Well, just got home from my latest Prince trek, to Vegas to see the final shows of his One Night Alone...Live tour in Las Vegas. Again, Prince delivered more than 5 hours of music in two shows, for only $150 for NPG Music Club members (compared to the 2 hour Rolling Stones concert that I saw in October for about the same price and worse seats (at Prince, I was in the third row, at the Stones, I was 13 rows from the ceiling), this was a bargain!).

We already knew there was going to be an aftershow at Studio 54 at the MGM Grand, since it was posted on the NPGMUSICCLUB.COM web site, so there was no stressing about "where is it gonna be and how do I get there", and actually, after my plane landed in Vegas I pretty much didn't stress about anything at all that day, for the first time in awhile that I can remember at a Prince concert.

Apparently the band was rehearsing all day, as several people said they heard "Hot Thing" being rehearsed over and over before I got there. At 2pm, they had everyone with an NPG Music Club ticket come in and purchase their aftershow ticket for their guests (if necessary...all laminate holders got into the aftershow for free, guests paid $100...which was the entire price for NPG Music Club membership for the year...), and people stayed lined up until 5:30, when we were let in for the soundcheck. Prior to that, we heard the rehearsal through the walls pretty clearly, and the following songs were played:

Brick House
We Want the Funk
The Rainbow Children
Push and Pull (with Nikka Costa on vocals)
Some Kind of Beautiful (Nikka on vocals)
Hot Thing (pieces)
Hair (several takes)

Most songs were played as instrumentals, though Prince sang on Hair.

When we got in, the band only played for about 20 minutes, and the short soundcheck was:

Funky instrumental (similar to one played at the aftershow)
777-9311 / The Stick (instrumental)
Xenophobia (different arrangement than the ONA Live cd...this one was played on the keyboards and had a much faster tempo)

The band included Sheila E and Eric Leeds, by the way, during the soundcheck.

At that point, Prince walked off the stage and the soundcheck was over. He didn't interact with the crowd much (if at all) and there was no singing during this soundcheck.

They began letting other people into the show and played Prince and other funk music for 2 hours, and the crowd was dancing more than I'd seen prior to any show.

At 8:15, the lights dimmed and Prince began the show with a drum solo. The lights dimmed again and Sheila E was on drums, and then again and John Blackwell was on drums. All this time, the solo never stopped. That was a very cool effect.

Following was the set list for the concert:

The Rainbow Children
Pop Life
Xenophobia/Prince and the Band
Power Fantastic
Money Don't Matter 2Night (short)
The Work
Push and Pull (Nikka Costa on vocals)
Purple Rain
The Ride
1+1+1=3 / Love Rollercoaster / Housequake
Question of U
Strollin' - U Want Me
Gotta Broken Heart Again
Strange Relationship
Pass the Peas
Whole Lotta Love
Family Name
Take Me With U
Everlasting Now

encore

The Beautiful Ones
Adore
Diamonds and Pearls
Condition of the Heart
Under the Cherry Moon
The Beautiful Ones
Nothing Compares 2 U
The Ladder
Starfish and Coffee
Sometimes it Snows in April
All the Critics Love U in Las Vegas / Alphabet St. / 777-9311 / The Stick
Days of Wild

Here were some of the highlights for me:

- That opening drum solo for "The Rainbow Children" was just awesome! Sheila looked great, and the effect was cool. I hadn't read anywhere else about them doing that.

-Prince switched the "lead line" for "Xenophobia" from the one that plays along with the intro page to the NPGMUSICCLUB web site to an alternate one that he's been playing at aftershows, keeping the rest of the song the same. During the song, he called someone from the audience to join him on stage and nod yes when he said "the radio is not my friend anymore" and sat on her lap. He also started speaking the lyrics to "Prince and the Band" (I think) in rhyme to her.

- Power Fantastic!!! I could listen to that one for 2 hours and not be tired of it. His vocal on this one was really crisp, and brought lots of people in the NPG Music Club section to tears. The rest of the concert probably had no idea what the song was.

- The band started playing Money Don't Matter 2Night, but Prince said, "What's with this melancholy stuff" and ended it to go into a funky version of "The Work", which was about 1 verse and a long music jam.

- Nikka Costa came out to sing a bluesy version of her song "Push and Pull", with Prince on guitar and background vocals. Unfortunately his microphone wasn't turned up and you couldn't hear enough of him.

- Prince felt he had to tell the audience that the band added "Purple Rain" back to the setlist because everyone kept requesting it. What was interesting again was that the rest of the audience all stood, cheered, was into this song, but the NPG Music Club section was not. The song was played complete, including all the guitar solos. Sheila E played drums on this one.

- Sheila stayed on drums for "The Ride," which she looked as if she had never played on before, but didn't miss a beat on it.

- The funkiest version ever of 1+1+1=3 / Love Rollercoaster / Housequake lasted more than 10 minutes, and whether you liked Prince's new music or not, you couldn't help but dance to this one. Housequake was a short instrumental section, and didn't include any verses from the song.

- With a keyboard intro, Question of U sounded AWESOME, including one of his best guitar solos. At the end of the song though, a really randomly placed John Blackwell drum solo kinda took away from the song for me...seems like that solo should go better with some other song.

- Whole Lotta Love was only a verse long, but sounded rockin' as ever. Prince introduced the song by saying something along the lines of "funk has no color lines."

- For the first time that I know of in about 6 years, Prince didn't play "Raspberry Beret" during the concert after "Take Me With U". That's a good thing.

For the encore, Prince came out in an all-white outfit that included a cape (my friend described it as Prince's Jedi outfit).

He opened the piano medley with "The Beautiful Ones" which was just him on piano, followed by Adore, which was now only 1 verse long. The band came to join in on "Diamonds and Pearls" and "Condition of the Heart", where Prince changed the lyrics to say "there was a girl from Vegas whom he sent a letter to". A short instrumental of "Under the Cherry Moon" followed and then a fully orchestrated "The Beautiful Ones" (which was an obvious crowd favorite).

After Nothing Compares 2 U, Prince said good night again, walked off the stage, and then came pacing back to do one of my favorite songs, "The Ladder". Never thought I'd hear that one live. And he kept going with Starfish and Coffee and Sometimes it Snows in April. I was sure the show was going to be over when the band launched into a really funky version of "All the Critics Love U in New York" (which he changed to Las Vegas). But he kept going. Next was a really bluesy, different sounding version of Alphabet St., followed by an instrumental 777-9311 / The Stick. The last song was Days of Wild, which Prince brought up the first several rows of the audience to dance on stage. Apparently at some point during this song, someone actually, ummm...got sick on the stage, and that was that. The show ended around 11:30, and was hellafunky and definitely one of the best regular shows I've ever seen.

Spotted in the audience (with worse seats than the NPG Music Club members) were Demi Moore, Mike Tyson and Anthony Anderson (from the movie Barber Shop). I never saw any of them, but I hear they were there.

After the concert, I made a beeline over to Studio 54, and when I got there, I was pleasantly surprised on how well organized it was. Only NPG Music Club laminate holders could get on the dance floor, there was no line to get in, and the club was actually closed down for the concert, unlike the last time where regular club-goers had no idea what was going on there and people who went to the concert couldn't get a good spot to see.

After a long wait, Prince took the stage at 1:45 and played a 90-minute, mostly instrumental set which included many really long jams that I had never heard.

Before any music was played, Prince came out with a Christmas present in his hand...a box of Sees candies which he unwrapped and personally passed out to the audience. Nikka Costa, Kat Dyson, Sheila E, and Prince and his band all took the stage for the first song, which Nikka Costa sang Some Kind of Beautiful. She left the stage and Kat Dyson did a 10-minute blues jam and sang really well. A 20-minute take on All the Critics Love u in Las Vegas, which included only the first verse from the song and a bunch of instrumentals and solos. Two other funky instrumentals followed, and then a 20-minute jam on the Santana Medley which Prince TORE UP on guitar ended the first set. After a short break, Cyndi Lauper came out on stage, without introduction at all, and sang a cover of Al Green's I Can't Stand the Rain with Sheila E's manager (and former Brides of Funkenstein singer) Lynn Mabry, who also guested on stage. Prince was standing at the back of the stage, and Lauper tried to drag him to sing or play guitar, but he didn't want to. Prince took out a can of some sort of aerosol and sprayed Cyndi Lauper with it, holding his nose, which meant she was funky. That was pretty funny. Sign o' the Times (a 20-minute jam) followed, which was more guitar intensive than ever, and sounded different than the version he played at the Celebration and on the Europe part of the tour. The band ended the 90-minute set with another go-through of the alternate version of Xenophobia, with the different lead line. Spotted at the show was Robin Leach. Throughout the show, Prince was wandering from instrument to instrument, playing everything except Rhonda's bass and the horns. He was laughing and joking throughout the entire loose set, and with the sunglasses he was wearing, looked like he did in the video to Dolphin, though he was wearing a red, Santa Claus-like Versace suit.

One other interesting note was that both shows were filmed by a camera crew, who were getting in my way. I asked them if, for the bother of them being in my way, they would give me the tapes they took of the aftershow, and they told me, sure, it's better to give them to you than to give them to Prince to have them end up locked away in his vault.

(Well, actually, they didn't say that, but it would be nice to be able to see this show again).

Anyway, I'm still on a Prince high, and the LA-fan club The Bump Squad meet-n-greet was well attended this morning (www.thebumpsquad.com) and being that I only had 3+ hours of sleep last night...it's time for bed!

-A

Many thanks gettwild. Finally a review!

The most important question though that you don't answer is... did you recoup your investment at the crap tables?

Great review!!! Many of us have been waiting 4 this kind of report all day. I figured U all must have been exhausted by the end of the night...I can't believe I was just in Tokyo and couldn't make it to the shows over there and now I'll be in the Vegas area this Thursday...Thank Heaven for those 2 LA shows back in April...Aloha~ wishuhvn

Eggsellent.
Somebody put this repo't on the home page.
PEACE

Great report!

Getwild you got Deep with this report, excellent!

thank you thank you thank you !

it's only 6.30pm tuesday night here

but better late than never !

hmmm..it was filmed!?!?
maybe for a dvd???

YIIIPPPIIIEEE!!!

finally a review

thank U, gettwild!

great!
A pity that Cindy didn't do When u were mine...

Thanks for the review. I wished I could have been there like so many, but you brought the feeling home for the holidays.

Thanks again.

Peace

Sweet! So...when's this boot coming out?? Heh heh...
[This message was edited Tue Dec 17 4:45:14 PST 2002 by alexnvrmnd]

FINALLY!!! A REVIEW!!! And an AWSOME one at that!

Thank you very much.

Now...aren't u all glad that people complained about the music club? Without all the complaining, you would have had to pay for the aftershow! And how organized would things had been? You see! They are starting to make the club better by LISTENING to ALL criticism.

I just might join back up next year.

Dauphin said:

It also seems like he didn't do much conversing during the soundcheck due to possible questions from people concerning the complaints of the club, not getting ONA Live yet, the whole 4 CDs vs. albums fiasco, etc...

Alx:

Do you think that's the reason? I thought he might be trying to save his voice because he knew it was going to be a long night. Just my opinion.

Thank you for such a detailed review!

CherryMoon said:

It's probably closer to what I said, to avoid any possible "negativity". But, you could be right too.

:wOOt: thanx gettwild!

U NO, THE LAST STUDIO 54 SHOW WAS A LITTLE CRAZY AND UNORGANIZED, BUT BCUZ I LET A COUPLE CUT IN LINE,TO MY SUPRISE THEY PAID MY ADMISSION! I STILL 2 THIS DAY WONDER WHAT THE PRICE WAS 2 GET IN. WAS IT $20 OR $60? HHHMMM.
KLICK2ME

Right on. I hope those videos surface. Maybe as part of next year's membership? And damn, he's rockin' the red Versace suit again? Yummy.

Doves,
Mel!ssa

I loved the LV show/aftershow...i was glad to have the different setlist from when i saw him in Oakland @ Paramount! He seemed very happy and energetic and the Nevada Shake Dance was hilarious!!

Was hoping for more items on sale in the NPG booth, but my wife and I snagged an awesome souvenier...The 6 foot poster of Prince hanging above the ticket booth at the Aladin Theatre!! Much props to the Aladin employee (and fellow Prince fan) who "allowed" us to have it!! Great show!! Great Afershow!! Now just put it out on DVD!!

You are lucky you got the poster - Aladdin refused most people who asked. Enjoy!

nunatak said:

It wasn't easy!! It required a small (yet thankfully sturdy) cafe table and all of my 6'2" inch reach to obtain it!

bobgeorge said:

You coming from Sac? Was that you and your wife on the shuttle home? I talked to ya for a bit. I was dude sittin' in the back. Nice score!

youngworld said:

Yep that was us!
It was nice chatting with you on the shuttle...we finally got home and crashed out after being up for 28 hours straight!! but well worth it and we would do it again ..and again...and again!!

Mike Tyson and his date were originally seated about 45 rows back, but he ended up coming down and standing in the front row of the golden circle. he hung out for about 25 minutes, and then left.

Also, Hugh Hefner and some Playmates were at the Studio 54 show.

Something also cool to note, at the end of "A Whole Lotta Love," Prince laid the Blue Cloud guitar down on the stage, strummed it once, and it held this one note by itself. He then pulled out his hankerchief, and dropped it on the guitar. As soon as it landed on the guitar, the sound muffled out.

This was obviously done through the soundboard, but it was very cool!

Prince giving away a Xmas gift. Maybe he isn't a JW after all.

The last song was Days of Wild, which Prince brought up the first several rows of the audience to dance on stage. Apparently at some point during this song, someone actually, ummm...got sick on the stage, and that was that.

:OMG: they and that was that?

:OMG: :OMG:

thanks for the great report - so very detailed indeed

...not even some sawdust thrown on it like in school?