Yes! I won the Afterhow contest on the Org. I thought you saw my name on the thread showing the Aftershow winners.

The show was awesome!! I took my son with me and he loved the show. Believe it or not, my son ran into some of his friends outside the venue, who are also Prince fans and hung with them during the show, while Mama (that would be me of course, was off shaking her groove thang!!!! :Party over here!!!!!

Prince wore us out, he gave us more than we expected, and we loved every minute of it!!!Prince was in an excellent, positive mood and was vibing off the NYC crowd!

I did a report of it here. Let me know what you think about it.

http://prince.org/msg/12/285264
[Edited 10/11/08 10:07am]

Days of Wild is an awesome band that plays a lot of Prince stuff, but also Sly and JB. They play almost every weekend in NYC and me and several other Orgers/HQ have been following them regularly. We know most of the people in the band. (My guest, Rsp, actually plays with them sometimes--he is awesome!)

OK here is my take on this event. I absolutely loved the evening, it was well organized. The band was tight as usual. Since everyone else elaborated on the songs I will just say I enjoyed them all, it never gets tired.

I was with a couple of non-orgers, one of which has never seen Prince upclose.
Our main goal was to be up front with Prince and the band. We were hoping for 2nd or 3rd row. So as soon as we got up there we nibbled on a couple of bites and a margarita and wanted to line up right away LOL. I swear we (fans) did not know how to behave at a high priced cocktail party.

We were pretty lucky and got first row (right under Prince's nose LOL). Saw many celebs there. I met another designer who is also a Prince fan while waiting in line. Got a chance at one point to speak to Marva and tell her how gorgeous she looked. She liked the jacket I was wearing which I designed so I gave her my card. Said "Hi" to Shelby and absolutely enjoyed Shelby's cover of Angel so I cheered her on, she has an amazing voice.

At one time Prince entered the crowd and was asking if he wanted to be interviewed LOL. I have never been this close to him so I reached out and gently touched his left shoulder and said "Love you Prince".
I sang "Nothing compares to you" with others. I may have been off key, but couldn't care less. I also flashed Prince the "I love You" sign at the end to which he smiled and turned around quickly LOL.

Also noticed Dave Chappelle in the side lines
(I don't usually type too much but I am also going to add to the after-party thread.)
[Edited 10/11/08 22:58pm]

pplrain, can you tell me, if you remember, did he sound serious when he asked if someone wanted to interview him, like he meant it, or was he joking/laughing? What was his tone?
I've asked this before but didn't get an answer, and I'm really curious about this.
Thanks in advance for any info/impressions.

pplrain said:

This is swiped from another thread. I thought it was such a good summary that I figured it needed its own thread. Enjoy! - Anx



Okay here’s our review from the early charity concert:

We are arrived at the Hotel Gansevoort around 7:15pm. There was a small crowd outside. At about 7:30pm we checked in at the will call outside the hotel and received our wrist bands. We then got in line to go inside. Once we entered the lobby, there were photographs from Randee St. Nicholas’ book about 21 nights displayed on easels.

We were ushered into an elevator to the penthouse level. On the top floor there was a bar and a DJ (DJ Lindsay), she was mostly spinning old school r & b. No Prince songs that I heard. There were seats around the perimeter with little cocktail tables. Each table had a square candle with a on it—they changed colors because they weren’t candles, but had LED lights inside.

To the south of this room was another area that was outdoors with a small pool (4 feet deep) and more seats around the perimeter. There were passed hors d’oeuvres (lobster pastry things, mini-burgers, beef tenderloin, and the only vegetarian option: bruschetta) and cocktails.

A little before nine they opened the doors on the north side of the main bar area—that is where the show would be. This room ran length-wise and the stage was set up on the east end, elevated at least 5 or six feet above the floor. The stage was fairly small—there were three microphones in the front/center, Cora’s drums were to the left (north), and Mr. Hayes keyboard was on the right. At about 9:15pm the entered from the security door just to the right of the stage and walked up the steps to the stage:
Shelby J.
Marva King
Mr. Hayes
Cora
Josh
Prince!

There were no horns at any point during the evening, and honestly I don’t know where they would have stood because it was really tight on stage and in the room.

Ladies, Prince was wearing all black—a black turtleneck sweater, black pants and shoes, and moon wraps on both ears. It looked like he just got a hair cut, it was short and more curly than in recent photos I have seen. He was wearing a huge gold(?), necklace—maybe hammered metal—it had a little bling to it, but I don’t think it was diamond encrusted. It didn’t have a definite shape really, but it was made up oval/circular shapes, hard to describe.

The first thing he said was, “Thanks for showing up” and made a comment about how it had been a strange day (stock market) and that we’d talk about it and feel better. He had the blue Stratocaster to begin. Rsp and I took copious notes about the setlist:

1. A new song! It was hard to make out all of the words, but it sounded like it was about the internet… I wrote it down as “Down Load.” It was kind of a mid-tempo bluesy. A couple little guitar solos.

He then switched to the Hohner for:

2. 1999 including the “don’t worry, I won’t hurt you” intro and the “Mommy, why does everybody have a bomb” lines. The crowd seemed to get into this. He also changed the “sky was all purple” line to “stock market crashin”.

3. I Feel For You: still singing “mainly a spiritual thing”

4. Controversy, including the “People call me rude, I wish we all were nude, I wish there was no black and white, I wish there were no rules” I was not expecting much crowd participation considering it was a richy-rich type of gig, but they surprised me and knew this part of the song. Then he melded than into a jam and guitar solo, at one point pulling out the “I’m so funky I can’t even sleep with myself” line.

5. Housequake!!! Only a few lines—“Tell me who in this house knows about the ‘Quake” I took this as a sign that he was acknowledging Jimmy and I’s winning presence. j/k

6. Controversy (outro)

7. Sexy Dancer/Le Freak. At this point a harmonica player, introduced as Frederick Young, came on stage and did a solo.

8. Miss You (Rolling Stones cover). Prince does a great Mick Jagger voice. Again featuring Frederick Young on harmonica. (I check my watch, it was about 9:45pm at this point.)

After Miss You they didn’t segue directly into another song, and Prince made a little about how when people see him at the airport they don’t yell, “Prince!” they say, “Purple Rain!” The audience thought this was quite funny.

9. Satisfied: very bluesy style, with Frederick Young doing another harmonica solo. Prince made a comment about how he was doing this old school, like “a hound dog wailing” and then went into

10. Begging Woman (or is it Cock-Eyed Woman). As most people in the crowd hadn’t already heard this, they laughed at all the funny lines. There was an organ solo by Mr. Hayes during this as well.

11. Purple Rain with the requisite guitar solo and funk faces. (Time check: 10:10pm)

12. A Love Bizarre the crowd really got into this as well. (Aside: overall the crowd was very responsive and seemed to be into the show, but I wouldn’t say they went completely wild over anything.) At the end, Cora did a great drum solo. I will admit that I have never been much of a fan of this band line up, but they have definitely improved since I last saw them at Nokia. They still aren’t my fave, but at least tonight I actually heard Josh’s bass and Cora’s solo was pretty good. (Still no Sheila E., but then who is? [Wink])

13. What is Hip (Tower of Power cover): Amazing. Harmonica solo, funky guitar playing. Rearranged with no horns, but it really worked.

14. Stratus (Billy Cobham cover) including a nice bass solo from Josh. He used his bass crybaby pedal on this and did some interesting rhythmic morphing. Cora fell right into it with him, Funky stuff!

15. Cream

16. U Got the Look

After this Prince left the stage.

17. Angel (Sarah McLachlan) Shelby sang this with Marva and she doing some churchy call and response towards the end. Also featured a harmonica solo by Frederick Young.

Prince returns

18. Nothing Compares 2 U

Even though the crowd milled around and cheered for an encore this was the last song. It ended at about 10:45pm. We hung around for awhile and they were ushered back out in the main bar area so the servers could clean up and prep for the Aftershow. We had another drink in the main bar area before we were asked to go downstairs and line up again (if we were coming back for the Aftershow, which we skipped).

Celebrity sightings throughout the evening:
Randee St. Nicholas
Howard Stern
Dave Chapelle
Anderson Cooper was getting off the elevator just as we got in to go downstairs and leave
Spike Lee

There were probably more, but as I am not really into celebrities, I didn’t notice.

On the way out we were giving a gift bag which included:
Lipstick Queen lipstick
A nice promo brochure for Randee’s 21 nights book
A Versace cut glass ornament

Overall it was a great night. Prince seemed to be in a very jovial mood and the crowd was into in as well. I have to say thanks again to Housequake and Prince for allowing us to be present at the show.

I didn’t go to the Prince Aftershow, but instead I went to hear Days of Wild play at the Bitter End. They always say you never know who might show up and jam with them. Well tonight it was the original drummer from Sly and the Family Stone, Greg Errico! He sat in with them all night and was awesome!! I feel very lucky to have seen Prince and him in the same night!

pplrain said:

You were there? Good for you. When did he say 21 nights in NY? I didn't hear that.

He sounded serious but we knew he was joking.

Flo6 said:

OK here is my take on this event. I absolutely loved the evening, it was well organized. The band was tight as usual. Since everyone else elaborated on the songs I will just say I enjoyed them all, it never gets tired.

I was with a couple of non-orgers, one of which has never seen Prince upclose.
Our main goal was to be up front with Prince and the band. We were hoping for 2nd or 3rd row. So as soon as we got up there we nibbled on a couple of bites and a margarita and wanted to line up right away LOL. I swear we (fans) did not know how to behave at a high priced cocktail party.

We were pretty lucky and got first row (right under Prince's nose LOL). Saw many celebs there. I met another designer who is also a Prince fan while waiting in line. Got a chance at one point to speak to Marva and tell her how gorgeous she looked. She liked the jacket I was wearing which I designed so I gave her my card. Said "Hi" to Shelby and absolutely enjoyed Shelby's cover of Angel so I cheered her on, she has an amazing voice.

At one time Prince entered the crowd and was asking if he wanted to be interviewed LOL. I have never been this close to him so I reached out and gently touched his left shoulder and said "Love you Prince".
I sang "Nothing compares to you" with others. I may have been off key, but couldn't care less. I also flashed Prince the "I love You" sign at the end to which he smiled and turned around quickly LOL.

Also noticed Dave Chappelle in the side lines
(I don't usually type too much but I am also going to add to the after-party thread.)
[Edited 10/11/08 22:58pm]

2elijah said:

I heard it...I will be in foreclosure if it happens...

2elijah said:

I heard it...I will be in foreclosure if it happens...

Portia said:

He said that in the beginning of the first show. It was hard to understand from the back, but my friend thinks he said "this is the first night of 21 nights in NY."
[Edited 10/13/08 11:12am]

Peacefulwild said:

Actually, I was in front and somehow missed him saying that, so don't feel bad, sometimes during the show when he was talking, I guess from the crowd clapping and dancing, sometimes I couldn't hear what he said clearly. But if he did say that, I hope it's in the midtown area, because it's so much easier for people coming from out of town to access transportation in that area;like grand central station, and those coming from the 34th street Penn station area would only basically be one stop away from the midtown/times square area.

Peacefulwild said:

Actually, I was in front and somehow missed him saying that, so don't feel bad, sometimes during the show when he was talking, I guess from the crowd clapping and dancing, sometimes I couldn't hear what he said clearly. But if he did say that, I hope it's in the midtown area, because it's so much easier for people coming from out of town to access transportation in that area;like grand central station, and those coming from the 34th street Penn station area would only basically be one stop away from the midtown/times square area.
[Edited 10/13/08 11:19am]

2elijah said:

Peacefulwild is saying she heard him say it during the first show, not the one you were at.

2elijah said:

comming from South Jersey, it would be better. I could just take the train. Instead of driving in.

2elijah said:

Peacefulwild is saying she heard him say it during the first show, not the one you were at.