Date: Thursday, April 8th 2004

Location: Hilton Coliseum

Locale: Ames, IA USA

Musicology-specific seating chart for the Ames show:

I posted this info in another thread, but I'll repeat it here since we have these handy "EVENT" threads:

While I'd be surprised if Prince does an aftershow in Ames, supposing that he does decide to do one, I can think of two possible venues:

The Maintenance Shop: Very small venue in the basement of Iowa State University's Memorial Union. Holds around 200 people. A lot of regional acts play here when they are touring the midwest.

People's Bar & Grill: Surprisingly enough, People's is a bar & grill. It's located on the corner of Ames' Campustown district, just across Lincoln Way from the ISU campus. Capacity is also small, around 240. Mostly standing/dancing room when acts are performing.

If there's an aftershow, I'd put my money on People's. But given the small capacity of any venue in Ames outside of the sports arena and the somewhat smaller ISU performance theaters, it would would be tough to fit many people anywhere.

I hope I'm wrong though!

I am driving down from Minneapolis to the Omaha show and then heading to Ames that night for that show. Is People's a good place to go and have some drinks and food before the show? Any fan gatherings happening in Ames the night of the show? Let me know.

way2funky said:

I'll be there, too! Let me know if you find anything cool to do!

when's he ever gonna play in des moines, man....

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

He's in Ames... that's closer to you than it is to me!!! You can make it!!

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Yeah Ames is only 3.5-4 hour drive from our hometown of MPLS. I'm goin'=it's closer than Des Moines.

OK, he's playing Iowa...but only ONE date in NY State?

How do the Iowans plan to pay for their tickets? With grain?

Sales Rep: "OK sir, and how do you plan to pay?"

Iowan: "Hold up, I got two sacks of barley in the pick-up."

I'm from Iowa but live in MPLS and that last post pisses me off... you're a jerk dude... anyways!!! who's all gonna be at the show... Prince did have an afterparty once when he was in Ames for Love4oneanother tour... it was at a country bar that once was a cool dance club on the outskirts of town... he didn't perform, but he did meet and greet people...not sure if he'll have one this time and if he does, I'll be very surprised if he does either the M-shop or Peoples... they usually got their owns shows going on Thurs. nights... OH well! the show shoudll be slamming though... I'm guessing memebers will be in those first 4 areas around the stage. Although, i have heard a rumour that memebers will be ON the stage in couches...

way2funky said:

I like the food at People's, but I don't generally hang out there. If you get there relatively early (5, 6 pm?), they might still be in food-serving mode rather than bar-mode. As far as a good place to have a drink before the show, a little farther down Welch Ave. and you'll find a bar by the same name, Welch Ave. I think they've got the best atmosphere of any of the Campustown bars. Lot's of seating, some pool tables, big tvs, etc. I'd recommend them if you're mainly looking to have a few drinks. You can order pizza and some other appetizer stuff from the Pizza Pit which is located directly above the bar, and they'll bring it down to you.

As far as walking distance to Hilton, it's probably a good 15 minute walk, maybe 20, from Campustown to the venue. Probably more if you've had one too many at the bars.

If people are interested in meeting before the show, I'd go with Welch Ave.

HornyPony said:

I think I've heard about that place, pretty sure it's not around any more. Was it called Hunky Dory's or something like that?



That's a good point. People's seems to have someone playing just about every night. The only problem is that it seems like the same five people are in there every day of the week! Last I checked the M-Shop didn't have anything scheduled that night, but the web page could be a bit out of date, and something could get scheduled in the meantime too.

As has been mentioned elsewhere, the word out the club is that there probably won't be many, if any, aftershows on this tour. Ames is at the end of a three day run, with shows in Oklahoma City and Omaha the previous two nights. Whether that would make an aftershow more or less likely, I don't know. Seems like having the next day off would make Ames the best choice of those three. I'm not expecting anything though. Just looking forward to a great show

way2funky said:

I will be driving down from Minneapolis as well, but only for the Ames show. Have no idea what Ames is like, but hoping for a killer show!

HornyPony said:

Here's hoping! That would rule!

But on a serious tip- man don't be dogging on the midwest (not HornyPony, just whoever). In case y'all didn't cop- Prince is from the Midwest. He could live anywhere he wants to- LA, NYC, Paris... and he CHOOSES the midwest. That's on account of us midwest peeps are straight up nice folks. You can't go wrong seeing a show in NE/IA/MO/KS.

Which brings me to my next point- small market shows are AWESOME!! Better seats, closer to the stage, less hassle, traffic, etc. I would think more folks would figure that out and road trip AWAY from the big markets and check out shows in the Ames/Omaha/Oklahoma City type places!!