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Just got back from Memorial Day weekend in Vegas...had a great time. Saw 2
shows by the Artist...one really awesome show and one really okay show.

Saturday night, Larry Graham opened in the "jam of the year encore
presentation" show at the MGM Grand Garden. They announced the show only 2
weeks before, so they only sold about 60 percent of the available tickets.
During Larry's set (which was the same one he's done in most of the JOTY
shows), TAFKAP came out on stage during the second song, Free, dressed in
the mask from the My Name is Prince video. Throughout the entire GCS set,
he played his guitar offstage and sang backing vocals. The Artist joined
Graham on stage during The Jam.

Here is the setlist of the concert:

The One (intro)/Sign of the Times (!!!!!)
Talking Loud and Saying Nothing/It's Alright
Let's Work
Delirious
Purple Rain
I could Never Take the Place of Your Man
The Christ
Let's Go Crazy
She's Always in my Hair
Pop Life (intro)/U got the look
Nothing Compares 2 u
Kiss
Gett Off/Gett Off Houstyle
Take me with u/Raspberry Beret

Encore:
(some new song about being in a cage)
Baby I'm a Star
1999
Come On

The highlight of this show was by far the awesome version of Sign of the
Times...the guitar work on the song was amazing. I've heard this song on
many boots, but this was the best version I've ever heard of it. It was
also cool to hear She's Always in My Hair live...one of his best songs,
IMHO. We also heard 1999 for the first time he's played it this year.
During the encore, a cage dropped down from the ceiling on top of the
keyboards, where Prince was playing and he rapped a couple of verses about
being in a cage.

The band was Larry Graham, Jerry Martini, Cynthia Robinson, Rose Stone, Mr.
Hayes, Kirky J, Rhonda Smith, Estelle (I think that's what her name is) on
percussion, and the Artist.

Not too much else interesting about the show though. I was kinda
disappointed with the show, which the Artist was only on stage for about
1:45....I guess when they said the Jam of the Year Encore Presentation,
they really meant he was only going to play the songs he normally plays in
the encores of the shows.

Celebrities spotted at the show: Janet Jackson, Woody Harrelson, Kat Dyson.

After the show, he announced he'd be playing an aftershow the following
night at Studio 54 at the MGM Grand...

On Sunday, I saw Kirky, Jerry Martini, and Mr. Hayes walking around the MGM
during the day and I asked all of them if the show was going to be
different the following night. Their answers, collectively, were "it'll be
a little bit different, I'm sure..." Well, little did I expect, the entire
show was different!

They played so many songs I'm sure I'm forgetting some right now, but
here's a good try at a setlist for the 3 hour, 10 minute show!

Everybody's a Star
Stand
Family Affair
Forever in My Life
Everyday People/Freaks on this Side
Sing a Simple Song
U Can Make it if u try
Thank U (falletinme be mice elf again)
Santana Medley
Mad
Face Down (spoken lyrics)
If I had a harem
The Ride
The Ballad of Dorothy Parker/4
Poom Poom/Sex Machine
Face Down
Mr. Happy/Acknowledge Me/? (possibly R U Ready)
SOmebody's Somebody
Teddy Bear
Courtin' time
Talking Loud and Saying Nothing/It's Alright (w/ George Johnson and Kat Dyson)
I Wanna Take You Higher
The Jam
Purple Rain

...
plus numerous and gratuitous guitar solos, keyboard solos and drum solos

The show started at 12:10 and went until 3:20.

With the lights off, the Artist came on stage first and slapped "high
fives" to some of the people in the front...I got one! He stayed on
stage the entire night, and didn't even go to change clothes through the
first 2 hours of the show...something uncharacteristic of him. He sang
backing and lead vocals with Larry on all of the Sly Stone covers...many of
which I've never heard live before. Nobody in our group can remember what
they opened with..we think it was Everybody's a Star, but that song was
definitely played last night. The Artist played keyboards throughout most
of the GCS set, and his intro to Everyday people included the opening riff
to Forever in my life, and then he started to sing it. The audience was
singing louder than he was, so he ended up backing the audience...I've
never seen that at one of his concerts! At one point in the show, he
mentioned that Janet Jackson was there the night before and wished that she
had stuck around so he could "ask her about the Sly and the Family Stone
songs she samples." The people around me had seen a few of these JOTY
concerts (that's an understatement!) and we started some of the chants
before the Artist or Larry could lead the audience through them. I think
that it was because of our chants they played some of the songs they did.
We started the Everyday, Everyday chant at the beginning of Everyday
People, which really surprised Larry it seemed...that was really cool too.
He also mentioned that they were opening Paisley Park at 3am every Friday
to "everyday people." We'll see if that happens and how long that will
last. After Thank U (falletinme be mice elf again), Larry left the stage
and Prince called up Rhonda Smith, who stayed on stage the rest of the
show. Rhonda and him busted into an awesome version of the Santana Medley,
though there was something wrong with his guitar, which seemed to upset
him. Next was Mad, which was on top of a drum loop and we all started
chanting "mad" before he sang anything. It wasn't anything like the studio
version to the song and he sorta improvised the song with the audience
continuing to chant "mad" with a bunch of guitar solos and a lot of hopping
around. After that, the Artist sat down at the keyboards and started
speaking the first verse to Face Down, which drove the audience crazy. He
then broke into a groove that resembled Mary Don't U Weep, but turned into
an awesome blues version of If I had a harem...he sang the entire song for
the first time since Lovesexy!!!!! Next was a short version of The Ride,
which was just long enough to include all of the verses. Next was The
Ballad of Dorothy Parker and 4, from Madhouse, fully backed by the
band...it sounded really awesome, just like the version from the Sign of
the TImes rehearsal cds. I've never heard that one live in a show before
either (I heard it during soundcheck at the Hollywood Bowl in 1997
though...this version sounded better. ) After a few more songs and a
lot more jamming, he left the stage.

During the first encore, he played an awesome keyboard version of Face Down
(clean version), sounding completely different than the version he played
during the Love4oneanother shows. Interesting how he supposedly doesn't
curse anymore, but he said "we do this shit every night in Minneapolis."
Anyways...

Next was another surprise. He started with the loop for 18 and over and
the intro sample to Mr. Happy, but then busted into a full version of
Acknowledge Me!!! Right before the last verse (come on pretty baby sit
your butt on the chair), he rapped part of a new song, possibly R U Ready.
Then he left the stage again.

In the second encore, he came out and played SOmebody's Somebody on
keyboards...next was a cover of the Elvis Presley song Teddy Bear, followed
by a 10-minute version of Courtin' time. He left the stage again.

For the third encore, he played a completely different version of Talking
Loud and Saying Nothing, mostly on guitar, w/ Larry Graham. George Johnson
from the Brothers Johnson joined them on stage (after a delay...he couldn't
seem to tune his guitar) and then Kat Dyson came out and joined all of them
on the stage. Since they seemed to be in a guitar shortage with all of the
guitar players on stage, Prince played air guitar...I've never seen him do
that either. Larry stayed on stage for I Wanna Take You Higher and The
Jam. During I wanna take you higher, Kirky J came out on stage with a
portable drum machine and Rhonda played some drums while Kirky danced.
Larry tried to keep up with him, but couldn't. Prince came out to join
them and was making fun of Larry's dancing, mimicking his steps. He also
reintroduced a few Purple Rain-era dances, which was a lot of fun to watch.
Finally, the show ended with a full version of Purple Rain, with a
completely different intro. 3 hours and 10 minutes from when it began, the
show ended. And by the time I got back to my hotel, the sun was already
out. Damn!

All in all, this was the best show I've ever seen him play. Celebrities
spotted in the audience: Ice skaters Oksana Baoul and Rudy Galinda. Jason
Priestly was also there supposedly, but nobody from our group saw him.

Time to go to sleep now...I'm beat!
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