So me and Delores flew out to Vegas. We stayed at the Rio and had dinner at the 3121 Jazz Cuisine. We experienced 2 regular shows and 2 after shows.

Just arriving back home, here are some random thoughts for your amusement.
(Warning: this will involve personal opinions)

* The concept of Prince's production in Vegas is very good. What he has done is create 2 separate setups for him to play in. Both the regular concert room and the Jazz Cuisine have permanent setups, and both create an intimate environment that he can feel very comfortable with.
This allows Prince to bring different kinds of performances to an audience in a very organic way, all within convenient walking space from each other.
Both spaces also provide 2 levels of access to the performance; one very convenient one that comes at a premium, and a cheaper one.
This provides a lot of choices for both Prince and his customers; an all-round excellent concept and I’m looking forward to seeing something like this again in the future.

* The round shape of the concert room with it's tall walls and projection screens provides an acoustic challenge that Prince's audio people have not been able to solve. I tried to see if there was an ideal position where there would be minimal interference from sound echoing off the walls, but I could not find it. The end result is that the audio is muddy, and a lot of the middle frequencies disappear in a lot of bass and high. After the excellent audio of the ONA tour, which I was able to attend in several venues all over the place (i skipped Musicology), this was disappointing.

* The Jazz Cuisine restaurant suggests a level of quality by it's use of a "French" restaurant service concept, that includes things such as the Amuse Bouche (translated from French: an amusement for your mouth. A "free" bite-sized taste experience that is offered to you before your ordered meal is served), lots of French terminology, high prices, the option of ordering a menu of many courses, the option of adding a wine selection per course, a head waiter who will give you detailed information about what it is you are eating and decorum such as classy looking cutlery, linen and glass.
In practice this service concept turns out the be implemented only skin deep.
Here are some examples: the head waiter had his hands in his pockets while explaining what you are eating, the head waiter used French terminology frequently incorrectly to describe things (with at least one episode which was beyond hilarious). Food was served in a rapid pace, which defeats the whole purpose of having a menu of many courses, as you want to enjoy them as separate entities combined with the wine especially chosen for that course. This led to us having a row of 4 glasses of unfinished wine each when we hit the 4th course.
Safe for going on a binge, we had no option but to ask the staff to remove the unfinished glasses.
I have serious doubts as to the freshness of several ingredients of the different courses I had, and in some cases dishes suffered from being prepared (too far?) in advance. I found anything fish related bordering on the un eatable.
Glass, linen and cutlery is form over function and cheaply made.

* I feel it wouldn't hurt if Larry learned some new songs.

* It is always awesome to meet Prince fans from all over the place. I love you all! But please don't wear ear wraps, they never looked good on anyone
* As I skipped the Musicology era, I hadn’t seen Shelby perform a lot. But I noticed that she is really amazing, and her voice has the effect of an adrenalin injection on my body. Also remarkable is how Mike Philips’ role has evolved in the band, who seems to be the de facto band leader in Prince’s absence. I mention these 2 people specifically because I had a completely new experience on Friday’s aftershow : the band was actually better (by a large margin), without Prince and brother Larry being there. When Prince and Larry arrived it was back to “on the D.R.U.M.S” etc etc yawn etc.

m3taverse said:

let me guess.. 'thank you for letting me be myself' and 'everyday people'?????

XxAxX said:

and Higher, and Sing a Simple Song, and that concludes the entire Brother Larry set list.

what are ear wraps?

icried said:

m3taverse said:

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Here are some examples: the head waiter had his hands in his pockets while explaining what you are eating, the head waiter used French terminology frequently incorrectly to describe things (with at least one episode which was beyond hilarious).

Did you go for the music or the food? Are you surprised that a waiter making min wage does not speak french.(LOL)

laurarichardson said:

When i went to the concerts i went for the music, when i went to the restaurant i went for the food.

great report
especially the part about the restaurant

m3taverse said:

She is great and I agree with most of your very observant observations, except Shelby wasn't with Prince during Musicology. He only recently (I believe December of last year if I'm not mistaken) met her while she was singing backup for Larry Graham at his show at 3121. Prince even said as much during the New Year's Eve show when he introduced her. She's new to the clique. She wasn't even with Larry when I saw him open for The Time last year at the Rio. Hope you had a good time.

m3taverse said:

Laura is real shall we say slow.

SCNDLS said:

Looks like i skipped Musicology more than i thought i had Thanks for clearing that up.
I had much more than a good time I feel. This will be added to the treasure chest that contains all my Prince memories. And as always, the people you meet are at least half of the total experience.

m3taverse said:

Curiosity is killing me. Care to share the mistake?

Thanks 4 sharing ur experience! Wish I could b there!

robusto said:

"this especially prepared potato is called Pomme de Terre"
ooh, fancysmancy!

There are many more, but this is the one that really made me chuckle.

rainbowchild said:

wish you were there too

lovemachine said:

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A case of the pot calling the kettle black since I was not addressing you in the first place.

m3taverse said:

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Your report seems to focus on the food and how some poor minium wage slave can't speak French. Most fans would not go to the Rio and focus on the food.

Sorry just my take on your post. After all this is Prince.org not Food and Restaurant Review.org.

laurarichardson said:

Laura i will clarify for you ok. I do not blame the waiter at all, he was obviously some poor slob who was taught a few tricks. I tipped a full 20% which brought the bill up to a pretty cool round number. I would not have tipped 1 dollar if I hadn't known he, and the other people working there, wasn't making enough to live on without tips.
Also know that my less than awesome experience at 3121 Cuisine did not diminish my enjoyment of Prince's music in any way. I guess it's that I take food seriously, and 3121 isn't a serious restaurant.

laurarichardson said:

I am just helping out in case he hasn't read enough of your posts to understand that you are pretty much well slow but looking back your first post on this thread was enough to clarify that for anyone.

.
[Edited 3/27/07 16:46pm]

lovemachine said:

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I guess you really want to get booted off of this board. Because you can't stop the flaming yet I am the one who is slow. No one is addressing your ass butt the f**k out. I am being quick enough for you now or do you need an additional instuctions.

m3taverse said:

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" 3121 isn't a serious restaurant" Well now you know.

well it isn't
that ain't my fault, take it up with the boss.

laurarichardson said:

As if I am going to get kicked off this board for calling YOU slow

I would say not understanding that people would review a restaurant that Prince has his name attached to is "slow" and that there is a difference between the music and the expensive restaurant.

Actually I think your problems are a lot deeper but I am going to give you the benefit of the doubt and just use the term slow.

m3taverse said:

you know? the first time i heard larry play with prince was back in 1997 and he opened with those songs. he has been playing them without fail every time he takes the stage ever since then.

isn't that kind of fucked weird? i mean, who does that? mind you, i'm not hating on the guy, but at this point i am wondering just how much mileage he will try to get out of these 1970s gems.
awww, larry ya weirdo
[Edited 3/28/07 11:43am]

m3taverse said:

Someone who agrees...

lovemachine said:

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If is called flaming. Something you are not suppose to do. Maybe you should try reading the rules but, maybe you are too slow for that task.

I certainly understood the post. I just don't understand a music fan putting the focus on the restaurant and not the music since we all know P is not in the back cooking the food or involved with the service (LOL) In the end the poster explained themselves and you have managed to make a mountain out of a mole hill because you don't appear to have a life. I hope you get one soon.

lovemachine said:

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See below. I know reading is hard for some people.
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Don't create offensive, vulgar, obscene, threatening, abusive or excessively profane posts. Do not instigate, engage in, or encourage 'flame wars'. If you insult someone "jokingly", be prepared to have it not interpreted that way by the Moderators. A good general rule: "criticize ideas, not people." Any language which encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense is grounds for immediate account deletion

m3taverse said:

i know it sounds silly... but i've always wanted to try on one of those ear wraps. they look So cool for some reason. do you have to have a second piercing for them or do they go on another way?

tznekbsbfrvr said:

I've had it explained to me that you actually don't need any piercings. They sort of clamp onto your actual ear.

m3taverse said:

really? hmm.... but in the picture his ear looks a bit red in my opinion. i still might wanna try one on though