Day One Report:

Alright: I gotta get my sorry ass back out to the Park, so this will be a utillitarian sort of report.

The Rainbow Children is a challenging record. Musically, it's some of his best EVER (no joke). Lyrically, it's . . . interesting. I don't want to taint anyone's perception before they get a chance to hear themselves, but I will say this: even though there was some serious criticism of the lyrical content in the discussion, almost everyone seemed to express interest in getting a copy themselves sometime soon. As for the rest of the day, I missed the soundcheck in the afternoon, but was back at 8 for the party. We were told that Amel's plan was rerouted due to the tornado that hit MN last night, so she was stuck in South Dakota for a while. The statement was that if she shoiwed up, it wouldn't be until 2 AM, but we were welcome to party until then! Once we got in to the sound stage, the crew started tearing down the instruments on stage and uncovering and plugging in all of the NPG equipment! It was definite that Prince would play instead. After awhile, howerver, they started bginging all of Amel's gear back out. Kind of sad that that was a dissapointment. Anyway, she came on little after 1 AM. For the preceding 4 hours, there were a handful of us dancing the night aweay while the majority of fams sat down over by the stage. . . waiting . . . . . . . . . (ed:It's going to be a long week if y'alll don't start shakin' your asses!) Anyway, Amel was fantastic!! She has such a beautiful voice, and such a beautiful soul. If you don't know her music, fix it! She was obviously a little nervous to be playing in fron tog P, but it didn't seem to hamper her performance. At the end, she thanked Prince for all of the years of music -- very touching. So Amel finished at, like, 2:30 or something like that and most of the place emptied out -- but way too soon!!!! You bet -- the Man decided it was time to J-A-M! Brother came out at almost 3 AM, obviously in good spirits! Hewas joking around and thrashing it up on the one-eyed bass (including the mind-altering _Invisible Funk_) ;o) Other highlights: Que Sera Sera, Bambi (oh my lawd!!), When You Were Mine, 3 Chains of Gold, a new swingier version of Delerious, and lots of clapping and singing along from the crowd. He sat and talked earnestly with us for a while in the middle about the week, TRC, the storm, and a little common courtacy. Finally got my hungry ass out of the PArk at quarter to 4 or so, and here I am: ready to truck on out!

Peace and B Wild!
See you at th ePark!

~Tom