Saturday night’s “A Night to Make it Right” got the stars in town. Snoop Dogg played a one-off show at House of Blues, and host Ellen DeGeneres showed up at the Help’s gig in the Parish at House of Blues to see friend Barbara Menendez. The buzz from the gala was over Harrison Ford, who was in town to attend. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but the crowd at the after party erupted when Rihanna joined Kanye West for “Run This Town” and “All of the Lights”. More unexpected was the guest spot by Jamie Foxx, who evidently flew in for the event and West’s show as well. He joined Kanye for “Gold Digger,” singing the hook to start the song, then serving as hype man and backing vocalist for the rest of the song.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOiG0FLfLe4[/youtube]

Here are some notes on the night:

– Kanye’s set was him at his most crowd-pleasing with the least concept—so much so that it almost wasn’t Kanye. He wasn’t unengaged or hostile to the crowd, but he never spoke to it either. I missed the lack of eccentricity, but it’s hard to argue with the results.

– Snoop Dogg seemed infinitely more comfortable and appropriate (in his completely inappropriate way) indoors and playing for 1,000—give or take—people than he did on Voodoo’s main stage. He really was playing a party and not just talking the stage talk, so when he thought the crowd needed a jolt of energy, he had his DJ spin a little “Jump Around” and he joined in on the chorus.

– There was a four-alarm irony fire during Snoop’s set when race, class and culture issues were on display as white men in black tie worn to the gala earlier tried to dance like a low rider and sing along during “Gin and Juice.” Just as low-grade peculiar was Snoop’s shout-out to Brad Pitt, who he said was “a special person.” Then he brought out his stripper-lite dance team.

– The only hiccups during the after party were the timing early in the night. The Soul Rebels were off after 20 or so minutes, followed by Seal, who played the longest set of the night—almost an hour—and that couldn’t have been by design. Seal’s show opened dramatically with “A Change is Gonna Come,” but it felt padded with Memphis R&B covers of Ann Peebles, Al Green and Eddie Floyd. It was straight out of Biloxi, and by the end of “Crazy,” the song’s lyric—”We’re never gonna survive / unless we get a little crazy”—sounded like advice he could stand to hear.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLBhc224Tqk[/youtube]