Here is my first-hand review of the Prince aftershow last night,
June 27, 2006, for the BET awards at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
First off, with the number of "celebrity-only" parties Prince has
been having lately at his "3121" address and various "hot-spot-of-
the-minute" places around Hollywood and New York, I was surprised
and happy that NPG members even got in at all. And once the initial
drama of getting tickets was over, this was surprisingly the least
amount of drama I've experienced at one of these
aftershows....security took care of the NPGMC members, we were able
to get up front close to the stage, etc.
Several of us, who got to the venue really early, were able to hang
out near the pool, and we could hear the soundcheck, which consisted
of the following songs:
Jam that sounded like "Peace"
Every Little Step
Miles Davis-ish Jam
Vocal workout
What is Hip (complete)
Courtin Time
777-9311/The Stick
Hair
Prince walked through the lobby of the hotel several times, and was
probably the most accessible that I've ever seen him, mingling with
hotel staff and people as he walked past. I've heard pieces of many
soundchecks he's done, and I've never heard him go through a vocal
workout like this, going from high to low with his voice, like one
might practice in music school.
The first three songs were snippets only, until What Is Hip, that
was played complete (and extended!) with a full horn section and
vocals by Prince. Next was the horn section from Courtin Time,
before a short instrumental medley of the Time's 777 and The Stick.
Finally, Prince played the complete "Hair" (including the elusive
second verse, LOL!) before ending the soundcheck close to 11:45.
We were able to get into the main ballroom around midnight, walking
across the "3121" welcome mats and seeing the maitre'd's wearing
black sportscoats with the 3121 logo on the front and "3121, Don't U
wanna Come" written in a half circle on the back, both in very light
lettering. The vibe there seemed like it was as it would have been
at his house.
While inside, we were treated to the sounds of the beautiful DJ
Rashida (who I think is a pretty good mixer) spinning on the
turntables, to a mix of 50 percent dancefloor standards and 50
percent Prince tunes for about an hour. At 1:15, the band took the
stage.
Here is the setlist:
So What? (Miles Davis cover)
3121-ish jam (with Doug E Fresh on vocals) (included the Push it Up
rap, Lodi Dodi)
Naughty Girl jam (Beyonce cover) with Doug E Fresh rapping
Every Little Step (Tamar)
All Night Long (Mary Jane Girls cover)
Milk and Honey
Rock Steady
Love Will Make U Happy
3121 (including Doug E Fresh rap)
Lolita
Satisfied
Black Sweat
Kiss
Joy in Repitition/Nobody Knows
Anotherloverholenyohead
Red Head Stepchild
The band consisted of Prince, Tamar, The Twinz, DJ Rashida, Cora
Coleman-Dunham, Josh Dunham, Mr. Hayes, Greg Boyer, Mike Phillips,
and 2 trombone players who I believe I've seen at Sheila E's
concerts.
Here are the details about the show:
During the 10+ minute opening jam, the horn players all came from
the back of the room, a la Sign of the Times style. The song was not
The Rainbow Children, but it sounded a lot like it. Prince did a
killer guitar solo in the middle of the song, while everyone in the
band got a solo during this song. As a side note, because the stage
was kinda small for the number of players, most of the horn players,
when not being showcased in their solos, played for the most part
from off stage to the right. Prince was wearing the black and white
3121 outfit from the cover of the album, with the numbers 3121 down
the center where the buttons are.
The next song was a 3121-sounding long instrumental jam which then
featured Doug E Fresh on vocals, bringing back memories of the shows
from the Jam of the Year tour. Among the raps that Doug E did during
this 10-minute song included his rap from Push it Up rap, and Lodi
Dodi, and the other songs he did during the Jam of the Year tour.
During this jam, Prince groupie P Diddy pushed his way to the front
of the crowd, laid down on the stage trying to get Prince's
attention, grabbed a 3121 tambourine and basically wouldn't go back
to the back where he was standing until Prince acknowledged him.
Prince pointed at him and shook his hand from the stage after about
5 minutes of him jumping around and then Diddy went back to the back.
Doug E. stayed on stage for the next song, the band playing live
while Rashida spun the instrumental beat from Beyonce's "Naughty
Girl" with Doug E rapping miscellaneous lyrics over it. After the
song (about 20 minutes of stage time), Doug E. left and Tamar and
the Twinz took the stage for their mini-set of Every Little Step,
All Night Long (Mary Jane Girls cover), Milk and Honey, Aretha
Franklin's Rock Steady, Love Will Make U Happy (I don't know if this
is the actual title of the song). Tamar sounded really good and
looked really good, however her microphone wasn't mixed properly (at
least for my ears' liking) and it was kinda hard to hear some of the
stuff she was saying. But from what I could make out she sounded
good. :)
After she finished singing, Prince said "let's hear it for Tamar"
and then he said "and the guitar player wasn't too bad either." :)
Next was a 10+ minute extended jam on 3121 (sung in its entirety,
including an additional rap from Doug E Fresh) followed. The live
version of the song to me was much more of a rock song than the
album version, including some killer instrumental jams by the band
and some great guitar work from Prince. At the end of the song,
Prince changed the lyric to "it's goin' down y'all, like your
sister." :)
During the next 2 songs, Prince did not play any instruments: Lolita
and Satisfied (both sung completely).
To me, the highlight of the show was a completely redone, 10-minute
version Black Sweat, completely different than the album version,
featuring vocoder solos from Mike Phillips. This version was much
funkier, obviously much longer and less produced :) than the album.
I was surprised how well it worked live actually....
In a show where I'd bet many of the people there didn't know a lot
of the songs, the floor became uber-crowded during a redone version
of Kiss (is it just me, or does Prince change the arrangement of
this song every era he plays it?) before he left the stage for his
one costume change of the night. Next was a long version of Joy in
Repitition which Prince was obviously really feeling (I love that
song!), which included really long instrumental jams from the band
while he changed clothes. In the front of the crowd, we were
singing louder than he was! :) How cool is it when you go to a
place where just about everyone knows the lyrics to Joy in
Repitition, as if it was THE pop song that you know by heart because
you hear it on the radio like 200 million times. :) But I
digress... In the middle of the song, Tamar joined Prince on
background vocals and then took the lead on a song which could have
been called Nobody Knows (possibly the Tony Rich Project cover, but
I'm not sure).
A killer guitar solo followed, which went into a rockin version of
Anotherloverholenyohead (!!!). During the song, Prince's stagehand
apparently had problems finding the page in the lyric book with the
words to the song on it. By the time he found it, he was done with
the lyrics (and he didn't even need them! :) )
The finale was a rocking version of Red Head Stepchild, with Tamar
on vocals and the Twinz dancing their butts off.
The show ended (with no finale) around 3:15.
Celebrities spotted at the show (I'm sure there were more than
these, but here are the ones I saw):
P Diddy
Snoop Dogg (what's that funky smell! :) )
Tommy Lee
John Legend
Tune in next hit...time for bed for me!
(Thanks getwild. The 1st song he played was "So What" By Miles
Davis so I added that in 4 u.-j7)
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