Here's a quick rundown of last night's show at the Park. Lineup consisted of P, John Blackwell, Rhonda, Renato, Maceo Parker, and a GREAT appearance by Larry Graham at the end of the night.
Doors opened around 1:30 am, $7 cover. P took the stage at 2 on the nose, dressed in a more casual black jumpsuit, open at the front. Hair is extremely short, long bangs. TGE without the really bad facial hair.
Setlist:
*Long instrumental jam on figure similar to "the Everlasting Now", featuring P on Rhonda's black bass.
*Very melodic guitar jam, based upon the instrumental movement that follows the title track on TRC. P removed his wedding band and began on the Hohner, but shortly switched to Habibi, seemingly not pleased with the sound he was getting from the telecaster.
*A long workout of a groove similar to "The Work" melodically, but with a significantly restructered and intricate rhythm section. P on the Benson, fleshing out the song with very impressive rhythm/lead trade off, a la the last performance's "country jam". Featuring some wonderful playing by Maceo Parker. This was followed by a puzzling example of Prince's skewed but endearing sense of humor, when he said very dryly into the microphone "As a young boy, my grandfather died...." and then laughed loudly to himself.
*The Ride-P began on the Ibanez with some tasteful blues licks, but switched to the piano to sing a few verses. Notably tight vocal performance all night, beginning here.
*Sometimes It Snows In April-Remaining at the piano, a very delicate and carefully read version, complete.
*The Rainbow Children-GREAT version, began by Prince on the keys. Amazing performances all around. P switched to the telecaster for the vocal line, which he doubled on guitar as he sang. Irresistably exciting.
*Following the instrumental end of TRC, the band launched into a LONG Madhouse groove. I'm unsure of the title but am quite sure it's from the first release. Great solos by Maceo, Renato, and Prince. As at the last performance, Rhonda seemed hesitant to take the spotlight.
*Back to the piano, P began an impromptu take of Patti Labelle's "If Only You Knew". A very nice surprise, brilliantly executed. Included P's spoken "Who's got the best girl to ever walk the earth?.....ME" twice. Mani, incidentally, watched from the soundboard, and occasionally strolled thru the crowd taking pictures.
*Starfish and Coffee-P on the piano. Nicely sung.
*Strange Relationship-Long version. Great arrangement, great playing, great delivery. Maceo's best solo of the night. Very intense singing from P, who seemed to be genuinely enjoying himself. "I'm wishing I could think of a way to say sorry, but baby, I'm just too bad."
*The Other Side of the Pillow-Perfectly suited for this band. Again, outstanding performances all around. P remarked to Maceo "I need to take you on the road with us. We'll play this every night".
*Family Name-With P at the keys, singing alternate lyrics for the first few verses, each capped with "these are the end days". The lyrics, though hard to discern at times, were obviously very deliberately written, so I assume this to be a new song which was superimposed over Family Name. Included the phrase "used to be purple, now it's rainbows instead" if my ears were functioning. Finally back into Family Name proper with the "mirror mirror..." verse.
*The Everlasting Now-After the groove was up and running, Prince called Larry Graham to the stage. (A brief note on Mr. Graham: While I don't think he was good for Prince's band or artistic development (NPS, etc) the man is an undeniably brilliant bass player, and one would be hard pressed to find complaint with his peformance last night. He also continues to bring out an exuberance in Prince that no one else can.) A few minutes of jamming followed, after which P began the first verse. If there was any doubt that several lines in the song refer to Sly and the Family Stone, he spelled it out clearly by pointing to Larry as he sang them, delivering them also in an uncanny vocal impersonation of Sylvester Stewert himself.
Before reaching the chorus, however, the groove was recast, first as Graham Central Station's "It's Alright", and then The Family Stone's "Sing a Simple Song" before finally going back to The Everlasting now. Larry shared lead vocals with Prince, per the usual arrangement with the previous configuration of the NPG. The difference here, however, was in the quality of playing by the rest of the band, and for this reason, last night's performance was the best rendition of Sly/GCS material I've seen by anyone, including Larry Graham and Prince, who seemed barely able to contain his excitement at the musical force he has assembled.

Immediately following the last note (4:05 am), Prince jumped from the stage and made his way back to the soundboard through the unusually thin crowd (40 people at it's absolute maximum, though it slowly dwindled to about 25 by the end), still singing "..Simple Song" to himself and smiling widely. The soundman labeled the DAT and handed it off to P, who quietly acknowledged the crowd and walked out with 2 hours of solid gold material.

An outstanding performance in every aspect.

[Sounds great! I'm jealous. -Ben]