An Out of Towner's Perspective of Friday Night's Launch Party at The Park



Me and my buddy April drove to Chanhassen this past Friday for the NPG Music Club Lauch Party at Paisley Park. Despite the snowy weather in Chicago, amazingly the forecast in Mnpls was sunny & clear so we proceeded on with our plans to drive up (like weather was gonna stop us anyway!)



Got there at about 12:45 am - plenty of time. There was a short line outside the door which grew as time went by. I don't understand the way some of the locals think. Prince said to dress warmly if you planned to line up because "u know how dat hawk b". Yet, alot of them didn't even have a coat on! Now, it wasn't as cold as it probably could have been - it was a pretty decent for Minnnesota standards but, to be standing out there with No Coat at all was just crazy.



This was not my first visit to Paisley Park. I was at The Celebration last June. It is, however, only my second Paisley Friday night party. I thought the free t-shirt if you paid a full $8 to get in was cool. And I liked how the L4OA room was decorated with orange & black balloons celebrating the NPGMC. This sort of explained why the outside of The Park was bathed in orange lighting rather than its customary purple. Orange must be one of the theme colors for the NPGMC. I also thought the addition of carpeting to the room was really a very nich touch! It was black and had the Music Club logo in orange in the center. Something about carpeting in a room makes music sound richer. And it's also more comfortable to the feet. Good Hit, Prince!!



The Fonky Baldheads performed and I thought they were tight as HELL!!!! They all came out wearing black nylon skullcaps trimmed with a black & white elastic band. They removed them and threw the caps into the crowd. D.V.S. came out and kicked rhymes to the first couple of songs. Alot of the locals who have seen him before don't seem to care too much for him. I personally, appreciated his energy. He even handed me his skullcap! Cool, I thought! Didn't have to pay $10 bucks for one! I saw the Baldheads at the Celebration and liked them even then, but I think they are even tighter now! The 3rd song they played stood out to me because it was a slower, cool and steady groove that had me and the rest of the front line Chicago crew bobbing our headz and losing our minds!!!



After they played a couple Baldhead originals, they came with "anotherlover/holeinyohead" The lead singer was trying to get the audience to sing along but again, I didn't understand the locals... they were so uninspired. The Chicago crew in the front held it down, though. The lead guitar player for the BHs was awesome!! He would stand right in front of us and rip the meanest solos!! And Kirky was fierce on the drums!! I thought The Baldheads rocked The Park Friday night!



After they completed their set, John Blackwell comes out and takes a seat behind the drums, Morris sits behind the keyboards and we see Prince come onstage. I'm thinking "it's about to be on now'! Brotha was dressed in red - from the the long silky shirt and pants, right down to the boots! And he was bling-blingin' in that long NPG necklace I've seen him wear before! The man looked good and he was in a playful, good mood. Prince just wanted to jam and I have absolutely NO PROBLEM with that. I think it's great to see a musician who is as accomplished as Prince is, just kick different grooves! I don't give a rat's azz if he chooses not to play a certain song or not. Friday night he played a little keyboards while giving Morris a little grief - it was fun watching the two of them, played a little bass, sang alittle vocals in the background but, what I really loved seeing was Prince picking up a couple drum sticks, moving back and forth across the stage and showing everybody that he is The Master when it comes to directing and commanding his band! They locked in on a funky azz groove and Prince would signal to whoever he wanted to spotlight! He'd flip it to John Blackwell and that brotha would bring tears to our eyes with his skills on the drums. Then Prince would flip it to the BH's lead guitar player who would make us all swoon, nailing some very Princely sounding riffs in some awesome solos!! I think the technical difficulties they seemed to be experiencing with some of the guitars was the reason why Prince didn't play his symbol guitar or his tan colored one with the leopard design (it has a name, I'm just not sure what it is) which were set up on the right side of the stage. Again, all of this fabulousness is going on and the locals all just seem mildly interested. Meanwhile, the Chicago Connection that was there and up front, REPRESENTED! He kept skipping down to the end of the stage where we were standing. I was on the front row at The Riviera Nightclub where Prince played his Hit & Run date in Chicago and he was closer to me Friday night than he was at The Riv! I really believe Prince played to those of us who showed him that Energy Friday night. He was feeding off the energy we were feeding him. We'd start singing old school lyrics to grooves he was kicking and at one point he looked pointed to us, knodded and smiled at us!! If the whole room had given him what we did, Brotha would probably STILL be playing right now!!



I plan on attending as many of these parties as I possibly can this year. So far, I'm 2 for 2 in 2001. I would love to see more people from my hometown of Chicago drive up and be heavily respresented at more of these Paisley parties. Maybe I'm just a little too critical but it kinda seemed to me that the Mnpls locals just didn't seem to get it. I'm not trying to put anyone down so please don't take it that way. That room was so quiet, I had to question just what was up with those folks! My ears are supposed to still be ringing from all the noise that should've been resonating from that room!! Maybe it's because they get to see him more often. I've been a lover of that man and his music since the fall of 1978 and even after all that time, my admiration for him has only grown. When I met him at the Celebration, I told him that there was much love for him in Chicago. I saw Prince Friday night and paid 8 damn dollars!!!! It was almost $80 when he played the Riv in Chicago!



After they were done jamming, Prince annouced that the room next door was open and they had computers set up for us to check out the NPGMC. The big door was open and folks went in to surf the Club. I talked to D.V.S, Kirky and spoke to Morris (I should've asked him what he and Prince were laughing and gigling about all night). I also gave John Blackwell much love. Alot of people left after that... and the party wasn't even overwith! Chicago closed The Park down!! Me & my buddy April were the last 2 people to leave Paisley Park. They let us take balloons home and even gave us another shirt that was different from the one everybody else got when they came in!



I hope I didn't get to wordy with this message. A couple previous reports have shared good details on the performance but I just wanted to share my thoughts on what went down Friday at The Park! The people up in Mnpls have a jewel in their midst and yet they seem to treat it like a diamonoid!!! One girl from Mnpls asked me where I got my black NPG Dance Co. tam and I told her I got it from The Celebration. Her response was "What Celebration"? HUH?????



I'll definitely be hitting the road more and I hope more of my hometown Purpleheadz start doing the same cuz we need to show this man that Chicago's got the Energy & the Love for him and we come to party!!



Jo - Chicago Prince Loyalist since Fall '78!!