Review: Hotel Minneapolis revives the Time's cool R&B

The fedoras, the sunglasses, the stylish zoot suits. The Time looked familiar Friday night at the grand opening of the Hotel Minneapolis.

But something seemed different about these 1980s R&B hitmakers, giving their first performance in their hometown with the original seven members in more than 25 years.

First of all, they started 10 minutes early. Second, frontman Morris Day isn't the only famous member anymore. Third, the band seemed looser and more musically impressive, especially guitarist Jesse Johnson.

The 90-minute show was just as fun, spirited and entertaining as back in the day. But the Time wasn't as crisp and precise. Back then, there were six months of rehearsal before the first gig. This year, these seven players got together to perform one song on the Grammys in February (some hadn't seen each other since the one-off 1990 "Pandemonium" reunion CD), then they did 15 gigs in Las Vegas in the summer and one rehearsal before Friday's show.

The circumstances of the reunion had the right spirit -- a charity gig featuring leading purveyors of the Minneapolis Sound to celebrate a new hotel named for the city -- but an odd location. A stage was erected in the driveway entrance to the hotel. Nothing wrong with playing outdoors on a cool night, but the stage was relatively small, there was no spotlight to follow Day and the too-loud sound careened off three walls of hard surfaces.

Still, Day and friends turned back the hands of Time and churned out a timeless R&B sound that demanded that everybody -- even those with two left feet -- dance to the music. The hits kept on coming, with no pauses, as "Wild and Loose" segued into "777-9311," which moved into "The Stick." "The Bird" had 600 fans flapping their wings, and "Jungle Love" had them singing "o-e-o-e-o."

There were detours into what these guys have done outside the Time, with pianist Monte Moir crooning "If You Were Here Tonight," which he wrote for Alexander O'Neal, and Johnson doing three of his mid-'80s solo hits as a power trio, showing off his monster guitar chops. All night, either in solos or fills, he contributed expressive passages melding rock, blues and funk in a way that suggested that he may be the most underappreciated electric guitarist on the planet.

Surprisingly, there were none of the hits that keyboardist Jimmy Jam and bassist Terry Lewis had produced in their storied post-Time career. Even though Jam acted as MC, he let the show focus on the band's musicianship and the antics of Day. At 50, he remains a suave entertainer despite his less-than-forceful voice. He had middle-aged women onstage dancing all sexy with him. While his pimp lines seemed dated and obviously un-PC, he pulled off the Lothario bit with comic charm, proving that 28 years after Prince created the Time, the band is still cool.

Jon Bream • 612-673-1719