I had a great time at the Family Jamm concert. Even better than I anticipated. It was held at the Great Western Forum, and I would say that there were only two thousand people there, if that. When my friend and I got there, it was 3/4 empty. It looked pitiful, and I thought oh, boy, the concert's going to suck. But Sheila E. and everyone performing went out of their way to constantly thank us for showing up. The performers gave their all for the crowd that it didn't matter what the attendance was. It was a reminder that the support of the charity not the concert was the important thing.

The concert was supposed to start at 7:30 PM but didn't get going until 8:00 PM, and it ended around 11:00 PM, so it was about two and a half hours of music all together, not counting the set up time between the sets.

Carmen Electra was the host. She would introduce each act, but she didn't sing herself, which doesn't surprise me. At one point in the evening, Sheila E. teased her and began singing "Go Go Dancer" and "Step to the Mike." Most people in the audience laughed.

(I may get some of the song order wrong since I'm doing this from memory and didn't take notes.)

First up was Jill Jones, and she looked great. She sang "Mia Bocca," and was really good. But that's all she sang. One song. I was a little disappointed. Then Apollonia came out and sang "Take Me With U." Her vocals were weak, but who cares. Her vocals have always been weak, and it was still fun. She forgot the second verse and messed it up, which was funny. It was also interesting to hear the full song without it going into the "Raspberry Beret" melody after the first chorus like Prince usually does in concert.

Then, for the first time together since they recorded it, Sheila E., Matt Fink and Eric Leeds came out and performed four Madhouse songs. I don't know which ones they were since I can never tell them apart. (I know, I'm a bad Prince fan.) They played the more popular ones, so I would guess that Madhouse "Four" was one of them. They're great musicians, and it reminded me of Prince's impromptu concert at B.B. King's Live recently. It was like being in a jazzy night club... that was in the cavernous Forum.

Then all of the members of The Family came out, and they played most of their album. I think they started with "River Run Dry," then went into "Mutiny," then "High Fashion," then "The Screams of Passion," and closed with "Nothing Compares 2 U." Miko Weaver was on guitar, and the band made the songs sound much more like funky rock songs. They were fantastic. I don't think they ever performed the material live like that, even when the album was first out. St. Paul seemed much more confident of himself and more relaxed and had a great time. Susannah looked beautiful and was fantastic. It was so exciting.

Then Sheila E.'s dad came out and introduced her. Her band came on stage, and they began with the intro to her second album, the jazzy little bit that leads into "Sister Fate," but instead of "Sister Fate" they went into a different song. "Oliver's House" I think. Interesting choice, no? Then she performed "The Belle of St. Mark" and "17 Days," then went into "Holly Rock," which really got the crowd going, and into "A Love Bizarre." I think she also played "Alphabet Street" somewhere in there. After that, she was going to leave the stage, but her brother, who was playing in the band, coerced her into playing "The Glamorous Life." You could tell it wasn't planned. She was put on the spot. What could she do? She came back and warned him he was going to get it backstage. So they went into "The Glamorous Life," and it was such a great version.

At this point the concert could've ended and I would've been in Prince protege heaven. You know how great Prince is in concert and how sometimes his overproduced album sound melts away completely when you hear him live. That's how it was tonight. The musicians were so on top of it. They made every song rock, funky and fun.

Then Carmen introduced Chaka Khan. She sang "I Feel For U." It was great, but that's all she did. I have to admit I was expecting a little more since she did a whole album with him. I was hoping she'd sing "Don't Talk to Strangers," but also afraid she'd sing "Democrazy." Oh well. One song was fine.

Then Patti LaBelle came out and sang "Yo Mister," the one and only Prince song she ever did. She didn't remember the lyrics to it and had them on two pieces of paper she was reading off as she sang, but it never tripped her up. She sounded great. She has an amazing voice, too. I've never been a fan of the song, but live it was great. Afterwards she said, "That was a song Prince wrote for me a hundred years ago. I didn't know the lyrics then and I didn't know them tonight, so I had to read them off this paper." Everyone cheered and applauded. No apology necessary.

Then there was a moment of true bizarreness. The Time came out and performed. Jerome was there (well he was there even when The Family performed), and Jellybean Johnson was there. But the "Morris Day" they had wasn't Morris. It was someone dressed up to look exactly like him, and I think it was Sheila E. They sang "Jungle Love," and that was it. I thought then the real Morris would pop out and they'd have some crazy skit, but nope. Or then I thought Sheila E. would rip off the Aunt Jemima costume and make a moment of it, but nope. They performed and then left the stage. It was very strange.

Then the final group. Performing for the first time together in seventeen years was the Revolution. All the original members were there: Wendy and Lisa, Matt Fink, Bobby Z., Brown Mark and Eric Leeds. It was really exciting. I swear I must have looked like a kid in a candy store. My friend said she didn't know who half the people were, and really didn't know many of the songs. Of course, I was singing along with the lyrics. I told her to imagine following every protege group Prince had since the beginning and never seeing them perform before, and knowing in your heart of hearts that Prince's true creative period was with the Revolution, who were finally back together jamming.

Wendy sang lead vocals and played guitar, and they had a couple other guitar and bass players and a horn section. (Sheila E. and the performers were very gracious about introducing the players, but I just don't remember their names.) They played a great version of "Mountains," segued into "America," then went into "Pop Life" and "Raspberry Beret" and "Anotherloverholenyohead." Then Wendy sang "Purple Rain." It was really great. It showed Wendy's talent. You have to have a strong voice to handle that song, and Wendy certainly does. Then Patti LaBelle came out and joined her! I don't think that was planned either, because Wendy seemed totally amazed when Patti started belting out the words. Wendy even commented, "Patti, you got me hot under the collar." Just a little lesbian love to juice things up. Then they ended with "Baby, I'm a Star." It was a fantastic jam that went on and on and on.

Anyway, that's the concert report. Prince never showed up, and that was okay. It was great to see the talent in these musicians not be out shined by the little ego maniac anyway. There was a point when I wasn't sure I would go to the concert, but in the end I'm glad I went. It was a great evening of wonderful live music played by really talented musicians. If the organizers arrange it again next year, and if you're in the LA area, I highly encourage you to attend.

Hey, thanks for the review. I'm shocked that there wasn't more of a turn-out, but it sounds like the show went on quite well nonetheless!

thanks gnations

nice report, thanx!!

Wow.That review stands for me too.A lot of good stuff happened last night especially Miss Patti Labelle but my favorites were Sheila E and The Revolution.I was so mesmerized by both.When I was a little girl I wanted be like Sheila E and to see her on stage last night before my eyes was so crazy.She beat the good hell out of those drums and I think at one point she beat them so hard one of her sticks flew back behind or she thought she lost it and still had it.I can't remember because it happened so quick.I still wanna be like Sheila E!!! The Revolution,oh man...the dopest Prince band ever.All of them were there.Wendy and Lisa looked like they had stepped out of the time machine from the 80's to 2003 to be at the show.They looked exactly the same.

gnations said:

Patti also recorded "Love 89", and "I Hear Your Voice", both written and produced by Prince.

Too bad she didn't perform those; they're great too!!!

-SWANGhasregrets

Anxiety said:

Dude, just IMAGINE how much fun you, me and Stymie would've had at this thing. Boggles the fucking mind!

Thanks for the review. I thought for sure the P would show up. Oh well IM glad that I didnt go after all!

thanks for the review

Wow I gotts go next year, hopefully it happens again. It must have been cool to go back in time and also support a good cause..

The reason I didn't fly out was I knew the Forum was not a good place to have the event. It's an old arena, where Prince cancelled a tour date a few years ago for lack of tix sales. They should have done it at the Wiltern Thatre or even the Universal Amp would have been better. Someplace smaller and it would have been packed and more intimate, and they could have charged more too.. Maybe next time, I would pay $300 to see those acts in a smaller setting with a packed house..

Sheila's a cool chick and I'm sure she's going to Heaven for her charitable efforts...

That Morris Day incident truly sounds bizarre. Was Sheila E. seriously trying to pass herself off as Morris & was hoping that nobody noticed? Or were they trying to mess with everyone's head?!?

Thanks for the review, sounds like a cool nite.

Shame more people didn't turn up though, such a shame.

---

Sheila E. was goofing on Morris. She dressed up as him and did a hilarious, excellent job of it! Complete with the moves, faux mustache and everything. At one point she kicked her leg to the side and her shoe came off. She shrugged and kicked the other one off too. She is so great, how can you not love her to pieces!! She did mention a few times (when dressed as Morris) that "I don't have TIME to be here" or something like that. Obviously she was clowning him because he was a no-show.

And a note on Chaka's set.. in grand Chaka fashion, the woman came on stage in a floppy hat and tailored long coat with hose and boots. WHERE WAS HER SKIRT? Jeez, her coat barely covered her "c u next tuesday". ;-p

Anyways, I LOVED hearing Madhouse, The Family and the Revolution. And everyone looked great!

Great report!

XtrueX said:

Sheila was seriously dogging Morris. It was not done for fun. She changed all the lyrics to "Jungle Love" into stuff like "I don't do anything for free...all I want is money...I care more about money than anything".

It was apparent to me that Morris was the only one who would not play for free, and Sheila was pissed about it.

I don't blame her. Between the artists and the sound/light equipment, there had to be over $100,000 in donated goods and services. Morris looked petty for holding out for the $.

FUCK! If ANYONE can point me in the direction of a bootleg of this show, I'll be your slave for life.

3/4 empty? Why wasn't I there? Oh yeah, I got finals.

I wouldn't mind Prince not being there, that's really not the kind of thing you expect him to do anyway, right?

"Then, for the first time together since they recorded it, Sheila E., Matt Fink and Eric Leeds came out and performed four Madhouse songs."

Ummm...

Prince played all instruments (except sax by Eric Leeds) on Madhouse albums.

G.

actually, I don't know if that's true for Madhouse 16... Sheila, Levi, and Matt are credited as writers for some of the tracks on 16 if you search on the copywright database so I assume they played their parts on that.

More importantly, words can't even begin to describe the experience of the Family Jamm. From seeing Jill live, to the Family (their 2nd only concert ever!) to everything Sheila did the entire night!!!

I don't think anyone mentioned this yet, but during the Family's set, Sheila was playing keyboards... and really jamming! She was in the back next to the background singers. Wow.

And the whole vibe of the night was pure love... for the artists, for the audience... everyone coming together to support a really important cause (helping children in need).

Thank you to everyone for such a magical night.

anemone said:

sheila clowned morris HARD!!! so like wherre the funk was jessie???

gnations said:[quote
Then all of the members of The Family came out, and they played most of their album. I think they started with "River Run Dry," then went into "Mutiny," then "High Fashion," then "The Screams of Passion," and closed with "Nothing Compares 2 U." Miko Weaver was on guitar, and the band made the songs sound much more like funky rock songs. They were fantastic. I don't think they ever performed the material live like that, even when the album was first out. St. Paul seemed much more confident of himself and more relaxed and had a great time. Susannah looked beautiful and was fantastic. It was so exciting.[/quote]
I can't even beleive how much I enjoyed this part. I've never seen them before, was never a big fan but there sheer joy of being there was so evident and infectious



She did another faboulous song written by him called 'I Hear Your Voice'. Look it up, just reading the lyrics will show you his unmistakable touch.



OK, now this shit was tooo funny! She called him out like mug!!! It was cold!!!


Wendy really did do an excellent job holding that together with the lead vocals. The audience knew all the words anyway. I only saw one lighter go up during Purple Rain though.



I was totally feeling the end jam session. They all looked like they were VERY happy to be there. There ended and started back up a couple of times like they didn't want to leave. Appollonia was crying, the bands were dancing there asses off, I'm telling you, and I was right there with them.


It was a charity event close to my heart in more ways than one. What a brilliant way to get me to contribute to something a beleive so strongly in.

P.S. Shelia tore them damn drums up. That might have been the best part for me.

AdoreDaBang1 said:

And another called 'Love 89' on the same album as 'Yo, Mister'.

-SWANGlikesthatonetoo

SWANG said:

PEJ said:[quote]

anemone said:

he didnt go because Morris didnt and Prince said no lol

rdhull said:[quote]

PEJ said: