The Time: Tunica, Ms, August 15, 2009 concert review

I went and saw the Time at Harrah's casino in Tunica, Ms. on August 15, 2009. This was my second show of the year and my 51st overall.

Well we have to start with the inevitable back story. I was going to skip this show. According to mapquest, it was 7 plus hours of backroads Mississippi driving, too far for me, especially since I just saw them last month. Jason and Ashley really wanted to go and since they would be doing the driving I said why not. Especially since I was having foot surgery the following Monday and I wanted to go have some fun before I was confined to the house for 3 weeks.

They showed up at my house around 8:40 a.m. Saturday morning and we got on the road. WOW this was the middle of no where. We passed Snuffy Smith's, goats on the side of the road, no rest stops and stale gas station potato chips with some of the nastiest rest rooms to match. This was extreme BFE, switching roads about 5 times. Did you know they still have Ward's in Mississippi. It took us about 8 hours to get to our lovely hotel. The Key West Inn. Let's just say I was glad it was cheap.

This show was on again off again, switching venues, chaos and disorder. The show was for the congressional black caucus. There were all kinds of secret service and extra security so we couldn't get our normal hook up. We went to the casino and fortunately they had free tickets since it was looking like we drove all that way for nothing. We went to the bands hotel, got a pizza and waited for lobby call to meet up with the fellas. Unfortunately, the people at the casino told us the wrong hotel. Harrah's has 3 separate hotels and we were at the wrong one so we missed the fellas.

We headed over to the casino and found our seats. First row in the upper level, we moved up a little higher to see above the guard rail. Great view. Well it was show time

Here is the line up
Morris Day-Vocals and Cool
Jellybean Johnson-Drums
Monte Moir-Keyboards
Tori "Freak Juice" Ruffin-Guitar
Ricky "Freeze" Smith-Bass
Jeff McNeely-Keyboards
Sylvester Donald-valet and dancer

Here is the set list with my comments to follow.
1. DAT Intro
2. Skillet
3. Cool
4. Get it up
5. Pandemonium
6. Chocolate
7. Wild and Loose
8. The Stick
9. Fishnet
10. The Oak Tree
11. Jerk Out
12. 777-9311
13. Girl- short instrumental
14. Sometimes I get lonely- one verse by Morris off stage
15. Gigolos get lonely too
16. If the Kid can't make you come
17. Ice Cream Castles
18. The Walk
19. The Bird
Encore
20. Jungle Love

The show started right at 9 p.m. and was 77 minutes long. It was a weird crowd. The floor was all members of the congressional black caucus. It was a dinner and a show set up. The balcony's crowd consisted of people who specifically came to see the fellas. Let's just say the balcony was rockin and the floor I guess their shoes were on too tight. The sound in the place was great and the band was in top form. Tori had a real nice solo on 777-9311. He was also in rare form for If the kid can't make you come, usually my least favorite part of the show, but dude was tearing that shit up tonight. The normal portion of the set closed with the Bird and the band came back to end the night with an encore of Jungle Love.

More chaos and confusion followed, but we finally ended up at the right hotel and hung out with the fellas after the show. Good to see everybody and we had a great time visiting with our friends. The bar closed and it was time to bail. We made a stop at the awful waffle, had some grub and went back to the hotel and crashed. Made the very long drive home the next day. Props to the fellas for another awesome show and for their continued hospitality. Hopefully we will do it again real soon.

Sounds like a blast. The Time never disappoint.

Rhastus, seems like you´ve become part of the family over time. How many times have you met them out of the 51 times that you´ve seen them?
I bet they recognize you immediately and kind of expect to see you when they perform.

It sounds like the same show I saw in chicago last month. It was a great time.

KoolEaze said:

Well I don't know the exact number on that, but that's how I got to know them. They started recognizing me since I went to so many shows and I gradually meet everybody in the band.

So who's this Sylvester Donald guy, and what sort of stage presence does he have?

EcstaticFanatic said:

Sly does some of the bits Jerome use to do, bringing Morris the mirror, dancing, etc

One of these days, I'm going to go to a Time show. And when I do, I'm going to wear a t-shirt that says "FRIEND OF RHASTUS".

Has Sylvester Donald done any other work before, musical or otherwise?

I wonder how they found this guy. Any pics?

It would be cool for them to get Susan Moonsie & Brenda to sing back up or do some of their songs during a set, but only if it's the original time lineup

OldFriends4Sale said:

That would be cool. Of course it will never happen, but you gotta wonder why stuff like this doesn't happen. Why has there been no Appolonia 6 reunion? People would go nuts if they came out and did something.

RodeoSchro said:

EcstaticFanatic said:

Not that I know of

They found him in Vegas

funksterr said:

Is that even possible without Prince´s permission ? I doubt it. The Family had to change their name. Keep in mind that all these groups were actually created by Prince and he seems to hold the copyrights.Even the Time are actually going under two different names, don´t they? Morris Day and the Time and The Time.