eleven said:

Not nearly as adorable as you.

Anxiety said:

Anxiety! great picture of u and your friend. I know u guys were out there presenting and holding things down

9

pennylover said:

you know we were!

here's what was going on at the other side of purpleheadedlovewarrior's pics:

i posed with a big ol' mary:


and then we went inside to see the perfume display:


then endo found a giant bottle of 3121:

pennylover said:

Thanks Penny!
I wish the other 15 pics would have turned out.
It was a very fun time standing in line with other fans, listening to thier prince stories and stuff. Definately somthing Ill never forget.

Anxiety said:

purpleheadedlovewarrior said:

I can verify 100% it was not john goodman!! I was in third row directly behind him. My friend and i patted him on the back when he got back to his seat. What do i have to do to make you believe me? geeeeeze

serahstar said:

see? it was SO TOTALLY him!

serahstar said:

Here's a picture I took while purplehead was stalking us outside Macy's




Anxiety presents....

Okee doke folks, here's some pics from my camera fone - craptastic quality but should give ya a cool little glimpse into the aftershow until someone posts some high quality stuff.

Thanks Eleven!! All pictures count!! Wish I was there!

purpleheadedlovewarrior said:

It was not
John Goodman, just because it was an middle aged over-weight white guy. Not everthing in life is pre-planned.

endorphin74 said:

I hope you stole the tablecloth!

purpleheadedlovewarrior said:

It wasn't John Goodman, just someone with a similar build. I sat on the same row as the dude and chatted with him after the show.

Anxiety said:

OM GOOSSSHHHH.....was it really.....it could have been?!?! WOW...and I just thought it was some crazy chubby guy who wanted to enjoy his midlife crisis with Prince! LMAO!! And to think....I didn't want to pay $600 bidding on front row tickets on TM?!?! lol

I have some pics if they turn out will post later. I was in row 18 seat 5...all alone. Hubby didn't get to go. I did see the glowsticks all around me though!

Thank you to everyone for sharing your pics with those of us who didn't get to go

Stax, that was a hilarious response

eleven said:

PaisleyPark5083 said:

Your pics are great - there are precious few pics floating around from that aftershow, so your snapshots are a sight for needy eyes!

Thanx 4 the pics. I too anxiously await for him to come to the Chi

Ariannew said:

Yes, he throws down in Chi Town, more so than any other place I have seen him, which is just 2 making 5 shows total now so, Im not claiming to be a prince know it all. Its always a great show and a great time.

Thanks for the after show pics eleven!!

It was still like 80-85 degrees at 3am, P must have been hot in all that get up he has on for the 1st ave show.

Anxiety said:

For sure. And that's about how I'm seeing things lately anyway, so they're perfect!

GangstaFam said:

"They say nothing's perfect but they don't know U "
[Edited 7/11/07 12:25pm]

Question still unanswered is- Is that really John Goodman??

PaisleyPark5083 said:

i think prince wrote 'guitar' about john goodman.

Anxiety said:

well that explains alot!

Wow...I'm just now coming off of Cloud 7 from the most amazing weekend of all time.

It was my anniversary present to my wife and my first Prince experience.

Here are a few pictures from our weekend competing in the Purple Olympics. Sorry in advance to minnesodaboy--I stole your idea of the line at First Ave so I could document our experience as well.

Also below is my wife's review of everything. Thanks to all of you on the org for helping me make this the best weekend of all time. We were able to hit all three shows. We were in the rear of the Macy's auditorium, on the 3rd row for Target Center, and under the right stair case for First Ave.


Our Line Experience


The view of the line from our hotel room at 10 am.


My wife and I in line behind First Avenue


One of my wife's outfits...


We got the wrist bands!


Picture of the NPG Church Fans given out on the floor at Target Center


Only picture I was brave enough to take at the Target Center.


Exhausted in the elevator after a long (short) weekend.


Star Tribune

After work I quickly threw on my authentic 1984 Purple Rain t-shirt and raced to the airport. We flew out of Canada and into Prince’s hometown around 8 pm that night. The Marriott was swarming with men wearing white suits & tilted, matching hats and loads of women decked head-to-toe in shiny, purple gear. I changed into my new purple BCBG heels, and we went down to First Ave. for 80’s night.

The club still looked a just like it did in Purple Rain, except perhaps the people in it had aged a good twenty years. We mainly sat and giggled at all of the tipsy women in flashy dresses, who probably had a few kids at home with grandma while they re-lived their youth and danced their hearts out to the essential Prince hits. One of the many things that I love about Prince concerts is how diverse his fans are. All shapes, ages, and colors come out of the woodwork to see the tiny little man in heels perform his magic. I heard one local as he passed the anxious mobs of people say, "Welcome to Prince’s World." I somehow felt proud to be apart of the entire fiasco. By the time we left the club there were at least a hundred or so diehard fans camped out on the sidewalk for the aftershow tickets that wouldn’t go on sale for another thirteen hours.

The next morning I woke up at nine o’clock. Those of you who know me well are saying, "What? Bobbie up before noon?" Well, I couldn’t sleep. Like a kid on Christmas morning high on sugar cookies, I ran downstairs to have a look out the window to see if the line had reached the end of the street. The feeling was pure panic when I saw that the line was already four blocks long. We grabbed some quick breakfast and a spot in the still-growing line. Over six hours of our day was spent taking turns sitting on the hot sidewalk in downtown Minneapolis while the other ran to fetch more water. We met a lot of interesting people from all over the world and I even got a little "Tennessee" on a few drunks who tried to skip line. By the time we had turned the corner where we could finally at least see First Avenue, the line had wrapped around more than eight blocks. As soon as the heavily pierced, hairy doorman strapped the purple wristband on my arm I felt both relieved and anxious. We had only a minute to make it to Macy’s before Prince took the stage.

You could smell Prince’s new perfume before you even walked into the department store and they were pleasantly playing his music as well. I felt like I had walked into a twilight zone where everything revolved around Prince. They had painted the walls purple with gold-framed pictures of the proud one everywhere. There were custom-made purple rugs that said 3121, oversized chandeliers, and purple drapes galore. No stone was left unturned on the eighth floor auditorium either. They had more lights in the tiny room than most concert halls. There was even a massive star made out of flashing lights positioned above the stage. We got settled in with a beer just in time for the first of three amazing shows Prince would perform.

The Macy’s show started with three of his band members playing When The Saints Go Marching In. Then a surprise appearance by Sheila E, who looked amazing and played the heck out of some drums. Prince played many of his classics and a few newer songs too. He opened with 3121 and even played one of my favorites Take Me With U. He did Girls And Boys and his new single Guitar. For the encore, Prince asked the screaming crowd what they wanted to hear, something old or something new. We unanimously said both. Prince returned that with, "So many hits, so little time." When everything went dark in the room and all you could see was a small silhouette with big hair say, "Dearly beloved" the crowd went absolutely wild. He stopped, smiled, and said, "Ya’ll ain’t ready yet" before playing Let’s Go Crazy. The sound was amazing in the auditorium and I was on cloud nine AND we still had two more shows to go!

We had about an hour to go back to our room for showers and sustenance. My ears were ringing and I was feeling a little loopy by this point, but it was nothing that a little coffee and Prince on the iPod couldn’t cure. I decided to take my time getting ready since Prince is notoriously late for his shows, which turned out to be a good thing. When I looked down at the Target Center there was yet another line! The concert was an hour and a half late letting people in the doors. I later read an article that said at noon Prince decided that he wanted Wendy (who played in The Revolution with him) to fly in from L.A. for the shows. She got a babysitter for her son and jumped on a plane. She landed in Minneapolis only 45 minutes before the show began. As soon as she arrived at the Target Center, Prince told her, "Oh by the way, we’re opening with Purple Rain. You’re on!" Our third row center seats were so amazingly close to the stage that I could swear he smiled at me a few times.

He played so many of my favorites at Target including, Sometimes It Snows In April, 7, Little Red Corvette, How Come You Don’t Call Me, You Got The Look, If I Was Your Girlfriend, Kiss, Nothing Compares 2 U, and even Cream.
At one point he told the crowd, "If you have a cell phone handy, go ahead and call your baby sitter, cuz you’re gonna be here all night!" Later we found out some celebrities came to see the show too. Vanilla Ice, Flava Flav, Bobby Brown, Sandra Bullock, Jesse James, and even the Mayor of Minneapolis all were there for Prince. He let some people from the first row come on stage and dance. Prince told one crazy old lady wearing a sequined purple jacket and white ruffle blouse that she was scaring him. Every part of it was perfect. Being that close to the stage made me realize that I will never see another concert again without being in at least the third row. Who am I kidding; I would sit anywhere for Prince!

Once we finally fought the crowd outside we saw to our disappointment that there was already another huge line of people waiting to get into the afterparty at First Avenue. Since my cute but painful shoes were killing my toes and we had been in lines all day long, we decided to go back to the hotel, change into my third outfit for the day, and wait on the club to let everyone in. It was almost an hour later before we got into the ridiculously packed First Avenue. They weren’t even close to being done with setting up the equipment and it was going on two in the morning! Our minds were awake but our bodies were shutting down fast. I downed two Red Bulls while waiting for the show to start. It was almost impossible to move through the sea of fans to even go to the bathroom, let alone get a good view of the stage (especially being vertically challenged). But by golly, I was there! I waited all day long to get in and I wasn’t going to let a silly thing like lack of sleep ruin my fun.

Around a quarter ‘till three the lights finally dimmed and Prince’s band and his girls came out. Prince came strutting out dressed like, well, "young" Prince. He wore a tight black outfit adorned with gold accents. His hair looked more teased than normal, perhaps it was a wig, and he had on big black sunglasses. I kept standing on my tiptoes so that I could catch small glimpses of him. Of course I was stuck behind some meathead of a man that was so freakishly tall that he should have, by club rules, been made to stand in the back. Plus, he doubled his height by holding his arms in the air the entire time. I was able to squeeze in a few glimpses now and then and Josh lifted me up a few times too. I don’t think anyone has seen Prince move like he did at First Avenue since the early nineties. It really was like stepping back in time and well worth the wait. Close to 4 am, the fire marshal showed up to pull the purple plug and everyone cleared out. I slept so incredibly well, even through Josh’s snoring.

Dear god what a nice review of your weekend! Thank you for sharing, I can not even imagine what it would be like to be married to another Prince fan
I adore my husband, but he is no fan!!

sthoudek said:

Ummmm yea, i know not everything in life is pre planned, like you!

Im not the one who said it was John Goodman, I know 3 shows were pre planned, I know set lists were pre planned, I know gear is pre planned and I also know for a FACT that the people who get up on stage are PRE PLANNED because my wife was one of them at a previous show. You get a wrist band, way before the show starts, Princes people walk around and pick you out of the early crowd.

So, maybe it was pre planned.... try to think of that aspect of things.
and all middle aged men arent over weight or going through a mid life crisis.


Thanks for the pics and the write up yoohoo42! Me and my wife are both fans, so it makes it a lot more fun that way!

I had another user name in here and killed it because of the rudeness that goes on, which, will never effect me being a fan, but Ill refrain from any comments from now on and just post my pics. This is the coolest thread ive ever been a part of on here. So, Im going out in a blaze of glory as a sticky and Ill see you guys all again (with pics ofcourse) after the Planet Earth Show in chicago and I cant wait!!!!!
[Edited 7/11/07 15:36pm]