For anyone whose interested:

Here's some reviews from "Sbacon1999 for the 1/12/07 shows - she posted this over at HQ:


"Well, today was a long one, but well worth it. Prince put on a great show – he was in good spirits and had a ton of energy. I think those 2 weeks off worked to his advantage. The day started with getting in line at 12:30, believe it or not I wasn’t first! Around 8pm they started giving out tickets and wristbands, and we were let in about 90 minutes later. They started the VIP line first but after a few people were let in from that line, they started letting in general admission. The crowd was pretty civil, and we saw one group sitting in the middle of the floor in a circle, playing cards and having their own purple picnic, complete with crackers and cheez-wiz – this was IN the club y’all! DJ Rashida played a great set and really helped pass the time (she played "Tamborine"!). We had a trio of ladies behind us who did the perfect Sex Shooter dance when Rashida played it – it was great! And of course we had a dose of drama when a drunken woman leaped up into the front row and held onto the barricade for dear life. This was before the show started so thankfully we were able to call security over and get her out of the way. She kept saying “I’m a guest of Steve Wynn’s!”. Whatever.

Prince came on around 12:20 and opened with 3121. He was all smiles and wearing a what we think was a black “iridescent” suit with red shirt – the way the light played off it, the color of the suit would change. Sometimes it was grey, sometimes black, sometimes purple. It was trippy. The twinz had a whole new wardrobe this time around, much better IMO. They also had curled their hair so it wasn’t straight like normal. After getting us to all hold up our hands and do 3-1-2-1, he moved onto Girls and Boys. The crowd was loving it. The hornz section was there in full effect – Mike Phillips, Greg Boyer, Maceo Parker. Morris Hayes on keys, as well as Renato Neto. Cora Dunham on drums, Josh Dunham on bass. Shelby came out and performed during the encores.

Some memories from the night:
It was a red theme night – Prince and all the band had some red on. During one song, he went to find dancers to bring up on stage and asked “Who is wearing red?” and then said “I have to match up here y’all!”. It was very funny. He did find a grandmother who had on a red top and Prince brought her up on stage to dance on one end. She was great – shaking her thing and Prince joined her on the speaker for some dancing. Prince then brought up a guy in an all-red suit who he had dance with another woman. Well, this guy was doing his best Prince imitation and we were cracking up. Prince was sort of raising his eyebrows and laughing and then said to his dance partner “I have to pull you away from him – you’re gonna get hurt!”. That same guy ended up singing the first verse to “Play that Funky Music White Boy”. He did ok but I don’t think English was his first language so Prince says “I think we need some subtitles up here for this boy!”. It was a funny moment.

All the guitars were out last night. He opened 3121 with the leopard print guitar, then the orange “Fury” guitar during Purple Rain. He played his black and white bass during Black Sweat. The blue crème de menthe guitar was also used.

Prince told a funny story about his grandma getting the ghost in church. Oh and Morris was wearing a church hat tonight.

The lighting for the show was much improved over my last visit opening weekend. A couple of times they lit Prince up with a couple dozen pinlight spotlights which created a very cool effect. They did a great job of bathing him and his guitar in lights at key moments.

Prince had three outfit changes during the night. The first suit and then later into an all-red tunic top suit that had coins on the collar and cuffs of the sleeves. His final outfit of the night was a white suit with black piping. Prince's hair looked amazing tonight.

Prince was having a great time tonight. Lots of aw-woops tonight and he had us sing parts of the songs. He also cruised around the club more than I expected. He made a full circle and mid-way, got up on a riser to dance while the band was doing Down By the Riverside. He threw several towels into the crowd and at one point, kept pretending he was throwing it into the crowd but didn’t.

During If I Was Your Girlfriend, he did drop the aftershow hint saying that we were going to party until 5am. We stopped by the restaurant on the way out and there were people going in – only $20 a head tonight. But we had such a great time at the show and felt “Satisfied” so we decided to pass. Maybe manana.

Good night! I’m off to bed…"

"AFTERSHOW TIDBITS:
I didn’t attend but the person next to me in line this morning did. She said the restaurant was packed and that the band was playing for a couple of hours, Mike Phillips running the show. Prince didn’t come out until a couple of hours had passed (and some people had left). He played for about a half hour, including singing. Party closed down at 6am. Woah!"

-----

SBACON1999's REVIEW FROM 1/13/07 SHOW:


"What an amazing 12 hours! We saw Prince 3 times in one night. Here we go…

We got in line at 10:30 on Saturday and unbelievably, the time flew by. Around 4pm, the Rio’s high rollers club members started arriving to pick up their tickets for their special show which was before the main show. Having waited in line all day, it was killing us to see that they were about to go in and see Prince. Many of them were not that interested in seeing Prince, so we figured we would be able to find some that would sell or give up their tickets. We’d talked to a couple during the day that said as much. I spotted a woman going in alone and asked her if she had an extra ticket. Turns out she had 2, so my friend and I were in! We were so excited, but two of our friends were still left out in line. Just as we were lamenting, we looked up and there they were, crossing the club floor towards us. Some woman had to come to them in line with three tickets to give away. Worked out great! So we settled in stage right near the speaker. We saw a handful more fans stream in as the hour passed, so by the time the show started at 7:15, we had a good NPG contingent in our area. Prince came out and opened with Musicology. He and the band were in all-white, with orange shirts, ties etc. Maceo had on snakeskin cowboy boots. They looked sharp. The VIP crowd did their best to get into the show and Prince was great at getting them pumped up. Our NPG area was where all the energy was, so we had a lot of visits to our speaker from Prince. On one visit, I picked up a distinct smell – nice, flowery – and realized it was Prince. The man smells amazing! Prince played for an hour – a smattering of hits like Kiss, Purple Rain, Cream… Prince did Play that Funky Music White Boy during the show and brought this guy up on stage who completely choked. Prince stood next to him making faces, checking his watch and then finally the guy tried a lyric. There were others dancing on stage so this woman came up behind the guy and tapped him on the shoulder like “Ok, time to move out of the way white boy!” and she stepped to the mic and did the song. Prince loved it! She finished the verse and crowd brought home the chorus. When she finished Prince walked back toward the mic and smacked her a big high five. It was a great moment. Prince was in good spirits and the crowd enjoyed themselves. I just couldn’t believe we were going to get to do it all again a few hours later! After the show ended, we filed out and got right back in line. On to Part 2…

For the main show that night, they let us in at 9 which seemed earlier than normal. Made for a longer wait inside and the place was definitely sold out. My friends and I took the same position we had during the VIP show as we figured we might trip Prince out with the same faces in the same spots 2 shows in a row LOL. DJ Rashida helped pass the time again and the “history of dance” video played on the screens. They also showed the DMSR portion from the Musicology show in Houston to get us pumped up. When it ended, the band started 3121 and it took a bit for the curtain to rise. The crowd was PUMPED up and Prince could feel it. He took his time on songs and mixed up the setlist from the night before. He played The Word which was great – faster version and more guitar than on the album. Satisfied in its new gospel form continues to amaze – a great song that he really spreads out on. On Black Sweat he reached down for his black and white bass and I yelled “Play that bass!” – Prince pointed at me, gave me a big grin and then came over to our speaker to play that bass! I was in heaven. “Too funky” I yelled and he looked down and grinningly agreed with me. During Kiss, he came over to our speaker and as we sang the chorus, he picked up on my friend’s good singing voice, did a little double take, and pushed the mic down toward her. She was in heaven! Then another friend had a great experience. During Pass the Peas, she was brought up on stage and one of the Twinz brought her up on our speaker. Girl shook her thang for the entire song and had a blast. She reached down at one point to hug me and said “Girl, we’re living the dream!”. Tons of fun.

The energy on Saturday’s show was definitely a lot higher than Friday and Prince and the band was really on a roll. During Let’s Go Crazy he broke a string on the leopard guitar but still pulled off the amazing closing solo. Then…the show was done. No encore at all! The DJ music came up and the “party til 5am” graphics showed on the screens. We were a little stunned! I can’t remember the last time I saw Prince not do any encores, especially when the groove was so good and crowd so into it. Well, who were we to argue. We were off to our 3rd show of the night…

My friend’s husband took a hit for the team and headed over to the 3121 restaurant before the show ended to secure us a spot. We ran over and there was a decent size crowd formed outside. I checked my cell and boom! There was a text message from him saying “I got bracelets!”. Woo hoo! Whatta man, whatta man, whatta mighty good man. That meant we were in the back room where all the action happens. Having skipped the aftershow the night before, I was pumped up to see what it would be like. We were seated in one of the back booths in the room and I was adjacent to the kitchen entrance which seemed to be where the band etc. liked to go in and out. About an hour passed and still no music. With the lack of encores and Prince having played 2 shows already that day, we wondered if he’d make an appearance, and if he did, would he play? Yes and yes. About 3am, Prince walked in from the kitchen (yes right by me!) and cruised into the side room to say hello to his guests and band members. The place started humming then and the band started to file in and take up their instruments. After a few minutes of jazz, Prince walked into the room and headed for the band area. Yes! Prince jumped right in – he was on guitar, then keys, then percussion – the guy is amazing. He walked back towards our table with a tambourine and started to look for someone to give it to. He looked, looked again and finally gave it to my friend who was sitting right below him in a chair. Then he put his arm around her shoulder and hugged he close. It was super sweet – and now she was in heaven! And she had a 3121 tambourine. I was so excited for her! Prince then walked to the next table and SAT DOWN with two women who routinely travel from Italy for the shows. He had a conversation with her for 2-3 minutes and I was just thinking “Lucky girl!” Then just when I’m looking at my friend who got the tambourine, I look up and boom – Prince is RIGHT next to me with a maraca! He grabs my hand and wraps it around the maraca and shakes it with me a few times, then leaves the maraca with me. He stands next to me for a spell just grooving and clapping his hands. Once I got past being stunned, I managed to get on beat. Oh my god I was thinking! What a memory. I just love him!

From then on out, I was a full-blown basket case, completely in the Prince zone. It was amazing to see him in this incredibly small environment, so comfortable, directing the band, jumping from instrument to instrument. He asked us “Are you all happy?” to which we screamed yes, and he said back “I’ve never been happier in my life”. Awww. He is the bomb. He was wearing a purple suit, looking slick as usual. He was laughing, yelling out “What?” when he wanted to prompt the band to take a turn with the music. Some songs I did recognize: Superstition, 3121, Te Amo Corazon, another Stevie Wonder track whose name is escaping me, and he did Love Changes at the end with Shelby. The room was pretty damn dark I have to say, so it was sometimes hard to tell who was in there playing (I think Kip Blackshire appeared again?) and sometimes we even lost track of where Prince was. LOL. The show finally wrapped up around 5:30am. He yelled “Shut it down!” and then wandered over to his keyboard and messed around, slowing the groove way down and taking us home. He then turned it off and started clapping, and we clapped for him. He walked right past me on the way out so of course I said ‘Thank you Prince’ and he said thank you back, with a very hoarse voice. This man earned his pennies tonight! I was completely blown away and loved how comfortable he was having fans so close to him and sharing his home away from home with us. An unforgettable experience!

About to board my flight home!"
[Edited 1/15/07 16:32pm]
[Edited 1/15/07 16:36pm]

Have mercy!!!! Talk about memories to last a lifetime. that was incredible!

wonder505 said:

I knowlooks like she had a great time and these shows and aftershows seem to be getting better and better. I went opening weekend but they didn't have any aftershows...maybe next time.
[Edited 1/14/07 20:56pm]

He played The Word!?!

RobDogg27 said:

I know.. can you imagine hearing "The Word" live?? Lawd help me..I would definitely go to chu(r)ch on that one...where's my
chu(r)ch hat and fan?




[Edited 1/15/07 7:20am]

WOW!!! Congratulations on a FANTASTIC 3121 experience. I KNOW exactly how that person feels. I still haven't recovered from my experience and it was more than a month ago.

I guess P knew what he was talking about in the song when he said, "You can come if you want to, but you can never leave."
----
He played The Word!!! I would LOVE to hear that live!

We began the night by taking a cab to the Rio and we arrived a little early (for dinner) so I took some pictures of the club and restaurant. I talked to one of the employees about the logistics of the aftershow because I was really stressed about getting into that damn thing! Anyways, at 6:15 me and MOMS went to the cuisine for th 6-course meal. It was unbelievable. The restaurant is so elegant and the food was absolutely amazing! The service was also great and lets just say "you don't have many meals like this one". The dinner alone would have cost over $400 but we got the VIP package so everything was already paid for. For people wondering whether or not to eat at the restaurant, GO!!! Its a great experience and the food is great.....at about 8:30, we were STUFFED and finally headed out of the cuisine.

Next stop was the box office but I noticed the High Roller show (only about an hour long) just got out so I went into the 3121 boutique. I bought the RIO Vegas Track Jacket and I really wanted to buy more but everything else I either had or didn't want. Then I proceeded to the box office and they told me that VIP's lined up against the purple rope and to get in line if I want a better table. So I jumped in line about 9:00pm and chriswill (from the quake...VERY COOL dude!) met me in line. We chatted for about 40 minutes and then we were led to our table. We asked the hostess if we could sit as close to the stage as possible and we asked for the right side. Well we got EXACTLY what we asked for.....we had the closest table to the stage on the right side. UNBELIEVABLE!!! If you can go VIP, DO IT.....so comfortable, FABULOUS VIEW, no pushing...just dancing!!!! So we sat down at our table and were delivered a bottle of champagne and vodka.....with mixers (2 bottles cause Chris had VIP too), but I had pay shell out $24 for 4 Red Bulls.....I was planning on a LOOOOONG NIGHT! The club itself is awesome, great atmosphere....great music, so perfect for this type of thing.

DJ Rashida did her thing until around 12:15ish and then we were treated to DMSR live from Houston Musicology on all the big screens, VERY cool and helped pump everyone up! As soon as that ended, the intro to 3121 blared and a twin was right above us dancing with her fan. Prince waited until after the 1st verse before the curtain came up and we could see every single expression for the entire show, it was great! Highlights during the show for me were: 3121 material: 3121, Lolita, Black Sweat, THE WORD (YES!!!!), and Satisfied.....also I was surprised to hear Spirituality (cause he didnt open with it)...it was TIGHT.

At about 1:35, I took off to the cuisine because it is becoming pretty obvious that these things are getting harder and harder to get into. There were already 10 or so people there but I was able to snag 3 Jazz Cuisine tickets ($150...for me, Moms, and Chris)....I texted Chris to send my Mom down to relieve me so I could go back (they allow you to hold your table but 1 person must be present, so our plan was to rotate 1 time each for 10 mins) By the time my Mom arrived the show was over, I was pretty shocked it ended about 30 mins early but ALL THAT would be made up for. And I heard I missed part of Pass the peas and Purple Rain so I wasnt too upset since I've seen those a lot by now and like I said "I was on a mission to get in the aftershow!" I didn't send anyone else to get the wristbands because I wanted to be responsible for whether we got in or not. Didn't want to leave that to anyone else

So we lined up against the wall and they let us in around 1:55 and escorted us to the jazz room. I couldnt believe how small this room was. I read reports but never imagined the intimacy that this room could deliver!!!! We ended up sharing a booth with some girls from Michigan and then the infamous Italy girls. Everyone was really nice.....My ONLY complaint is the water. $6 for a bottle of water when everyone is hot, just got done dancing their butt off. They should just give us pitchers of water and let us buy other stuff (drinks, food, etc..) About 3:00 the band strolled in and started to play.....and then Prince entered thru the kitchen entrance. Someone reported he was wearing purple but unless we were all color blind, it sure looked GOLD to me. BUT I DIGRESS , Prince chilled in the side room for a little bit but he couldnt control himself for very long. He entered with some girl (???) and sat at his table. Within 5 minutes he was UP playing with the keyboard. The next couple songs, Prince grabbed a tamborine, moraccas and was walking around the room getting us to join in and came right up to our booth and kind of held out the 3121 tamborine.....teasing us with it until he gave it to the girl in the next booth. He was laughing and did the same routine with the moraccas. He kind of hung out in our section for a little just grooving...he was obviously in a great mood!

Prince made his way back up to the front (remember that's only about 15 feet....lol) and started in with his guitar with the band. After a few songs he strolled back over to our section, made his way over to our booth and gave a nod (like a what's up everyone type nod) and sat down with the girls from Italy (I really respect the way these 2 girls act, they are the example of how fans should act. Considering they have seen Prince over 300x and have had multiple conversations with him...you never would have guessed any of it. One girl in a red dress (was so jealous of the Italy girls) was trying so desperately to get Prince's attention, dancing all nasty...and grinding up against 3 or 4 dudes.....Prince ignored her....right on!!! lol ) Back to my story, So here is Prince at our table, probably 3 feet away from chatting with her for a good 5-7 minutes. I reported 10 earlier (it seemed like it!!) and someone else reported 2 mins.....It was DEFINITELY longer than 2 mins but probably not 10. I could hear his voice but couldn't really make out what he was saying plus it wasn't my business. I kept thinking "wow, this is crazy.....here is the man that I have been admiring for over 20 years, right here chilling at our table" It was definitely cool just to be that close for a good amount of time. Him and Lorry (I think her name was) would talk ear to ear since the music was blaring.....and then he was off, back up to the front to JAM!!!!! At this point everyone started to stand, which was good and bad. The good part is Prince wanted everyone up and you could dance but at the same time the view was obstructed unless you were in the first line of fire. During 1 or two songs, I literally had Prince right in front of me playing the guitar...it was soooo cool but then some psycho pushy chicks started getting aggressive so I just decided I didn't want to deal with it and took some steps back to enjoy the music. 99% of the people in the cuisine were great, respectful until I got an elbow from this rude chick who thought I was crowding her space. She pissed me off so bad, but I regained my sense and thought "just take some steps back and dont let this B*$# ruin anything"

I do have to rant on 1 thing. There were 2 girls that claimed to be these HUGE PRINCE fans and acted all obsessive and everything. Well one of them asked if I had his new CD??? LOL NEW CD? You mean the one that is like a year old?? She didn't have it and knew nothing about it.....strange! It was obvious there were a few people that were there "so-called fans" which is fine but I hate the fact that some hardcores don't get in when people like that do.....

Shelby joined the group later on and I really believed that the sun was going to come up before they stopped!!! It almost did, 5:30am Prince finally pulled the plug. Lots of instrumental stuff plus 3121, Te Amo Corazon, some covers. This was my 1st aftershow and an experience I WILL NEVER FORGET. I have seen Prince 19x and experiencing something this intimate was ABSOLUTELY incredible! I did order the 3121 pancakes (GRUB!!!) and paid for my $6 waters.....lol and we all started walking out as Prince was hanging in the back room.

So, let me just put it this way.....this was worth eating my plane/hotel fare (jan 5th weekend), worth every VIP penny.....and I am already wondering if I can figure out a way to get back to Vegas to experience this 1 more time. My Mom made it thru the whole thing ( I was shocked) and she can't stop talking about Prince and "how cute he is". I don't know WHERE this man gets his energy but I am STILL EXHAUSTED (6 hours sleep all weekend.....lol)

So now I am suffering the purple blues and I really want to take my wife to 3121 so she can experience something similar. But if we don't make it back, I have these memories and I am gonna catch every damn show (upcoming tour!!!) that comes REMOTELY close to me

By the way, those TWINZ are so much hotter in person. One of them bumped into me making her way to those boxes to dance on. Also got a chance to talk to Morris and Renato...very cool guys!

so the moral is: ALL THE AGONY I WENT THROUGH WAS WORTH IT AND MORE!!!!! GO TO VEGAS Y'ALL!!!!!
[Edited 1/15/07 13:33pm]

jaynoonan thanks for this awesome report! I was so sad for you when the show got cancelled but I am thrilled you had the cance to go again and have the best time. Reading your report is making my two week wait tooooo long! I'm going VIP as well and you best believe I'm going for the aftershow.

Congratulations Jaynoonan!...you finally made it to the show. What a nice review despite your experience with some over-zealous fans at the aftershow..sometimes that can't be avoided because they are so excited to be there, but the point is that you had a good time and it's your experience with fantastic memories to keep...I see your Mom hung in there too..kudos to her!
[Edited 1/26/07 8:28am]

THANKS!!!!!

Wow!

Sounds great and thanks for all the tips should I manage to get back there!

awesome!

I'm glad you had a great time JAYNOONAN!! I'm now even more excited to head VIP style to the Feb. show!!

jaynoonan - I am sooooo happy you had such an awesome experience.
we were sick for you when the other dates were canceled.

“Prince then brought up a guy in an all-red suit who he had dance with another woman. Well, this guy was doing his best Prince imitation and we were cracking up. Prince was sort of raising his eyebrows and laughing and then said to his dance partner “I have to pull you away from him – you’re gonna get hurt!”. That same guy ended up singing the first verse to “Play that Funky Music White Boy”. He did ok but I don’t think English was his first language so Prince says “I think we need some subtitles up here for this boy!”. It was a funny moment.”

Funny to read this, cause I was the guy all-red suit comming all the way from Denmark, so no.. English is NOT my first language
And when I get up on that stage, I forgot all about the lyric to “Play that funky music”, but what the hell I had a blast up there !!
I think Prince was asking me 3 times to come to the microphone, but on stage they don’t have monitors only “in-ear sound”, so I couldn’t hear anything what Prince was saying to me on stage, but now I know thanks to this review
Btw: Any chances that some of u guys have pictures of me and Prince on stage ? I would LOVE to have a picture of the wildest night in my life !!
Maybe U all ready know it, but I was told that Prince is playing at the 3121 club, till the end of march, before he goes on tour (don’t know if it’s a world tour), so there is still ALOT of show at the Rio hotel!
I also went to the most funky aftershow EVER in my life, damn that man can jam for real!
When the show was over around 6.10 in the morning I went to he´s table and said: Thanks for the dance. He looked at me and said: U did good!
What more can U ask for

Jokke said:

You lucky guy!!!!