Sheila & the E-Train
La Ve Lee, Studio City, CA
Saturday, 30. March 2002

Two shows
The E-Train Band
Sheila E.: drums, wave drum & vocals
Lynn Mabry: vocals
Eddie M.: saxophone & vocals
Kat Dyson: guitar
Tony Boyd: bass
Roseanne Radd: keyboards & vocals

SET LIST (second show):

Protocol (incl. A Love Bizarre horn riff, guitar solo by Kat)
Gospel Song
Street Life
Walking In New York
Closer
Slight Accent
Snippets of Glamorous Life, Merci For The Speed Of A Mad Clown In Summer (Eddie M. on sax)
A Love Bizarre
Old Worn Shoes (Roseanne Radd vocals)
Heaven Knows
Desert Rose (Sheila on wave drum)
Rituals
Tony B. bass solo, Sheila singing Hallelujah
Sheila E. drum solo incl. first verse of Kiss and a little bit of Controversy
Virtuosity
Feel Like Making Love / P-Funk (Sheila on guitar)

The first set was similar, just a little bit shorter and without the Prince songs.

This concert took place at La Ve Lee which is a tiny restaurant/jazz club in Studio City. The place was in fact so small that the musicians were almost blocking the way to the restrooms when they left their spots after a solo and the tables up front were so close they almost touched some of the instruments which were set up in a corner of the club. There wasn’t really a stage at all. However, all this made it a very special and intimate event which didn’t really feel like a concert but more like an evening with friends, live music and lots of funny interaction between the musicians and the audience. Sheila even mentioned that they were just playing and having fun!

Sheila mainly performed songs from her two albums with E-Train plus a few cover versions and played mostly drums and also a wave drum and guitar. She did, of course, one of her powerful trademark drum solos which seem to be getting better and longer every time!

One of the highlights of the evening was watching her play the wave drum during Desert Rose (a cover of a Sting song) which is an instrument I had never seen before. It’s some kind of electronic drum and it looks like a conga on a stand and she was playing it with her fingers and hands getting all kinds of sounds out of it. It sounded very cool and Sheila, her band and the audience were totally absorbed in the song and the sounds.

The sheer talent of all the musicians was amazing. They all had their solo spots in between or during the songs. Eddie M. was tearing apart the songs once again with his superfunky playing. It was just too bad we had to sit down during most of the time because the grooves and energy of the music just made you want to get up and dance. Sheila in fact asked everybody to get up, dance, clap or snap fingers a couple of times and when we stopped after a while she knocked on our table telling us to go on.

When asked before the concert if she would play any of her older songs, Sheila told us no and that she had decided not to but Eddie sneaked in a little bit of Love Bizarre pretty early in the second show. Sheila seemed a little surprised at first but then picked it up and even played bits of the Prince songs Kiss and Controversy. There weren’t too many people in the house who knew the lyrics but she knew for sure where we were at and had us sing parts of the songs! At one point it even sounded like she started the drum parts to When You Were Mine and Sign Of The Times but stopped after a few seconds. Later Sheila mentioned to us that she had been thinking about what else to play and had Dear Michaelangelo and Baby I’m A Star in mind but couldn’t remember how it goes. Another funny part was when Eddie started playing snippets of Glamorous Life, Love Bizarre and other songs on the saxophone and Sheila asked him at one point “Why you gotta play Jerry Springer?”.

Sheila’s mom, dad and sister were in the house and Sheila dedicated a couple of songs to them. Lynn who has a very soulful and strong voice did most of the singing and mentioned during the first gospel like song that it was Sheila’s mom’s favorite who screamed out loud “Yes!”.

For the last song Feel Like Making Love which also included a bit of P-Funk Sheila was playing guitar and reminded everyone to pay the bill and tip the waiter. Everybody got up to dance and clap along.

As always during these small events everybody was hanging out for a bit afterwards. We got to talk to Sheila and she told us that she was recording a new cd which will be pop and not jazz this time.


For pictures of the concert please check:

http://balder.prohosting....eilae.html