First, let me warn you that my review is kind of long but I’m very detail-oriented and I didn’t want to forget any of people and events that made the “for real” last weekend so special.

I arrived in Las Vegas on Friday at 8:30 a.m. and spent most of the day trying to get in touch with all my Purple Peeps hailing from Cali, Chicago, Florida, and parts unknown to synchronize our watches in anticipation of blast off with our lil’ purple pilot. It was a day spent in anticipation of all the excitement to come but uncertainty as to whether this for real last weekend at 3121 Las Vegas would or could hold a candle to the previous “last weekend” in March when all the stars were in alignment and me and my fellow funk soldiers shared an unforgettable weekend meeting new friends, enjoying each other and indulging our passion for Prince and his otherworldly talents. Well, I’m pleased to report that this weekend was equally as great but very different than the previous finale weekend, for various reasons.

First things first, I got to the Rio around 7:30 pm and met my homegirl Georgiapeach (GP) and I’m very surprised to see that there were less than 15 people in line. I expected a much longer line but I guess that most of the diehard purple hippies came out last month when we thought that was the last weekend. Some of the true blue were holding it down in front as always Keiko and Ellie included, it’s always good to see them.

While in line, GP and I are chatting with the folks around us and met Daniel from Austin, TX. Eva Longoria is his cousin so of course I make cracks about how Eva has whupped that young’un Tony Parker with her grown ass. Daniel is good natured about my ribbing and tells me how much he loves Prince but has never seen him live. This is also only the second Prince concert for GP who saw him for the first time the last weekend of March and hasn’t been the same since. I love hearing these stories from folks who have just discovered Prince or are having their first live experiences with the man. It gets me all excited and makes me feel like a teenager with a newly discovered passion for all things Prince.

They begin admitting us to the club around 8:30 and GP and I make a beeline for the center of the stage directly in front of his mic stand. We sit next to Vanessa who is too funny and tells me how she’s there with her daughter (who I think is about 20 years old) and how she converted her into a Prince fan recently at another 3121 show. Vanessa goes on to say how their shared excitement over Prince has brought them so much closer in recent months. I later meet her daughter who is HILARIOUS and says adamantly that she loves Prince. She was a hoot! Prince’s new slogan should be: “Prince music, bringing families together through the FUNK.” LOL!

So as we sit there waiting FOUR more hours for the show to start we get to know those around us. We met Jonathan who is a dancer at the Rio and a Prince fan but he was never able to get off work to see the show, so this is also HIS first time at a Prince concert. This, to me, was the major difference from the previous month which was mostly lifelong fans who’ve been to multiple shows. This weekend featured more casual or new fans so it was a distinctly different experience from last month, but still very fun as they were extremely excited and it was quite contagious. So me and GP are looking at the mic stand where Prince is going to be standing and where are we? Dead center, ready for our close ups! LOL!

So the video from Musicology in Houston starts. (I was actually at this show on the front row on the aisle so whenever they show this I’m always looking, like a fool, to catch a glimpse of myself in the footage. LOL!) Then Prince finally appears on stage. Looking good as always and the crowd goes wild.

Here’s the setlist posted on HQ (I never remember setlists just specific songs. (I put “new addition” next to the songs I’ve never heard performed at the main show in any of the previous six shows I’ve been to or seen on a posted setlist. I may be wrong so let me know if you’ve seen any of my “new additions” performed at 3121 before.)

Thunderstorm Intro
Satisfied
3121
incl. One Nation Under A Groove
incl. More Bounce To The Ounce (Instr.)
Girls & Boys
incl. Cutie Pie [One Way]
incl. Miss You (Instr.)
Cream
U Got The Look
Lolita
Black Sweat (Incl. Prince Bass Solo)
Kiss
Shhh
Musicology (Feat. Marva King)
Pass The Peas
I Just Wanna Get Along With You [Kelis] (Shelby on vocals) (new addition)
Something In The Water (Does Not Compute)

Acoustic Set :
Little Red Corvette (new addition)
I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man (new addition)
Raspberry Beret (new addition)
Begging/Cock-Eyed Woman (new addition)
Three Handed Woman (new addition)
Sometimes It Snows In April

If I Was Your Girlfriend
Pink Cashmere
Acknowledge Me (Ballad Version) (new addition)
Purple Rain

Encores (Prince on keys at the center of the stage and Sheila E stage right on timbales)
The Glamorous Life
Sheila E. Percussion Solo
A Love Bizarre
Superstition (Feat. Marva King) (new addition, he did this last week too)
Higher Ground (new addition, he did this last week too)
Tell Me Something Good (new addition)
Do Me, Baby (new addition, he did this last week too)
Nothing Compares 2 U


The first part of the show was pretty standard for me as I’ve been to so many shows at this point but it’s NEVER boring. We get an extended version of Satisfied, he kills the bass on Black Sweat (Prince says: “You be screaming like Sanaa Lathan when I count to 3, 1, 2, 3). Then makes ALL da panties in the house drop with an extra sexy version of Shhh. Cora is cutting up on drums as usual and spinning the sticks and slamming the cymbals ala John Blackwell. I can’t believe all that power comes from such a lil thing cuz I think she may be smaller than Sheila. LOL!

Now we’re at my least favorite part of the show when all the folks from VIP come up on stage to show off lackluster dancing skills and diminished coordination due to the fact that most are drunk off their asses. However, some highlights are Sanaa Lathan (hence the shout out earlier), Tavis Smiley, and Hill Harper are on stage doing they thing. Shelby pulls Marva King (rocking a fierce afro!) on stage and she joins her on a mic. Prince says "I knew she was funky with a 'fro like dat!"

A funny thing that happened while the dancers were on stage was this drunk blonde chick (ya’ll KNOW there’s ALWAYS one!) that kept going up to each musician on stage to grind on them. She started on the right and worked her way over to Josh on the left who’s just playing and minding his own business. Well obviously she doesn’t know Josh is Cora’s husband (or maybe it didn’t matter) and is sitting on the drums right behind her. So I’m watching to see how things play out and Cora is happily drumming along and catches a glimpse of this drunk heffa rolling up on her man. It was hilarious, cuz Cora did a double take then watched her like a hawk. TOOOOO funny. I was like Becky Sue better be careful or she gon get tapped on with a drumstick! I forgot anybody else was on stage for that moment.

Then comes the acoustic set, which was a recent addition to the show and a first for me. And he does it like a sing along but I really think this crowd was filled with a lot of newbies cuz they didn’t know they were supposed to be singing along. But it was great to see him alone on stage doing his thing with a single spotlight on him. It was during this set that he played many old faves that I had not previously heard at 3121, including:

Little Red Corvette
I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man (he just sang the first line because not enough people knew the words. I was trying to scream the words but I’d already lost my voice by this point and it just croaked out. His exact words were: “Oh, so you don’t know that one? Well how about this one? And he goes into RB)
Raspberry Beret
Begging/Cock-Eyed Woman (Best line of the whole night: She be asking for the pepper, but be looking at the salt! Prince, you ain’t right!)
Three Handed Woman

After a tear jerking acoustic rendition of Sometimes it Snows in April, before the emotion and sadness of the song could sink in, he went right into a superfunky If I Was Your Girlfriend and the crowd was swaying from side to side. That was hot! Later he performs Purple Rain and leaves the stage and I’m thinking it’s over cuz we’ve had so many “new” songs and a killer acoustical set so what more is there to do???

Well, I get my answer in a few moments when they bring out Sheila’s timbales, I’m thinking: “Oh no, not again, could it be???? Am I lucky and blessed enough to get Miss E. on stage WITH Prince a THIRD time in less than a month?????” Apparently so. But to put a new twist on things they bring out Prince’s keyboards. Again, yet ANOTHER first for me at 3121 as I’ve never seen him on keys there.

So Sheila does her thang as only she can, then Prince pays homage to Stevie Wonder and goes into Tell Me Something Good and it’s even funkier than when he did it on BET last year. TOO FUNKY! And the show ends with Nothing Compares to U. My evening was capped off perfectly when my new best friend, Vanessa, asked Otis for a guitar pick and she handed it to me. That was sooooo generous, thanks again.

This was truly an amazing show not just because of the performances which, to me, are always good, but mainly because it was a show of so many firsts. That became the theme of my night, a show of firsts on one of its last nights. First, I was surrounded by many who were having their first experiences with Prince (it was fun living vicariously through them for a few moments and witnessing their complete and utter conversion into true Purple Hippies ). Then Prince played many songs for the first time at 3121. It was also my first time witnessing an acoustical set and Prince on keyboards. This felt like Prince was throwing in everything AND the kitchen sink with this almost final performance and I thoroughly enjoyed it. This show was the longest one I've seen at around 2 hours and 10 minutes.

Now for the bad. I hate to end my review on a negative note but as wonderful as the show was the aftermath regarding the after show was ridiculous. Everyone expected an aftershow because the announcer before the show, the DJ and Prince himself kept repeating over and over that there would be an aftershow next door at the restaurant. So we get out of the show and there are people who’ve been in line for hours waiting but we get word from someone in the Jazz Cuisine (from the other side of a locked gate cuz she didn’t have the key to open it) that it’s cancelled.

The place is fully furnished, there are tablecloths on the tables with lit candles. So the employees fully expected there to be an aftershow and were as shocked as the fans that it was cancelled. Apparently, Prince decided to host a private party for him and his friends instead. That’s cool, but why make repeated announcements AND prepare the restaurant for an aftershow????

As bad and disappointing as it is for fans to have to deal with a last minute cancellation, it’s even worse for the staff at the Rio. Many of these people work for an hourly wage and/or tips. So when this show got cancelled that had a direct impact on their checks. Meaning they were scheduled for X number of hours but because of the cancellation aren’t going to work enough hours for the week, which can impact their insurance benefits, as well as their take home pay. It’s the end of the week so there’s no way to make that up. Furthermore, they could have possibly worked elsewhere in the casino to ensure they got their hours but were assured there’d be an aftershow to work.

The maddening thing about some of these decisions is that nothing happens in a bubble and many things that Prince decides to do trickle down and adversely impact people in a very real and basic way and it seems to show a lack of understanding or consideration on his part. On the flip side, the Rio should have stipulated that if they have to provide employees to work an event, Prince would have to pay the overhead if he chose to cancel without proper notification. So I guess there’s enough blame to go around. As a former waitress myself, I really felt sorry for all those bartenders, waitresses, and other staff members that got screwed because of the cancellation. That was not cool.

Again, I hate to end such a wonderful experience on a negative note, but that’s how I felt. Really let down after an amazing purple high because so many innocent people were losing out on their livelihood due to what seems like a whim.
[Edited 5/2/07 16:57pm]

I love ur reviews!!!U keep it real and u make me laugh each and every time!I feel like I was there and oh would I love 2 see somebody get beat down by Cora and her drumstick!!! and I saw ur little recount of the tambourine lady on HQ HIL-ARIOUS "Naw YOU aint right"!!!
[Edited 5/1/07 8:59am]

AWESOME REVIEW SCNDLS...STILL RECOVERING FROM ONE OF THE BEST (IF NOT THE BEST) WEEKENDS OF MY LIFE....WOW!

georgiapeach said:

hi Georgia scndls made u famous

PleasurePrinciple said:

Girl, please! She made herself famous when Prince was giving her the eye both nights, and a pink rose on Saturday night (details in my next review). But she can't help that she be giving us all that natural supermodel appeal. LOL!!!

SCNDLS said:

dang,I cant wait get 2 typin tootsie

PleasurePrinciple said:

Hi PleasurePrinciple.....

georgiapeach said:

Hey GP

Thanks, great review again ....