The crowd was getting restless. After all, 45 minutes had passed since Mint Condition had finished its excellent opening set at the Minnesota Zoo on Friday. Where was Larry Graham? He was getting ready to make the grandest entrance ever at a concert at the zoo's amphitheater. He and his five band members (all dressed in white) marched in through the crowd all playing drums. Fititngly, they opened with "We've Been Waiting" --" We've been waiting for so long/ Waiting to play for you some of our songs." There were songs from Graham Central Station, Graham's solo career and a handful of hits from his days with Sly & the Family Stone. Arguably the emotional highlight was his biggest solo hit, 1980's "One in Million." Before playing that wedding favorite, he tried to find out who in the crowd had been married the longest. When he discovered that McKinley and Sara Lee have been wed for 55 years, he invited them onstage to slow dance while he and the band performed. "It was too scary," Sara Lee told me after the concert After the show, Graham shared that this was the first time he's found a couple who'd reached 55 years. His previous best had been 50 once at San Francisco show. Speaking of previous, Graham had performed for 3 hours the night before in suburban Washington D.C. and for 2 hours and 45 minutes on Wednesday in New York where Prince, Felicia Collins (from the Letterman show) and Greg Errico (original drummer with Sly & Family Stone) sat in. At the zoo, however, there was neither any special guests nor much time to stretch out . As it was, Graham, in mid-song, walked offstage to ask promoter Sue McLean how much time he had left. After his 85-minute performance, he admitted that he had to "do some surgery" on some of the final numbers, including the past-curfew encore of Sly's "I Want to Take You Higher." While the Sly hits were nostalgic, dance-inducing fun, the biggest lasting impression of the performance was what a ginormously innovative and gifted bass player Graham is. Often using his bass as lead instrument, he played funk, jazz, blues, R&B, pop, psychedelic rock – you name it – with flair and force. Always the showman, Graham exited with panache, as well – with each member of his band playing tambourine and dancing off as the crowd sang Sly's "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)." Since this monstrous music man lives in the Twin Cities (and has for 12 years), we need to see him more often as a headliner onstage (not just as Prince's opening act or mid-set special guest). Let's start with Larry Graham at First Avenue or the Dakota.