Eye Records 2 CD Label : “Eye” Records Catalogue : #01-02 2Disc Length : 73:02 / 79:40 Source : Audience Recordings Sound Quality : EX Year Of Release : 2007 |
Club 3121 – 3121 @ Rio
All-Suite Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas : 11th November 2006 (am)
7. Musicology 8.
Tighten Up 9. 7 10. Never Going Back Again 11. Song Of The Heart 12.
Anotherloverholenyohead 13. Rock Lobster 14. Fury 15. Purple Rain 16. Let’s Go
Crazy
Chaka Khan (“Prince presents”)
– Club 3121 @ Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas : 15th November 2006
17. I Feel For You 18. You Got The Love 19. I’m Every Woman
Comments
Fink's
Comments (rates this release 4.25/5.0)
A
very impressive audience recording of the 2nd night at Club 3121 with the show
itself being a major improvement over the previous night (on ‘The Holy Casino’
in it’s complete form). Prince is far more prone to improvisation and the show
benefits greatly from this along with a number of set-list additions which have
only made rare (if ever again) appearances since. The recording is surprisingly
excellent and is sharper, clearer and cleaner than the previous best of ‘The
Holy Casino’ release. The only slight downside to the excellence of the
recording is that the sound is lacking any real depth and the bass in particular
is practically non-existent and lacking any kick. That said, simply due to the
clarity of the recording it’s easily overlooked.
As mentioned previously, the show is far superior to the previous night with
Prince is a far more relaxed, playful, interactive mood which reflects in both
the performance and the set-list. ‘Spirituality’ is proceeded by an extended
“thunderstorm” intro (which perhaps may have been better left off simply due to
it’s length) and as with the previous night segues into ‘Johnny B. Goode’. This
is followed by 1 minute of ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’ played by Prince on
guitar which serves as an interlude for a very rare performance of ‘Around The
World In A Day’. On the one hand it is a joy to hear this played live after
almost 19 years, however this version unfortunately morphs into a showcase for
various band members (including The Twinz). Back to Las Vegas normality for the
trio of ‘Lolita / Black Sweat / Kiss’ followed by a forgettable mid-section up
until ‘Joy In Repetition’ – not as impressive as the 2002 version, but still a
killer track live. ’17 Days’ (sung by The Twinz with correct lyrics this time)
is followed by ‘7’ which once again contains a repeated vocal of “This song,
this song of the heart” and a small portion of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Never Going Back
Again’.
Disc 2 begins with a fairly pedestrian version of ‘Pink
Cashmere’ which segues into an extended solo portion by Mike Phillips and
includes a few lines from ‘One Kiss At A Time’ along with part of the Ohio
Players ‘Heaven Must Be Like This’. The closing encore jam of ‘Get On The Boat’
has Prince proclaiming, “We gonna play this for 2 hours” – he doesn’t. He does
however turn the performance into three different jams each one as excellent as
the last. It begins with a pretty straightforward version of the track before
changing into a slowed-down, lazy groove played at half-speed, before finally
coming to a halt after a funked-up jam which incorporates the horn line from
‘Get On The Boat’ (which Morris Hayes appears to be playing, as opposed to the
horn section) alongside ‘Love Rollercoaster’. The show ends with Prince leading
the crowd through the Wizard Of Oz chant from ‘It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night’.
Excellent show considering it follows the very stale performance from 11th
November (am), some rare choices, and an excellent recording. Disc 2 also
includes part of the 11th November (am) show from the previous night and it
should be noted this is not the same recording as ‘The Holy Casino’. It’s of
similar excellence to the main show featured here (12th November am).
The release closes out with part of Chaka Khan’s set from one of the ill-fated
“Prince presents…” Wednesday night’s which started well, then fizzled out.
Ironically this recording is the best of the 3 on here in terms of depth and
all-round quality. The accompanying packaging is decent, and whilst it is
lacking any real info (opening weekend review, perhaps?) it would be cruel to
criticise too much as it serves it’s purpose well. Be under no illusion this
release comes from the people responsible for releasing under the name of
Premium/Ladybird/New Purple Groovez, however to their credit this is one of the
best releases in their entire catalogue(s) simply due to the enjoyable content
and the excellence of their recordings.