I got tickets for Saturday the 24th for me and someone who is not terribly familiar with Prince, but had seen the Super Bowl and read some articles about the Vegas shows and was impressed enough to take a trip with me to Sin City to gamble and see Prince. We checked in early Saturday, ate and crashed for a few hours and then set out from our Tropicana Hotel over to the Rio. Around 9pm, we walked in the Rio’s back entrance and the very first thing we encountered was 3121 – The Jazz Cuisine restaurant. Unfortunately, there was a piece of paper taped right on the window informing us there would be no aftershow that night. A little disappointing, right from the start. We weren’t hungry so we decided to find the entrance to the actual club and scope out the ticket scenario. 3121 – The Club is not right next door to the restaurant as we had been led to believe, but if you follow along the left wall you will eventually come up on it. We saw that tickets were being handed out to the few people in line but they were not being allowed inside yet, so we chose to wait a while to pick up ours.

We sauntered around a bit looking for something to do for three hours and settled on hanging out at the Masquerade bar across the room from 3121. We managed to kill a few or six beers and as we sat there we were amused to see the ‘Masquerade Parade’ starting. The ceiling of the casino has giant tracks on it that snake throughout the room, and every hour they do a brief parade with music and various ‘floats’ that hang from these tracks with dancers inside traveling through the entire casino. They also have a troupe of dancers performing on a stage that resembles steps to a coliseum. The music is re-recorded versions of current hits and a few older songs. They added versions of Purple Rain and When Doves Cry and we got kick out of that.

After a while we had a nice buzz on and decided to get into the line which was now moving quickly and efficiently. They slipped on wristbands and handed out tickets as you moved towards the entrance. Inside, the club is really gorgeous and not as huge as I had expected. They had three bars open and Rashida was doing her DJ thing in the back left corner. Large video screens in groups of seven, I think, flank each side wall and a 3121 logo was being projected on each screen. Eventually footage started of African American dancers from old 40’s movies along with old Soul Train dancing footage. We hit the main bar in the back center to order some drinks and were very impressed with the bartender’s showmanship. These guys are like the Cirque du Soleil of the beverage industry. Bottles are being thrown up in the air, spun and poured from under the legs and all manner of acrobatics executed to entertain. When I got up there I kidded that I just wanted a Corona and please don’t throw it, but our guy just smiled and then used his foot to pop off the cap and as it flew into the air he hit it with the back of his shoe into his hand to slapp it into the trashcan. Amazing. There’s no way he could have repeated that one. My buddy’s vodka gimlet was served with just as much flare; they were a pretty stunning crew.

Rashida played a few more Prince songs as it got closer to showtime and sometime before midnight, the video from the UK Hall of Fame came on the screens. My friend found this slightly offensive. He was like, “We’re already here - we’ve bought tickets – why do we need the hard sell of these celebrities stroking Prince?” I kind of understood that – I thought the same thing when they used Alicia Keys’ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame speech as an intro to the Musicology shows. It’s sycophantic and I thought this kind of idolatry was forbidden in Prince’s view. But after a great call and response with the crowd during the D.M.S.R. in Houston showing on the screens, Prince opened with:

Satisfied
I found this to be a very effective opener. I know some don’t feel this a good choice, but the lyrics (“..this is gonna be a long nite..”) and vibe really served to excite the crowd. Even my bud was whistling and hootin’.

Girls and Boys
He spoke the first verse on this one and then the band kicked in. Everyone did the hand wave dance. CC’s kit sound was so solid – in fact everything sounded incredible.

Cream
Lot’s of sing along. Very solid guitar licks.

U Got The Look
Segued out of Cream as he’s been doing recently. They do a good job of approximating the studio rhythm track on this. CC does some good tom fills.

If Eye Was Your Girlfriend
Done short but sweet. This is always perfect. I’ve never heard a bad live version of Girlfriend.

Pink Cashmere
This is somewhat sketchy, since you don’t have the strings or the Linn track and it’s basically the keys doing descending chord jabs of melody. It could be a better arrangement. It’s also longer than most songs in the set and he features a solo by Mike Philips which would be okay if it was just the once, but Mike got three long solos throughout the night and that’s just too many.

What A Wonderful World
Here’s where things started to slow down so much that you could feel the crowd sigh. More Mike Philips and lots of keys. I couldn’t see Renato but I’m sure Morris Hayes was there. At least it didn’t go on forever.

Te Amo Corazon
Prince walked out on stage out to our great surprise with an acoustic guitar strapped on and played this song which I believe is the first and only time he’s done it solo acoustic. It was marvelous and I recognized the opening chords immediately. I think most of the audience might have been a little lost, but enjoyed the fact that they were seeing Prince on acoustic guitar.

Little Red Corvette
I may be switching the order of these next two but the crowd just loved Corvette and belted out the chorus along with him.

I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man
Done much faster than I remember even on the Art of Musicology special.

Guitar
What a surprise! I didn’t recognize it at first and then he sang the line “…I love you baby..” Done acoustically the arrangement is bit different, since you’re not hearing the percussion stuff from the recording, but it was solid and effective and the crowd gave him a huge hand for that and I think he appreciated it.

Sometimes It Snows In April
Here’s where we started to really lose the energy. I think we expected him to rock out after Guitar since I thought I saw him taking off the acoustic and switching guitars, but no, he kept it quiet with April, which was nice but not many in the audience were familiar with that one and it pushed the anticipation back down.

Gotta Broken Heart Again
We were ready to dance or rock out now and he totally blew the vibe with a slow jazzy Broken Heart which featured yet another long horn turn by Mike.

Lolita
This was a relief, but again a lot of the audience hasn’t heard the new record, so it might be a poor choice to bring this in so much later when people are ready to groove to some hits.

Black Sweat
My friend commented that although he knows what this song sounds like, it seemed like it was all rhythm track to him and no melody, which I think is true about the recording anyway. I don’t know - somehow this one doesn’t translate very well as a live song. I don’t remember him picking up the bass during this one but maybe he did. The crowd was restless at this point and moving all around and it was getting hard to see the stage from the back of the dance floor.

Kiss
This always jells the crowd. Everyone jumped around and sang along on this one. In fact, he had the crowd sing on most of it. It was pretty short though and immediately went into:

Purple Rain
Which I thought came up so early in the set and was performed at such a faster tempo than I have ever heard it, it nearly sobered me up. Great version, fantastic guitar work as usual and he did share that he loves this song, I just felt like it was rushed. No lighters came out but all of us did the obligatory hand sway at the end. After the last chord, he left the stage which was a shock because I understood Purple Rain is being done as a medley with Let’s Go Crazy as the closer. But then it occurred to me that maybe he had decided on a bigger encore section tonight. So I waited excitedly…

Let’s Go Crazy
This came out wonderful and the crowd was so appreciative about it and then he stunned the audience when he left the stage again. For a few minutes we waited to see what he would do next…

…and then Rashida started up a mix and the courtesy lights came on.

I‘ve been to almost every single appearance by Prince in the Southwestern United States since Year One - 2001. His Hit N Run gigs in San Diego and Hollywood in Spring 2001 were full on greatest hits revues and a great introduction to Prince live. The Live at the Aladdin show in 2002 was a fantastic jazz infused tour de force in a venue fit for a king. The BB King’s Blues Club aftershow appearance at the Universal Studios screening of the Aladdin DVD in 2003 was a delightful surprise. The countless television, private and aftershow appearances in the LA area for Musicology were exhausting, but worth every effort made to see him with a crack band performing a much greater selection from his entire catalog. The two Musicology shows I saw at the Staples Center in 2004 were a welcome triumphant return of live music back into stadiums again. It seems like since then his efforts have been to create a more exclusive vibe around his performances with the Hollywood parties and the contest winners show and the get-here-early or don’t get in Tower Records show. I figured the Las Vegas residency was created to bring that kind of intimate vibe to please a larger audience.

I’m sorry to write these words but this 3121 show was just plain disappointing, mostly because of the show’s pacing and brevity. It also feels to me like Prince is not feeling his audience anymore and I don’t know how to expound on that but to say he usually seems to ‘know’ what his crowd wants in the moment and nearly always finds a way to deliver it. In a large venue he’s good at making you feel like the show is just for you and you alone. It may be that in such an intimate venue as 3121 he has more trouble tuning in and accomplishing this. There were some real highlights, but overall this was not worth the ticket price. Serendipitously, I won just enough money playing blackjack to pay for both tickets, so the show turned out to be free!

thanks for the write-up, jestyr...sounds like prince was experimenting a bit with his usual set list formula last weekend, putting slow tunes at the beginning of the show and messing around a bit with 'purple rain'. interesting.

thanks for the report. I'm glad I went in January, longer show and an aftershow- it was amazing. (At least you won at the tables- I was a big fat loser)!!

Ive heard it from a few 3121 dwellers that Prince and his set is just plain tierd. It's sad to hear. I genuinely thought that he would use his club as a platform to experiment - new songs, covers, rarities and change it up every night. It would be interesting to hear that one night Prince came out and sat behind the piano ALL night or performed an improvisational set a'la N.E.W.S - SOMETHING! SHIT! Will. i . Am? what the fuck?

Many of the setlist that get reported back are very formulaic, no wonder 4 months in it is apparently begining to sound stale. Is this a pre-cursor for what to expect on the tour which may follow shortly. Cream? Lets go crazy.Purple rain? "so many hits so little time" is getting tierd. . i think i'd give that a miss.

Its his house and he can do what he wants. I just thought that a guy with his talent, and supposed desire to not live in the past but keep pushing forward. A man who comuld get pretty much any of the greatest musicians in the world to jam with him. Fails to do so on all counts.

Perhaps he is under restriction by the Rio, have they paid for the hits? Perhaps Prince is just tierd and slowing, preffering instead to take a back seat and shine the focus on artist such as shelby.

I don't know. Club 3121 hasn't turned out how many initially feared but it would but it seems as though its full potential (at least from an artistic standpoint) was never realised either.


"u can come if u want to, but u might leave dis-pleased"
[Edited 2/28/07 8:30am]

3121 said:

It was huge let down last Saturday night - especially after hearing about Friday night! I was even more pumped & even broght friends to see him for their 1st time from Wisconsin. It was a big bust for the amount of mopney we all spent.. and then to be surrounded by idiots that were drunk, throwing beer n the floor, screaming do pruple rain & asking me to stop dancing at the concert. Maybe we will have better luck when he goes on tour?

Wow.
I'm in the process of booking now, so I'm going to pretend it couldn't happen to me. I've been to shows since 82 and can say I've only seen maybe one or two shows that lacked energy or that he "mailed it in".

I've been a little surprised by how "let's go crazy" is being played. There are so many options.

FanSynceEyeWuz9 said:

thats such bad luck. hopefully it will be better on tour as u say. fingers crossed!

it's amazing how people can have different reactions to the same show.....here is a positive review from housequake

disagree with both of you Just kidding. Friday night was good, but Saturday was much better. My girlfriend (a new prince fan) thought the same. Yes, it was mellow-er than I would want, BUT PINK CASHMERE, SATISFIED, IF I WAS YOUR GIRLFRIEND, GOTTA BROKEN HEART AGAIN, TE AMO CORAZON were JUST on spot! It's a club gig, not a stadium concert mind you!! These songs worked BEST in an intimate setting. The show was a little short, but nonetheless, the acoustic set was great. Its amazing to see someone WOW the crowd with full band songs as well as just HIM and a guitar. Something in the Water (from the night before) was just amazing!! I mean, DAMN!!! Keyboards, drum-track and vocals. Awesome!!!!! WOW! All this and GIRLS & BOYS, CREAM, BLACK SWEAT, KISS & LOLITA just made the night that much more powerful!! I hope both shows were recorded!! Saturday especially!Rudedog

It's a tough audience in Vegas actually. You have all these people there that came to see him play the hits. Then you have the real fans. I've seen people there complaining and making fun of him while he is on stage. Then I've seen people that go to every show and love it.

pkidwell said:

who are they ..... I still need a couple of used 3121 tickets/stubs