THE LAS VEGAS REPORT 2 By Scott Larson and Peter Kreitmeir
Pictures by Peter Kreitmeir
Caesar’s Palace – Las
Vegas, December 1997
I just got back from seeing EWF
in Las Vegas. The show was excellent. The horn section of Reggie Young, Ray Brown and Gary
Bias (replacing Scott Mayo) was tight and right on. The show lasted about an hour and a half
and the energy level was high. Everything sounded great. I generally like the first song
to be "In The Stone" but I am getting use to them mixing it up. The opening was
a really neat drum cadense in which they used glow-in-the-dark drum sticks with the lights
dimmed. They did this the last time they were in Las Vegas also. I go to every EWF concert
I can in Southern California and Las Vegas. They are by far the greatest musical group
ever.
The play list was as follows: Rock That, Boogie Wonderland, Let Your Feelings Show,
Saturday Night, Revolution, Gratitude, September, Let’s Groove, Rock It/Sun Goddess, Can’t
Hide Love, That’s The Way Of The World, (the world famous Sonny Emory drum solo), Reasons,
Fantasy, After The Love Has Gone, Singasong, Shining Star and Devotion.
Philip Bailey’s range was as wide as ever. I think we heard every bit of his four octave
range. He was very creative on Reasons as he usually is. I heard him say once that he
likes to try different things out on stage. He never leaves the audience bored but always
wanting more. Sheldon Reynolds also sound great. He has done such a good job filling in
for Maurice. By the way, he does not have a solo album coming out any time soon. As usual,
Verdine was on FIRE…even to the point of laying on the stage and not missing a note.
After the show, I talked with a number of the band members, and they were very cordial. I
was very grateful that they allowed me to come back stage. It was a terrific experience.
Scott Larson
Caecar’s Palace – Las Vegas, December 31st. 1997 The evening before I saw EW&F, I was lucky enough to get tickets for the
Temptations show at the Desert-Inn Showroom in Las Vegas. Listening to Million Sellers
like "My Girl", "Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone" and album hits like
"Get
Ready", – all with a full Big-Band-Sound was great.
Next evening I got the chance to be with EW&F at 5 p.m. for a soundcheck in the Circus
Maximus Showroom. Nearly two hours excellent directing of Morris Pleasure, the musical
director, while playing "September" and "Boogie Wonderland" was a
great experience for me…and the sound was absolutely perfect!
The show began at 8.30 p.m. on 31 Dez 1997. After about half an hour of stand-up comedy by
a guy named Reggie McFadden EWF went on stage. Every member of the group, also the
dancers, were playing drumms hanging down from a bridge over the stage. The show was
more or less the same as they’ve done lately, but the sound was really much better than
usual. I think EW&F feels really at home at Caesar’s Palace.
