Rave un2 the year 2000!!! Whew!!!! What a show! I can't
believe how crazy I am and that I did what I did but it was
worth it in the end! Let me explain..... Part I The wait: I was not one of the lucky 500-550 VIP's, contest winners etc. who had tickets to the event but since it was announced that
there would be some at the door I got out to Paisley a little before 5:00 and took my placre in line (with a bunch of other similarly inclined folks. We knew we had a long wait in store as doors were not to open until 9:00 but we were prepared for that. As 9:00 camre and went it was obvious we were not getting in yet. We heard rumors of how many tix would be sold (100?, 25?) And if anyone was gonna butt in line we sure were gonna raise a stink! We watched as all the ticket holders, limos, vans, buses etc. kept going by. We kept asking the staff at the gate if they could get any indication as to when we might get in, how many might get in, etc. and they said they simply did not know, fire marshall had to see how many more he would allow in building after everyone was in etc. etc. I tel you IT WAS COLD!!!! Peole stopped feeling their feet! Some folks gave up and left. I was seriously considering it. Finally they said they would let groups of 10 in and that 50 in all would get tickets. I was in the second group of 10. So at 11:30! After standing out in the cold fo six and a half hors I got in..... on to part 2.....the event....



I paid my $100 (in the end worth eery cent!) and was issued my ticket. A very cool big metal collectors ticket ( wanna bet these start showing up on ebay soon? I'm keeping mine!) It is purple with gold letteing and says "Rave un2 the year 2000 Paisley Park Studios Chanhassen, MN December 18th 1999. They are numbered I got #459. Then it says with Morris Day and the TIME and other special guests and it has the symbol printed real big. OK, so I go into the soundstage and the show has not yet begun (I'm not sure if anything happened before I got in) At about 12:00 midnight the two video screens start showing a time capsule of the twentieth Century with decade by decade footage of major events, interspersed with footage of 0(+> and to the soundtrack of an extended Sign 'O the Times. Then it began. 0(+> came onstage wering his Blue Rave suit and ripped into Let's Go Crazy, She's Always In my Hair, and U Got The Look. Then he said "we're having some Technical difficulties with the cameras we'll be right back." At this point I was worried about my car because the side of the Audoban Road I was parked on was posted for No Parking After 1:00 AM so I went to ask the folks at the door a luckily they said that the police had assured them tonight no one gets towed or ticketed. Also at this point they were leting in anyone else who had stuck it out outsid. They ran out of the cool tickets so th gave them all Year 2000 Rave calendars. SOmehow I managed to score one of these too.



OK, back inside. They started the show again and since the cameras had not been working started from the begining. set list was:
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Let's Go Crazy
She's Always in My Hair
U Got The Look
Kiss
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Then to the stage came Lenny Kravitz!!!



They did:
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American Woman
Fly Away
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It starts to get hazy here but many songs were played. There was a Larry/Jerry Martini/Cynthia Robinson portion where they jammed on:
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Everyday People
I Wanna Take U Higher
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And maybe some more. My order may be way off here but they did:
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Gett Off (w/Rosie Gaines)
Some other stuff w/ Rosie
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Purple House (cover of Jimi Hendrix Red House) Maceo Parker on sax for this. Right here I should say there were many Maceo Parker jams and Rosie was on for a bunch of song. It's hard to keep it all straight.



There was a long version of Purple Rain played with the two dancers (who I forgot to mention until now, one male, one female who did a lot of dancing in various costumes throughout the night) Then 0(+> came on and made a speech about how "Tie is an ilusion, do U celebrate birthdays? You only had one day of birth....." Many purple feathers came down from the ceiling



Somewhere in here they did The Christ with a full choir on stage. 0(+> was carried to a small piano in the middle of the crowd by crowd members and played Nothing Compares 2 U (Rosie sang on this one) Other songs were:
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Take Me With U
Rasbery Beret
Baby I'm a Star and....
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1999! during which purple balloons were released from the ceiling. Wild jam!!!



I thought the show was over (it was after 3:00 by this time) But they announced to stick around George Clinton was coming out! He did and did the new song Brother Can U Paradigm? with 0(+> plaing bass. He did some of his other stuff like Tear the Roof off the Sucker/Flashlight. And finally to end the show (like the energizer bunny it just kept going and going.....) Thes songs were performed:
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The Undertaker
Release Yourself
Alphabet Street
The Greatest Romance That's Ever Been Sold
Baby Knows
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I thought this was the end of the show and then 0(+> comes back again and say's "Johnny Lang" has to get his piece!!! So Johnny Lang comes onstage and jam!!! Johnny and 0(+> got into a wicked guitar battle and Maceo was up ther blowing the sax!! WOW!!!! Finally it was over. One of the best night I have ever spent (well OK THE BEST!) at Paisley Park. Can't wait to see what it looks like on TV!!!!