I got back Monday from my 3121 weekend, and after getting some much needed rest, here is what went down (as much as I can remember). There have been lots of posts about the club itself, so I will just go straight to the good stuff! However, I have absolutely no recollection of what color suit/shoes he wore, so sorry folks... : )


Here is the band lineup from this weekend. No Maceo, but an amazing new trumpet player. It’s been a long time since he had trumpet in his band:

Renato Neto - keys
Morris Hayes - keys
Mike Phillips - sax
Greg Boyer - trombone
Lee Hogan - trumpet
Cora Dunham - drums
Josh Dunham - bass
Shelby Johnson - tambourine/vocals
The Twinz



Here is the set list from Friday night’s show:

Purple Rain
3121
Girls And Boys
The Long And Winding Road (The Beatles cover)
Lolita
Black Sweat (w/ bass solo)
Kiss
Musicology
Prince And The Band
What A Wonderful World Instr. (Louis Armstrong cover)
When A Man Loves A Woman (Percy Sledge cover sung by Shelby)
Little Red Corvette
Raspberry Beret/Vicki Waiting
Sometimes It Snow In April
Something In The Water (Does Not Compute)
Anotherloverholenyohead/Rock Lobster
Let's Go Crazy
Crazy (Gnarls Barkley cover)
Nothing Compares 2 U

The show started at 12:35am and went until 2:05am - exactly 90 minutes. After the Brit Awards clip, as the curtains rise, "Purple Rain" starts. Opening the show with this song was amazing!

And then "3121", very funky. Love this song live.

“Girls And Boys" was next, and the best part is, he sang the whole song, including the "Happiness in its uncut form is the feeling that I get in your warm, warm..." part! Wow, finally he is done with the short 2 minute versions of songs that he played live for so many years!

Next up is "The Long And Winding Road" by the Beatles. I only recognized the song from the lyrics, as it was very slow bluesy compared to the original. Awesome

Back to the funk! "Lolita" and then "Black Sweat". An amazing bass guitar solo by Prince that lasted about 4 minutes as he walked all over the stage and stopping the band so he could work it out! Just like he used to back in ‘95. I was waiting for people to start chanting "Play that motherf***** bass!" Then a standard version of "Kiss" follows. Hasn’t he played this song at like every show/tour since 1986?

“Musicology" turned into a nice funk jam that segued into a full version of "Prince and The Band" which was very funky. "I’m so funky, I can’t sleep with myself!!" he exclaims with a smirk on his face"

Now Prince and the band take a break, and Mike Phillips does a sax solo. Renato joins him on keys a few minutes later for "What A Wonderful World". Then the band returns and Shelby comes out to sing "When A Man Loves A Woman" She is such a powerhouse, and has amazing stage presence. She is easily the best singer he has ever had in his band.

The band leaves again, and Prince comes out of the shadows with an acoustic guitar strapped on. He starts playing "Little Red Corvette" which had great audience participation, and put a big smile on his face. "Raspberry Beret" kept the crowd going. He added a few words at the end of it: "this is where she wants 2 be, and I am what she wants 2 see" which sounds like "Vicki Waiting" to me" "Sometimes It Snows In April" followed, which is always great to hear. I believe this is the first time he did an acoustic set during this 3121 thing. Amazing!

He then walks off stage... the band returns and starts playing a slow, unrecognizable groove. After a couple of minutes, Prince slowly walks back toward the microphone and starts speaking the words to "Something In The Water (Does Not Compute)" There are no words to describe this, I was speechless! This amazing performance led straight into...

“Anotherloverholenyohead" which he has been performing since last year, and lately he has added a bit of The B-52’s "Rock Lobster" at he end. But this version tonight blew away any that I have heard/seen before. He tore the it up with the most amazing guitar solo I think I have ever seen, and I have seen him live 23 times. I know I saw flames coming outta that thing!

A short "Let’s Go Crazy" about the same length as at the Super Bowl. But the crowd still went nuts, even though it was over in 2 minutes.

Prince then walked off stage, but almost immediately, the band started a groove which evolved into "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley, which was Shelby’s cue to come out and blow us away again. I thought she was doing great, and then Prince comes out for the 2nd verse and starts singing too, and finished the song with her. They seem to have great chemistry.

After that, I am ready for more! The next song is "Nothing Compares 2 U", but Prince really seemed like he was going through the motions here, and just wanted to get through it. I couldn’t wait for the song to end, actually. I knew the show would be over soon, since most have been around 90 minutes, so I couldn’t wait to see what he was going to close the show with. But that was it! Nothing against the song, but truly a let down to finish an amazing show like that with this pop song... Odd ending to say the least - and NO encore. DJ Rashida immediately starts up and the house lights come on. Now the mad rush to the jazz club for aftershow...

~~~~~

So with the main show over at 2:05, we head over (quickly!) to see what kind of line awaits us. There are already about 60-70 people in line, no doubt the majority of which didn’t go to the main show at all, or left REALLY early. After about 15 minutes, a group of about 30 industry VIP’s are ushered to the front of the line and are name-checked against a list and are let in. At about 2:30 they slowly start letting the first fans in and are charging $50 to get in. My friends and I were like "there is no way we are getting in with all these people ahead of us" but we decided to stay and see it through. Little by little, we inched closer to the door. After waiting for over an hour, we were finally let in at about 3:15! Cover charge? $0!! Since we would be sitting in the main room and would not be able to see, just hear since the room where the instruments are set up was full. I think about 10 more people behind us got in, but that was it! The experience was quite smooth actually. It was odd because it seems reports from every week described different rules for getting in: VIP, dinner earlier, wristbands, drink minimums, etc... There was none of that on this night! Plus, they had speakers set up in the large room, and the French doors separating the 2 rooms were wide open. I was able to get a seat with somewhat of a view, even though the room was completely dark, only lit by candlelight. Not 5 minutes after securing a spot, I see Shelby walking around the room, chatting up folks. She walks by me and I stop her and tell her she sounded great. When she spoke, her voice was very hoarse and she explained she had the flu and was going home, so wouldn’t be singing anymore tonight. She must have been very ill, because she was not at the main show at all on Saturday night. As soon as she walks away, the music starts...


2 different band members here, but they were amazingly talented. .

The band:
Mike Phillips – sax/vocoder
Greg Boyer - trombone
Christian Scott – trumpet
Cora Dunham – drums
Josh Dunham - bass
Morris Hayes – keys
Esperanza Spaulding – upright bass/vocals

Set list:

jazz instrumental
jazz jam
Down by the Riverside
Satisfied (almost 8 minutes)
jazz jam
Footprints (about 30 minutes)
The World is a Ghetto/It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)
What is Hip (Instr.)
Santana Medley/Another Star
Happy Days Are Here Again

The show started at 3:20am and they played until 5:15am 1hr 55 mins - much longer than the regular show!

Mike Phillips said "Welcome" and then the band went into a jazz instrumental which featured a great solo the new(er) guy on trumpet, Christian Scott. Prince was nowhere to be found at this point.

After about 10 minutes on the first jazz jam, they start another with a slightly faster tempo. About halfway through, Prince walks in from the patio and starts playing the guitar.

“Down by the Riverside" - What a funky song with heavy horns! Total New Orleans style. Very different to hear something like this from Prince. Everything was jamming until all of a sudden Prince stopped the band and yelled "Now, wait a minute, now wait a minute! Who's drivin' the orange Pinto?" Everybody started laughing. Somebody in the audience shouted "You are!!" Everybody laughed again. Then Prince shouted, "Josh!" Was this Prince’s way of calling him out cuz he messed up or something? I sure didn’t notice if he did, but that was freakin’ hilarious! Then as if nothing happened, they continued right where they left off.

Next, he goes to the mike and says "Y’all are about to get satisfied" and starts singing an amazingly slow, bluesy version of "Satisfied" which was incredible - sounding so different. He stretched this out for about 8 minutes! After every verse, there was a pause and people were shouting, "Go ‘head!" "Sing it!" etc. He ended the song with a triumphant "Woo", looked around, said "Y’all don't hear me", and then he said "Woo" again! The room erupted in applause! Unbelievable...

Another jazz jam ensued, and this is where Esperanza got her chance to jam. Part way through, she started singing, but not sure what it was. Then she started ‘scat-singing’ a-la Ella Fitzgerald. She sounded amazing.

Christian Scott was showcased here, too. Then Prince, who left and went out on the patio for awhile during this jam, came back and played guitar.

The Miles Davis song "Footprints" was next. This turned into an almost 30-minute jam that featured all band members extensively. Esperanza was just jamming on the bass!

Prince left the room again, a funky beat started, and Mike Phillips started singing "The World is a Ghetto" and some lines from "It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)" on the Vocoder. Near the end, Prince came back in the room and picked up the guitar again.

Next was a funky instrumental "What is Hip" with more crazy guitar from Prince.

Is it over? Prince took a bow and they all got up and left the room for the patio, but almost immediately people started chanting "It ain’t over!" Then Mike stepped to the mike (lol) and told us to chant louder if we wanted some more! It was 5:00am by this point, and a lot of people left and didn’t hang around for some reason. So for the next song, I had a great view! Well, it didn’t take long, and everyone came back except Cora. Prince took her place at the drum kit as Morris played the intro to the "Santana Medley" on keyboard. This was the most amazing scene. Prince played the drums for the whole song! Partway through, they went into "Another Star" by Stevie Wonder, before going back to finish the 15 minute long medley. And thrown in for kicks was a bit of "Happy Days Are Here Again"! What? lol After it was over, I looked around as people were cheering and clapping with stunned looks on their faces... These folks will never be the same again! I know I won’t!

Thanks for the great review!

Either you were writing all night or you have one heck of a memory my friend! You nailed this night (morning) step by step! Nice job!!! In my post, I didn't even try to remember all the details as I think my mind started oozing out of my ears by the middle of the aftershow from the lack of sleep at that point (a 3 hour time change didn't help... I'm from Cleveland so it was 9:30 a..m. Cleveland time by the time I crashed!). You really deserved to be IN the music room, unlike some others that weren't terribly into it. But you were there, that's the main thing, right? Who could have asked for more that night.... except more sleep beforehand! Super review... thanks!

Wow Wow Wow! What a great review! Thanks for the play by play. I want SO BADLY to go...I wish they would post some dates.

Glad you had a great time. I was lucky enough to attend the first Aftershow for 3121 on Dec.2nd, before all the vip and charging 50, etc, started. I was thinking of returning in March, but I think leaving the main show early to be let in to the main room where you can't even see,really sucks.

Great review--I am so hoping he is out there when I am in vegas!!!

.
[Edited 4/18/07 21:52pm]

Thanks for the review

7kisses4U said:

You're welcome.. But my favorite quote was "Who's driving the orange Pinto!"