Oakland Celebrated 150 yrs last weekend and had The Escovedos as it's B-day present~!

Thanks to Andrea, we found out Mr. E was going to be performing downtown on Saturday, so I knew I was going to definitely be there! When we arrived at the Oakland City Hall pavillion, comedian Mark Curry was hosting. He now lives in LA, but was born and raised in Oakland and he announced that the celebration was in recognition of Oakland's 150th Anniversary. We found out later that there was going to be a special presentation of Keys to the City
by Mayor Jerry Brown. (Sheila E, along with Mark Curry, En Vogue, Dwayne Wiggins, Ted Lange (Isaac of the Love Boat), and Ledisi were among the people honored with Keys to the City later that day).

First up was a Native American youth group (ages 7-14) and the remarkable thing about their performance was that the father of the lead male dancer, who was chanting and playing the music with the other members of the group, explained that in their tribe his son is considered a special spirit because he's blessed to be able to dance with natural rhythm eventhough he's totally deaf.

Next, Mark Curry announced that Pete Escovedo was going to be performing with special guest, SHEILA E! By then, just a couple of the Bay FreaX arrived and all of us looked at eachother like WHUUT! I had no idea Sheila was also going to be performing, eventhough apparently it was announced in the paper and on the radio....We knew it was 'bout to be ON....!

Mr. E came out a little after Noon and started playing right away. I won't forget when my boy
Mark S. and I were the first ones to notice the horn line from 'It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night'! (What a nice prelude to Sheila E. joining the jam later and completely rocking the timbales!!! )


Mr. E joked that he came out to celebrate Oakland's 150th and that he just made it, cuz he's "149". Then, he gave *me* a shout-out, "He said, "Where's GiGi and her Prince Friends?" (WHUUT!!!) I jumped up so he could see me and he asked, "Where's your Purple Rain suit?" I said, "I left it at home cuz I came to see you". He said Sheila was on her way and that, "She was arriving on her Purple plane"! Sure enough, he announced that Sheila was there and everybody went wild!!! They did a couple more of Mr. E's songs with Sheila on timbales, then she got on the drums and they had open mic.

Mr. E asked if there were any rappers and this little boy of about 9 or 10 completely shocked it! Mr. E asked if Sheila had an open contract and Sheila said yeah There was also a teenage girl who came up and then an older guy took the mic. They were all good, but the 20-something guy kinda made the novelty wear off pretty quick and we were mad that he was sucking up the all the music time.....where's the Apollo Clown when you need him ???

Then, Mr. E announced that they only had time for 1 more song and WHY did Sheila take center stage and sing a funky slower-tempo version of GLAMOROUS LIFE ??? She usually sings a snippet when she performs, but this time she did the FULL version!

The show only last about an hour, but it was soo worth it! We went and gave Hugz and Love to Moms E and she said that Sheila just flew in from Vegas for the show and was on her way back to LA and that Mr. E also had to leave immediately after for a show in Ontario (So. Cal) later that day. She said they had to come out cuz Oakland will always be their Home!

We got a chance to say Hi to Sheila before she left and I had to thank her for the full version of Glam Life and she said, "Well, I saw you guys there, so I had to do it".....Andrea and Brenda are my witnesses!!!!!

As Andrea, Brenda, and I were walking down the street towards the parking garage on 14th, a black limo rolls by, the window rolls down and guess who it was.....SHEILA! She just stopped by to say "Hey!" and drove off.....did I mention that I love me some Sheila E!!!

"Wait, am I standing.....AAAAHHHH!"

Hello SxyRican,

I saw the Escovedos the the "farewell" concert at Kimball's Carnival in Spring 2001. Wonderful show. When I heard they were going to be in downtown Oakland....FOR FREE....I knew I had to be there. Saturday's show was cool, the music was great, and I'm glad the "O" is finally getting the props it deserves. It's about time. Your report was excellent, much better than the 30 second clips shown on the news! I did recognize quite a few people in the audience from P's Paramount concert.

soulflower said:

I was at the Farewell show too! Did you see Sheila and Pops when they played Kimball's last month? It was another phenomenal show! I missed all the news clips about Saturday and I KNOW they filmed me quite a bit

I did get a 15 min video of the show from this guy that works for Ch 27...Sheila's solo and Glamorous Life !

Are you going to the party on the 18th? If so, come and say Hi to me!

Hey Carmen...I know you love salsa and everything,so I was wondering.Are you gonna go see Marc Anthony at Shoreline on July 31? I will be there:)

DavidEye said:

I'm more of an Old Skool Salsa Fan....Celia Cruz, Willie Colon, El Gran Combo, Tito Puente, Hector Lavoe, but I do love the new 'legends' too, Marc Anthony and La India.

Thanks for the 411, I hadn't heard about it!!! With the Celebration coming, I doubt I'll be able to afford anything else, but I'd love to go with mami so please tell me, have tix gone on sale yet???

SxyRican said:

Hey!

I didn't get a chance to see them last month. Damn! I'll be at the party on the 18th, though. I'm kind of excited, I've never been to any Bay Area "Prince-related" events. I'll be sure to say "Hello."

Every day will be a yellow day.....so let's play!

soulflower said:

Oh, you better start doing push-ups now cuz the FREAX are gonna wear U OUT!!! Look for me on the mic or on the dancefloor!!!

SxyRican said:

No,tix haven't gone on-sale yet and probably won't go on-sale until the end of this month.I'll let you know.His new CD "Mended" comes out on May 21.I've heard a few tracks and it sounds GREAT!
[This message was edited Thu May 9 2:44:53 PDT 2002 by DavidEye]