People started arriving before 8:30 tonight to get in early and avoid the
problems reported last night. I was one of the early ones, so I won't be
able to speak for whether or not things improved or not. I did see the
female security guard and I thought she was pretty nice and professional. I
personally went to the bathrooms just before going inside and resisted
drinking any water until near the end. If you stand near the big outside
garage door, you can get some fresh air and stay relatively cool. BTW, the
reason for the bathroom problems became clearer to me when I got to Paisley
today. To get in for the evening parties, you go in the side door rather
than through the main lobby (where the regular bathrooms are). They've set
up porta-toilets just outside this door, but to go out to them would mean
going outside the security check point and having to re-enter the secured
area. I don't think they wanted to leave all the security people at the
main door all night to do re-searches. This is one of the problems of
trying to have a massive public event in a building designed to be a working
recording studio. Anyway, on to the report...



The night started with pounding club beat with a few Prince tunes thrown in
here and there. A video for the Celebration was shown which was basically taking the Purple Medly video and updating it with some clips from Rave 2000
and the GRES video. They also showed what I belive was the BBC documentery
done back in the early 90's with interviews and some bootleg video from the
'83 1st Ave benefit gig and other video clips. This piece was played for
quite awhile but always without sound. Finally, a special video was shown
for tonight's theme, "Batman" and it was really cool. It started with Nona
Gaye's speach at the American Music Awards and the opening of the Purple
Medly performance which is like the Batdance video. It then cut to the
Batdance video itself pretty much intact, but then started editing in scenes
from the movie. After Batdance, it went into "The Future" which was set
exclusively to scenes from the movie. Next up was the "Electric Chair"
performance from the SNL Anniversery show. Also included in the video was
"Trust" and "Arms of Orion" both set to scenes from the movie and the video
for Scandelous. The video ended with the Partyman video. Hearing these
songs tonight at Paisley Park, they sounded so freash despite their age.
They also picked some great clips from Jack Nicholson from the movie to
show. I expected to see the Tokyo Nude tour footage because of the Batman
theme, but it was nowhere to be found.



After the video was shown twice, the NYC Cover Band Days of Wild came out
for a very lengthy set (2hrs plus?). I was happy that I finally got to see
them perform, and folks if you haven't seen them, book them for your next
party (it's worth the cost of flying in to your city like Prince did
tonight). These guys were so tight and so funky. I can't begin to list
their playlist but they played all kinds of wonderful Prince tunes just like
any fan would request from Prince if he ever asked. They played Girls and
Boys, Anotherlover, Gold, DoW, Purple Rain, 17 Days, Pop Life, America, Hide
the Bone, and many more. The horn section was particularly good as was
their guitarist - but don't be fooled - they all are extremely talented
musicians and I can't wait to see them again. Morris Hayes listened in to
their set (didn't see Prince) but nobody from the NPG joined them as I had
hoped. Morris did go over to the sound board once when one of the DoW
keyboard solos wasn't coming through the speakers very loud.



DoW's set ended about 2am. They showed the video again plus a cool video
from the Act II tour (I think) from Schefield England. It seemed like an
encore which included "1999", "Baby I'm A Star", "America" and a cool bass
jam from Prince and drum solo by Michael. The rest of the time was almost
exclusively Prince-related dance music including such cool cuts as "Mad",
"Screams of Passion", "Violet the Organ Grinder", etc. About 3:45am, Prince
suddenly appeared on the left side of the stage (with Aaron close behind)
and shook hands with a few fans before leaving (he was literally there less
than 30secs). Most people thought he had left, but actually he had climbed
up on this platform next to the stage where some chairs had been set up like
a living room. He was laying on the floor of this raised living room with a
girl (she had big hair sort of like the girl in the GRES and HWU videos but
I don't want to start up the Desere argument again). They layed there on
their stomachs looking at the crowd and talking with Prince keeping his face
buried in his arms most of the time like he was trying to hide. He was up
there a good 15mins before coming down and disappearing into the dark (at
which point another girl joined the first one laying up on the platform). A
few moments later, Aaron came back for the girls and the house lights came
up shortly after they left. The party ended at 4:15am as the sun was
starting to rise.



Gotta get some sleep so I can go for the tours tomorrow.



One other note, I have confirmed that L4OA is an official charitable
organization: they have one of those white panel vans with their logo
painted on the doors just like all good charities do.