The line outside of Life began to form as early as 6:00pm with the promise that tickets would be sold at 10pm. The proceeds from the ticket sales, priced at $50 each, would be contributed to the Love 4 One Another Charity. I was fortunate enough to have a VIP pass and did not have to endure the line. New York's R&B radio station, WBLS-FM, ran a ticket giveaway promotion for the event earlier in the day.



When my friend and I returned to Life around midnight, the outside of Life was quite calm. We were informed that all of the people that were on line entered the venue around 9:30pm. There were a few people who were still purchasing tickets for entry. Once we entered the club, we went through the main dance floor area where the performance was going to take place. 1-800-NEW FUNK was selling T-shirts and other paraphernalia outside of the main dance floor area. A DJ was playing a varied mix of R&B, Rap, and Prince/ records for the crowd in the main room. At this point, the club seemed to be about 75% capacity. We headed for the VIP section to see if we could find our other friends. There were quite a few guests in the VIP room, a small area to the right of the stage complete with booths, a small dance floor and a separate DJ spinning Rap and R&B records. In attendance were Music Industry executive, Clive Davis, Jay-Z, Wyclef Jean, Paula Cole, Grandmaster Flash and Foxy Brown. The room was also filled with various people from the music and film industry.



There was an initial report that the show would begin around 1:00am, but this was quickly dispelled when the sound guys began setting up the equipment at 12:20am. The main room, which had minimal air conditioning and a rising temperature, began to reach near capacity around 2:00am. The sound engineers were having a difficult time wiring the rather small stage area and loading the gear in a cramped space. Members of the NPG, Morris Hayes and Kirky J. appeared around 2:30am to a loud cheer in anticipation of the show beginning. Unfortunately, there would be another hour before The Artist would come on stage.



Around 3:15am, the club security began to pass out water to the people that were crammed at the front of the stage who looked rather dehydrated. An appearance by Larry Graham brought another round of applause as he took the stage with Morris Hayes, Kirky J, a female percussion player and male vocalist whose names I do not know, and Maceo Parker at 3:30am. The Artist, dressed simply in a black tunic with silver stitching down the front and on the sleeves, and matching slacks, strolled out shortly thereafter to thunderous applause by the crowd. For some reason, the drum loop for "One Of Us" was malfunctioning so The Artist told Kirk to play in on the drums. He announced that he and the band would "tune up" and soundcheck for a while. He strapped on his new guitar and asked the crowd if they wanted in louder in the house. Of course, everyone shouted yes. Once the sound engineer found the volume that satisfied him, he treated us with some of the most passionate guitar worked that I have seen from him in a while. At the end of the warm up session, which included lyrics from "Motherless Child", he commented, "I think the guitar works now!" The Artist launched into what may have been a new song entitled "Pretty Man" that was jam filled with lots of guitar work and sax solos from Maceo Parker. The lyrics seemed to be improvised.



The remainder of the show was incredibly loose and jam filled with the Artist jumping from guitar to tambourine to keyboards throughout the night. The addition of Maceo Parker, longtime James Brown saxophone player, was refreshing as they jammed extensively on a couple of JB cover songs. Doug E. Fresh and Kool Moe Dee made cameo appearances during the middle of the set. The male vocalist led the crowd in a chant of "Come On, Dance With Me" that evolved into "... Jam With Me". This led right into the GSC portion of the show that was similar to past performances. Jerry Martini, Cynthia Rose and Rose Stone ran through an number of GCS and Sly Stone covers. Larry and Kirky's jam was met with extensive enthusiasm from the crowd with a lot of participation. Once again, Larry took the bass through the crowd and played in the center of the room. Even though it was nearing 5:00am, the crowd was incredibly enthusiastic and participated at every given moment, especially during "Thank You" and "... Higher", which were 2 separate encores. The band returned for a third and final encore shortly after 5:00am. The Artist made a short speech over the opening melody of "Purple Rain". Needless to say, the crowd roared with anticipation of the song. He, once again, played the guitar solos with a tremendous amount of passion as the crowd cheered and sang along. The show came to a close at 5:30am and the crowd began to file out of the club to the rising sun.



Setlist (not necessarily in this order):

Motherless Child

Pretty Man

Alphabet St.

Morris Hayes and Maceo Parker improv

Talkin' Loud And Saying Nothin'

Doing It To Death

Come On, Dance With Me




Doug E. Fresh set w/ Kool Moe Dee:

How Funky Can A Black Man Be? (tentative tile)

Wild Wild West chant

The Show

La Di Da Di

reggae jam (unknown title)




The Jam

Hair

Everyday People

Larry Graham/Kirky Jam bass & drum jam

Thank You (Falletinme Be Mice Elf Agin)

I Want To Take You Higher including Freaks On This Side chant

speech

Purple Rain