

Maybe it’s because Sign ‘o the Times is Prince’s greatest album [and one of the top 25 albums of all time]. Its range of musical styles, from ballad to electronica, showcases Prince’s talent at his peak. The songwriting on “If I Was Your Girlfriend” alone is mindbending: “Would you run to me if somebody hurt you, even if that somebody was me?”

Perhaps it’s because Cat Glover and Sheila E. unknowingly competed for show-stealer status throughout the concert film. Cat’s dance moves challenged Prince in a way that his previous women did not, while Sheila E. was stunning in talent and in fashion.

Or perhaps most importantly, it’s the sadness in knowing that our heroes and crushes are dead now.

The IMAX release was a chance to view one of my favorite concert videos of all time on a screen 100x the size of my Vizio TV, with sound 50x louder than I’m allowed to play it for fear of permanently destroying friendships with my neighbors.

I was surprised to see that the film’s screen resolution looked the same as my bootlegged DVD. It recalibrated my expectations in a unique way—the initial disappointment helped me let go of expectations and just focus on taking in all of the details of the film.

The overarching story of the concert film is one of a young woman (Cat) who is navigating love, affection, and sex amidst the attention of men around her. Prince is one of her suitors, acting sometimes as comforting friend, lustful lover, and occasionally, a playfully misogynistic gawker and braggart.

Prince took care of the album’s title track at the very beginning. Sign o’ the Times, as a song, covers AIDS, addiction, starvation, gangs, and gun violence. Do you realize how funky you have to make a song about such heavy topics in order to keep the crowd excited as it leads off your setlist?

The next song was “Play in the Sunshine,” which provides great contrast to what follows: the sultry, mysterious beginning of “Little Red Corvette.” He already had too many hits by that time, so he chose only one pop smash in the setlist.

Yet even in watching my bootlegged DVD over 100 times, the first three songs of the concert always felt like a warm-up to “Housequake.” The hop-filled, piroutte-laden choreography of Cat and Prince during this song always brought out chuckles. I looked out for the three seconds in which Prince, while on his back on the floor dressed in a peach-colored silky outfit, propelled himslef backwards by the sheet force of pumping his platform heels in the opposite direction. He then turned to do a split, and then arose on two feet. It’s ridiculous athleticism in skin-tight fabric.

The next track is “Slow Love.” I swayed in the comfy black leather of row N, seat 12 as I sang along softly to each word. Prince ballads are underrated and this is one of his best. “I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man” followed, ramping up the tempo. During this song, there was a majestic guitar solo, in which Prince walked toward the edge of the stage to toss flowers with his left hand as his neck was adorned by a couple of beaded necklaces, along with one longer chain that secured a metal cross pendant. Gotta love foreshadowing by accessorizing.

Then came my favorite scene of the entire film, during the futuristic-sounding “Hot Thing.” Prince slid in between Cat’s legs like a feet-first slide into home plate for the winning run. His prize was pulling off her skirt in one fluid motion. It’s even smoother seeing it on IMAX. Later, there was also the five seconds of them straddling a fence in the dark and pushing and pulling to simulate rough intercourse.

But with IMAX came the realization that maybe the co-star of the concert film was actually Sheila E. Her drum solo marked the halfway point of the concert. Stunning in drumming talent and energy, I was fixated on a large silver heart pendant just underneath her throat. No matter how hard or how fast she hit the snare drums or the cymbals, the pendant hardly moved. It represented stillness and ease amidst the chaos of displaying talent. My favorite athletes have that. During the concert, Prince acknowledge her by commenting to the crowd, “Not bad for a girl” as he wryly smiled.

The video montage that followed Sheila E.’s solo similarly displayed chaos, but in what looked like 72p resolution rather than 720p. Sure, the montage was supposed to reflect the chaos in Prince’s mind, but it made me wish there were more visual enhancements made for the re-release of this film. The montage ended so that “She’s Got the Look” could begin.

A few minutes later, the falsetto of “If I Was Your Girlfriend” pierced the crowd. It’s yet another ballad that feels underrated as time passes. The scene ended as the stage lights dimmed and Cat and Prince walked up to a higher platform on stage. I noticed Prince pulling his arm under and through the strap of his leotard as he makes his was to join Cat, who is centerstage. A heart-shaped mirror was erected and the neon-lit words “Love” and “Sex” bracketed Cat.

Prince lined up his petite body as Cat wrapped her leg around him, only to descend towards the direction of hell or earth—however you view love and life.

“Forever in Your Life” played next, keeping the tempo slow while Prince spent a few seconds letting out a series of primal screams. But honestly, I was still thinking about the prior scene and whether I can buy a heart-shaped, mirrored Murphy bed somewhere. There has to be a market for that.

Then Prince put down the guitar and headed to the drum set for “It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night.” Front and center for many of the scenes during this track is Sheila E., this time dressed in a white, one-legged outfit that made me forget Cat was dancing on stage.

Speaking of wardrobe, there is an iconic Levi’s denim jacket worn by Prince in the film. It was decorated with at least 20 safety pins on each shoulder and at least another 20 on the pockets.

It was later gifted to the character of Vanessa Huxtable and worn on an episode of “The Cosby Show.”

And what better way to close the show than with some Christian rock music? After all, if he’s going to start a show singing about disease, drugs, and guns, why not close it out with “The Cross” and encourage the crowd to put their faith in God. He opened the show wearing bearing a cross. He’s closed it with the song. “The Cross” is one of the best Christian rock songs of all time. Name me one better.

The difficult part about reviewing a concert movie is deciding when to critique it as a movie and when to do so as a concert.

As a concert, it is moving in body, in thought, and in affect. The set design is stimulating. The song arrangement is stellar in terms of tempo contrast and range of song lyric subject matter. The one glaring omission is the fan-favorite, “Adore.” Maybe Prince didn’t realize how much that track would be loved by fans. The choreography tells the full story of Cat and Prince even as the cinematography tells the audience that Sheila E. is the co-star.

As a film, the resolution did not match the IMAX brand. Judging by the many empty seats I saw in the theater and beforehand in searching for tickets online, I felt like the film needed better promotion. But what is clear is that the film needed to be in theaters, particularly for three groups of people.

The first group is comprised only of Prince die-hard fans who should go simply to sing and sway along with other fans.

The second group should be the kids (teenage or older) of die-hard Prince fans so that they get to see legends at their peaks perform the songs their parents kept blasting in the living room or in the family car.

The final group should be anyone who has never paid less than $23 for a concert by a legend, or paid $10 or more to buy a good-quality bootlegged DVD.

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Favorite Music & Concert access + more:

1. Raphael Saadiq just launched his vinyl club. Check it out here.

2. Saadiq’s one-man show has become a nationwide tour, with dates here

3. 112 is celebrating 30 years and is joined by Total and Case on tour. Use code: ROOM112 for presale access, while general tickets go on sale on Friday, 8/29 @ 10AM

4. “A New York Evening w/ Ciara” event w/ the Grammy Museum
   Date: September 5, 2025, 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM

   Venue: National Sawdust, Brooklyn, NY 11249

5. A wild September 2025 at Madison Square Garden: Lady Gaga, Benson Boone, Tate McRae, Kali Uchis, Dua Lipa

6. Pete Rock, “Petestrumentals” at Lincoln Center
   Date: December 13, 2025, 7:30 pm

   Venue: David Rubenstein Atrium, Lincoln Center

7. J.Period, “Fly Love Songs” at Lincoln Center
   Date: February 14, 2025, 7:30 pm

   Venue: David Rubenstein Atrium, Lincoln Center

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Music/Entertainment Career Opportunities:

1. Spotify open roles: https://www.lifeatspotify.com/jobs

2. Sirius XM/Pandora jobs: https://careers.siriusxm.com/careers/

3. Open roles at YouTube

4. Live Nation / Ticketmaster jobs: https://livenation.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/LNExternalSite

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About the author:

Cris is Founder/CEO of GrantAnswers, an NYC-based strategy, data, and product consultancy founded in 2013. His work has helped startup and non-profit ventures scale nationwide and impacted 1000+ individuals in launching tech careers and securing acceptances to top colleges/universities. Cris earned a BA in Psychology from CUNY and ascended as a 21-year-old Ph.D. Candidate in Criminal Justice at the CUNY Graduate Center. His speaking engagements for the likes of Columbia Business School, UCLA, Teach for America, and the US Chamber of Commerce encompass career development, entrepreneurship, and technology.

As an emerging writer, Cris integrates Philippine and Saudi Arabian migration, coming-of-age in NYC, and 25+ years of concertgoing to form deeply reflective, intimately vulnerable, and humorously adventurous stories through universal themes of family, freedom, loss, nostalgia, and technological advancement. His piece “Never Tell [A Lie]” is featured in PEN America’s World Voices Festival and the 2025 DREAMing Out Loud Anthology. His journey from immigrant child to award-winning entrepreneur and immigrant rights advocate has been highlighted in outlets such as NYT, WSJ, MTV, and Forbes.

You can help Cris as follows:

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