The concert of
all concerts started at 8:10pm at New York City's Madison Square Garden. I got
there a little late (at 8:35pm) because I thought that the concert wouldn't
start until around 9pm (although the ticket said 8pm, but we all know that
concerts typically start 30 to 60 minutes after the original start time).
I
caught a little bit of Larry Graham's Graham Central Station set. They
performed a funky ass version of "The Jam"...but is was too short!
Instead of performing a 4-minute version of it, Graham Central Station should
have extended it into a 12-minute jam session! Larry incorporated the
"Push It Up" chant into "The Jam". "I Want To Take You
Higher" (a Sly Stone track) was the last tune and the audience screams
raised the energy level so high that the walls began to shake!! The Graham
Central Station set ended at 8:50pm. By the way, the GCS set included the new
song, "Free".
At
9:15pm, the funky-soul queen Chaka Khan started her set with a lovely R&B
tune from way back yonder, "Once You Get Started"....a tune
originally performed with her old group, Rufus. It's so wonderful how Chaka
still sounds so soulful and powerful as she did in her Rufus days....plus, she
looks great!! She performed the Prince tune "I Feel For You"
(Prince originally did it in 1979 and she scored a big hit with it in 1985).....oh,
The Artist came out and sang some of the lyrics, too! VERY DAMN GOOD!!! She
did the best Rufus song ever, the Stevie Wonder-penned tune "Tell Me
Something Good".....OOOHH!!! AND IT'S GOOD AND FONKY, TOO!! FONKIER THAN
20 CANS OF WET MAGIC SHAVE!! She did a hot version of Steve Winwood's
"Higher Love" (she performed background vocals to the original
song.)! Doug E. Fresh joined her to do a rap to the "Higher Love"
song. Chaka performed a new song, "Spoon" (from her new album,
"Come To My House").....it was funky, too!! Every woman in the place
was dancing and singing to the female anthem of "I'm Every Woman".
Chaka finished with the dance classic, "Ain't Nobody".....AIN'T
NOBODY DOES IT BETTER THAN CHAKA!! She finished her set at 10:00pm.
The
Artist finally started his set at 10:20pm by popping up onto an isolated,
elevated platform in the midst of the main floor audience....he was introduced
by Doug E. Fresh! The Artist performed "Jam of The Year" before
disappearing beneath the platform and re-appearing onstage with his band. He
did a funky version of James Brown's "Talkin' Loud and Sayin'
Nothin'" before going into the funk workout "Let's Work"!! He
did a little piano jam during "Delirious", before during the pop
anthem "Purple Rain" and a taste of "Little Red Corvette". He
did a lovely version of "I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man",
which featured a beautiful saxophone solo by the ever-beautiful Candy
Dulfer....C'MON CANDY....BLOW SOME MORE!! Just I thought the show couldn't get
any better, Mayte came out and did a wonderful dance routine, before her hubby
(The Artist) appeared and sang the lyrics to "The One"....a ballad
that beats all of the Prince ballads!!! The crowd screamed like crazy when
The Artist started into one of best old ballads "Do Me, Baby", which
included pieces of "Adore", "Insatiable",
"Scandalous", and "How Come U Don't Call Me
Anymore".....very smooth!! Even better was his piano medley of "The
Most Beautiful Girl in the World", "Adore", "Diamond &
Pearls", "The Beautiful Ones" and "Darling
Nikki"...which he did tiny pieces of to toy with the audience. When he
invited the fans to sing the first verse of "Darling Nikki", he
yelled "Oohh....I'm gonna tell your mama!!" after the line "I
could not resist when I saw little Nikki grind"!!! VERY HILARIOUS!!!
The
Artist told the crowd that if he stayed onstage any longer, he and everyone
else in the place would be thrown in jail. (I guess he was referring to the NYC
curfew laws, concerning music events.) He asked (paraphrasing here), "If
y'all go to jail, would you take me with you?" The crowd screamed as he
started the song "Take Me With U", seguing into "Raspberry
Beret". The first part of the show ended at 11:35pm.
The
encore started at 11:40pm, with Doug E. Fresh riling up the crowd and doing
some rapping over classic Prince tracks, like "Pop Life", "Sign
O The Times" and "I Wanna Be Your Lover". The Artist did an
excerpt of "Adore" before he and Doug started the party song "Freaks
on This Side", which included chants of "Push it up" and
"This is the jam of the year"! The last tune, "Come On",
featured more rapping from Doug. Truthfully, Doug's voice seemed to be somewhat
hoarse during the last 15 minutes of the show. The Artist's performance was
finally at 12 midnight.
As
far as the aftershow, it was held at Tramps (at 51 W. 21st Streets, about one
mile from the Madison Square Garden). I got to the club at 12:35pm because I
had some stuff to do at the hotel room. When I got to the place, there were 2
lines (one for those on the guest list and one for the other people). I was not
on the guest list, so I had to stand in the longer line which people had to pay
$50 to get in!!! ($50 for an aftershow??!!) I ran into Sharieff Ali
(leader of the New Brunswick-based group BURGUNDY) and Kregg Ajamu (leader of
the Brooklyn-based group RHYTHM REPUBLIK). Both Burgundy and Rhythm Republik
are good, up-and-coming R&B groups. I also ran into friend Dave Pollak
(funkmob@spacelab.net) who told me that The Artist wasn't showing up at Tramps.
I figured that if I pay $50 for the aftershow, I should at least get a real
good glimpse of The Artist drinking a banana daiquiri.....oops, those drinks
are Prince's favorite, right?! When I also took into account that the place was
packed close to maximum capacity already and photography may not be allowed at
a NPG aftershow, I decided to ditch this aftershow and head back to the hotel
room!! Anyway, if photography was allowed, I'd be stuck in the back of the club
with about 500 screaming NPG fans in front of me, and I wouldn't get any good
pictures of the NPG.