First of all - all praise to Soutwest Airlines for offering non-stop
service to Las Vegas! The 6 hour flight back to Philly allowed us time
to sleep and recover. Word has it we were the best passengers on that
flight!
I'm still on a high from the 3121 Experience which started this past
Saturday! My wife and I started our day with a 615am, 140 mile drive
from Arlington, VA to Philly where we joined fellow NPNYer Susanna8. We
were heading in on Saturday for the VIP package that included the 6
course dinner, VIP tixs and a table in the club.
The flight was incredibly rowdy. The flight was 1/3rd full of bachelor
party goers (some guy who is getting married for the 1st time at 45),
1/3 fully of insane philadelphians and the rest of us. Note - it was
noon and these folks had already been drinking. Add the Philly accent
and u have a disaster waiting to happen. One of the drunk female
philadelphians was arguing that in all her 35 years she has never head
of "open seating." We knew we were in trouble...no big deal, after
singing "Viva, Las Vegas" over and over again, they wore themselves out
and fell asleep. Thank God for that.
OK - so we arrive in Vegas and its a normal day...we check in and chat
up the girl at the front desk...she was kind of "anti-Prince" so we
didn't like her one bit.
We found the restaurant and the outside of the club. We noticed there
was already a line forming for the 10pm door opening. It was 5pm local
time. Shot out to our friends THE ITALIANS. I think they are in this
list. I do not know their names.
We get to our room and relaxed for about 20 minutes before I was TOLD I
needed to join the ladies for a quick hotel tour. We saw the water show
at the Bellagio ("made me wanna go to the bathroom") and then Cesars
Palace. The ladies took some funny photos and we made our way back to
the hotel. Knowing we had dinner reservations at 9pm (midnight for us)
and it was 6pm local, we decided to have a quick sushi dinner. That was
excellent.
We then donated some money to the Rio. I mean, I donated some
money to the Rio and before long it was time for dinner....we freshened
up and headed out...
The restaurant is AWESOME. The service is incredible. Everyone seemed so
happy to be working there. Our server came over and me, being one for
souvenirs, asked if there were name tags with the name George on it. The
tags read 3121 with the person's name under it. The server said it was
possible and we should ask Lina (sp?) Prince's personal chef. He turned
and left and immediately spoke to Lina. We were like "uh, oh crap, we're
gonna get kicked out of here for being crazy fans." Lina came over and
we introduced ourselves and explained our visit and how happy we were to
be there. She thanked us and actually said she will check for Name Tags
for us! After about 10 minutes she came back with one tag and joked "I
dont have George but I have Joe." I was like "CLOSE ENOUGH" and slapped
it on my chest. She also gave us candy! Chocolate in the shape of
champagne glasses (drink champagne from a glass with chocolate
handles...") which were wrapped in gold paper imprinted with "3121!"
AWESOME!
It was then on to the show.....we stood on line, received our tickets
and went inside. I did not notice anything out of the ordinary with the
venue except on stage the horn section was on a platform above the
stage. They had to walk down a spiral staircase to get to the main
stage. We got to our VIP table, on the right, about 3 tables from the
stage. We were soon joined by 3 ladies from Atlanta and were now a
party of 6. They only seemed to know the hits. Oh well.
ANYWAY - so - the show starts at 1210 am (310am for us) and here's the
set list with some comments/details:
- Goy, I mean, Joy in Repetition
- 7 (a faster rock version)
- Come to 2gether - with Shelby (not Tamar?)
- Sexuality/Spirituality
- Anotherloverholenyourhead
- Gotta Broken Heart Again (slow and sultry version)
- Lolita ("this one's for the fast girls")
- Black Sweat ("you'll be screaming like Britney Spears when I count to
three") He then takes a quick break and says "yall aint ready for me, I got
too
many hits.."
Guitar licks for Kiss play and the crowd goes crazy! ("you dont have to
watch Desperate Housewives, to have an attitude...")
- Musicology - He rapped the lyrics to "Prince and the Band?" Commented
"if ur radio aint on the funk, it aint on."
- Shelby then performed an Aretha Franklin song
- Cream
- U got the Look
- Short version of Purple Rain
- Let's Go Crazy - Chorus Only
1 encore:
- I'll take you there - MAVIS STAPLES CAME ON STAGE
- Small part of Barry White's Estacy
- Short version of Party Man
At this point the ladies at out table left and then so did their
pen..... So I could not write anything else...
- Shelby comes out and performs the Mary J. Blige song "All I Really
Want is to Be Happy" I dont know the title but I know the song.
Anyway....at this point he asks for dancers and people from the VIP
section, our section, both sides, rushed the stage. My Wife (petite
Puerto Rican woman, long hair, dressed in black) and SUSANNA8 (just as
stunning, black pants, silver halter like top) got on stage and shook a
leg! THEY WERE AWESOME! They danced all over the stage and my wife even
got the nerve to dance, with class, next to Prince! She was and is still
on cloud 9! "Yes, Dear, I saw when Prince winked his eye at you. How
could he not? You were promoting 3121 for him as he left the stage. Oh
yeah, excellent job of flashing the wild-sign when you were
centerstage!"
Notes from the performances on stage....no offense but 2 stripper
looking chicks were on stage and this one girl, in a hat tried to bring
a chair on stage as her PROP. Trevor snatched the chair from her! HAHAHA
Take that you freek! She had some moves and the other one looked good.
Anyway - the last song, was 3121...I think...not sure...anyway...at the
very end....she was center stage, right next to Prince doing the "3121"
with her fingers. They looked so cute together. WAY TO GO BABY!
Ah hem...you too Susanna!
With that they came back and the show was over. Prince announced during
the show that they would be performing jazz next door in the restaurant.
Note - only about 70 people can get in to the main area where you can
hear and see! This was announced as an AFTERSHOW not an AFTERPARTY!
Susanna left right away and got on line. Good thing she did because when
we were FINALLY let back into the restaurant (after paying $50 per
person) we were a party of 3 at the last table that sat 5! TOLD YOU ALL
WOULD WORK
OUT, SUSANNA!
During the AFTERSHOW they played for about 2 - 2.5 more hours (we waited
outside the restaurant for about 30 minutes - Note to the RIO..fix that
line so and get it moving...). After about 30 minutes of Jazz, Prince
comes in, no security, red snazzy suit and just sat at a table and
listened. He then got up and joined in.
I recall a few Jazz Numbers, Crazy by Gnarls Barkley, Another Mary J.
song and Te Amo Corazo. He sat alone at the piano and we started
shouting out requests. It was nice NOT to hear corny request like "When
Doves Cry." I recall hearing, Free, The Other Side of the Pillow and I
shouted out for Annastesia. He played the music to How Come You Dont
Call Me Anymore and requested that we sing the lyrics. It was funny,
when the song was over he said "that's it, no more requests." We started
cracking up.
The jazz band came back and they played some more and so did Shelby and
then Mr. Kip Blackshire performed Superstition by Stevie Wonder.
During the Aftershow performances the songs were long funky version. I
dared my wife to go to the front of the room and dance with the others
in front of Prince and the band. She quickly left and shook her booty
for about another 20 minutes! She claims Prince gave her a high five but
I didnt see that!
It was awesome, awesome, awesome. We looked at our watches and it was
525am local time (show started ad midnight local time)...and we had a 820am
flight back to Philly. It was insane. We dragged ourselves back to the room,
freshened up, got a quick breakfast with some fans sitting next to us and
made our quiet way back to the airport....
We saw Renato on line at the airport and had a very nice conversation
with him. We hope he had a nice time seeing his family in LA!
Wow... my head is still spinning!
The show itself was good. It was great hearing songs from 3121 played
live and I'll never tire of hearing JOY in Repetition. Being in that
small room with what appeared to be fellow fans was even better. It had
the feel of a Celebration.
If anyone is thinking of doing this....you have 3 votes of HECK YEAH
from Susanna8, IrisNPG and Goyluh - but go the VIP route!
The high my wife is on at this very moment is worth every minute of
standing in line, the money we spent and the sleep deprivation....
We're tired but it was well worth it.
Thanks to all the kool peeps in line...at both venues!
SHOTS OUT TO:
- to the guy in glasses with the fancy cell phone/Treo who took a
picture of the set-list I wrote down...
- the british couple behind us on line at the aftershow
- Lina for her kindness, Mike for his service and the crew at 3121 Jazz
Cuisine
- and anyone on NPNY or Prince.Org or any other site that went to the
concert and remember seeing my wife on stage! Does anyone have
pictures? Anyone else at the show?!
:)
Great show!
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