I figure y'all need something Prince-factual to read before the 12/13 surprise drops, whatever it may be. So, submitted for your meantime inbetween-time no-nonsense reading pleasure, I offer my personal journal entry from April 28/29, 2001.


Around midnight on Friday night, I got confirmation that Prince's aftershow would be late Saturday night at the Fillmore near downtown San Francisco. At 2:30AM Saturday morning, I drove to the Fillmore. I arrived there before 6:00AM. Hardly anyone was around. Just a few people walking the streets. When I got back to the ticket window at 7:15AM, there were four people sitting there. I walked past them as if I didn't know anything, and then I turned back and asked them, "So, what are you waiting for?" And they said, "Prince tickets." I said, "Ah, he's playing here tonight?" They said, "Yeah, it's gonna be great." So I said, "Well, I guess I better wait also." And they said, "Yeah, you better." So I stood in line with them.

It was only the four of us until after 8:00AM when some other people started to show. And then a couple Fillmore staff showed up. One of them told us that the show would start at 2AM "at the earliest." He suspected that 3AM would be more accurate. "Semisonic has to clear the stage at 12AM before Prince can set up." Semisonic is another Minneapolis band that just happened to be playing at the Fillmore that same night.

During my 5 hours in line, I made some good friends, and when the ticket window opened at 12PM, the people at the front of the line turned to me and said, "You should be the first one to get a ticket. Go ahead." And I said, "No, I'm just happy to be here." I got my ticket and drove to the Oakland Coliseum.

I arrived in Oakland at 1PM and picked up my ticket. Two of Prince's tour buses were already there. I drove by and asked one of the security guards if they knew anything about fans getting in during the soundcheck. I told him I was a member of the NPG Music Club. He said, "Oh, you didn't say you were with Prince." I think he was confused because several of Prince's staff were walking around with NPG Music Club shirts. He told me, "Go park over there with the other cars and then come back." So I did like he said and parked over by the other cars, which also happened to be right next to Prince's tour buses and where his people parked their cars. I walked back to the security guard and asked if I could use the restroom. He said, "Yeah, sure... use that one..." He pointed toward the backstage, but then another guard interrupted him, "No, our insurance won't allow him to be back there." So I asked that same man, "Do you know anything about the soundcheck that the fans are supposed to see?" And he laughed. "There ain't no way that's gonna happen here." And then another person walked out, and I asked him. He said, "Yeah, we were given a V.I.P. list. It's not unusual for bands to have a meet-and-greet with the fans. You just go over and stand by the box-office and we'll let them know there's a group of you up there." But then, yet another security guard interrupted and got on his radio to a lady located somewhere in the building. "Do you know anything about fans coming in before the show to see Prince?" She answered back, "Um, no. I hadn't heard of it. Let me check." I heard her talking to other people in the background. Then the lady came back on the radio. "No. We haven't heard anything." "Well, he's got an e-mail here about it." And she said, "Wow... they'll try just about anything to get in." He read part of the e-mail to her. She said, "Sounds fake to me. Probably just something they got off the Internet." So we started walking back, and then another guy came out. They asked him about it. He wasn't quite sure, and then he looked at me. "Well, in the first place, aren't you here just a little early?" I told him that I came to pick up my ticket and wanted to know where to go to get in for the soundcheck. He said something like, "Well, we'll check into it," and he walked away with the security guards.

I drove away in my car and found a place to eat. Then I drove back and parked where I was told to park earlier. I sat there and tried to catch a nap, while at the same time watching Prince's staff walk back and forth from the tour buses (which were only about 20 feet away).

At around 4PM, two other tour buses showed up with the band. And then, about a half hour later, limos and escort cars started showing up. They went into the backstage tunnel and then came back out and parked next to me.

At 5PM, I decided to get out and walk around. Once again, I asked one of the security people about seeing the soundcheck, and she said, "I don't think it's going to happen. Prince isn't even here yet. There isn't much time." About a half hour later, a long black limo drove into the backstage tunnel. Prince got out and walked into the coliseum. It was only two minutes later that we heard Prince playing guitar and singing. He walked straight from the limo to the stage!

For the first half hour, I heard the band working mostly on just one song. Sounded like they were trying to get the bass and drum part right on something. The song didn't sound familiar to me; though, I can still remember that bass line. It may have been "Come On" now that I think of it. Soon after that, they closed the back door. The Arena staff were still unsure of us getting in for the soundcheck, and a couple of them were making fun of us -- "It ain't gonna happen." Every once in awhile some of the Fonky Baldheads and Prince's sound people would walk out to the tour buses or unload equipment from vans. It looked like they had rented some things from a local music store at the last minute -- like an extra snare, and some boxes to patch into, maybe even another keyboard. Kirk came out to talk to a few of us and then went back inside. A little while later, one of the security guards told us, "If you put away your cameras you might see something special." And then about 10 minutes later, someone came out with the V.I.P. list and started pulling us aside, where we were patted down, and then led into the Arena about 15 people at a time. I was in that first group.

As we walked around from the back of the stage to the front, I kept looking. From the back, I could see some members of the band and several of the sound technicians. The band was playing a rocked-out funk version of "Paisley Park." It sounded so good! And what an appropriate song for us to walk in on. As we came around front, there he was. Prince was looking straight ahead to the mixing board as he started singing a verse. He was wearing dark pants and a fuzzy lime-green full-turtleneck sweater with sleeves that almost covered his hands. In the middle of the verse, he did a sideways glance at us and smiled, and then he started to sing again but forgot where he was in the song. Looking down at his lyric book, and not at us, he said, "Y'all made me forget my lyrics." A little bit later, he looked at his band and told them, "These are all my cousins,” pointing to us. “I got lotsa cousins." He pointed to one lady in particular and said, "And she's my aunt."

During the soundcheck, he was upset with the sound he was getting. He had one of his sound techs stand center-stage so he could hear it too. He also didn't like the way the people at the mixing board were operating things. They either had the mics too hot or not hot enough. Several times there was feedback. One time this happened twice within a few seconds and Prince yelled, "COME ON!" Also, he appeared to be upset with how cold it was. He stopped one guitar part to rub his hands together and pull his sleeves over his hands. I was afraid he was going to walk away angry, but he stayed in good spirits and was very nice to us.

He invited Rosie Gaines to come sing onstage. We hadn’t seen her in years! She had been sitting at the back at the Arena (I don't know for how long). She came to the stage and made a point to walk right next to us. She shook my hand and several other people's. When she started to sing, we applauded and cheered for her. Prince seemed pleasantly surprised and told us, "Aw, you're too nice."

Prince asked to see one girl's ticket. She handed it to him, and he read it. He made some comment about the security guard putting us in the wrong seats. He asked us, "Where are your seats?" Most of the fans pointed down to the floor in front of the stage. Then Prince asked us, "Would you like to take your seat?" Most everyone said, "Yeah!" So he said, "Take your seat." Then Prince and the band continued their rehearsal.

At one point, Milennia came to the stage and Rosie had them singing backup to "Ain't No Way". It seemed as if she was telling them to sing a part they hadn't sung before. At first, they kind of mumbled it, and then when they understood what she was asking, they belted it out with stronger voices. At the end of the song, Milennia and Rosie started to walk off stage, and Prince whispered something in Rosie’s ear. Rosie nodded her head in agreement and was gone.

At different points during the soundcheck, Prince would walk over to a stack of speakers that were situated to form a "chair" and he would listen from there. Every once in awhile he'd tell the soundboard people to adjust the sound of a certain instrument. He seemed upset at one point when they didn't get Morris' keyboards sounding right. "Can't ya hear that?"

During most of the soundcheck, Prince thumbed through several large notebooks with big laminated pages propped up beside his guitar effects pedals. I don't know if this included keys and chord changes, lyrics, or both. I wondered if he was making up a setlist right then and there.

Prince stopped the soundcheck to tell us that a lady had something to say to us. The band continued to play in the background, and Prince sat in front of the drumkit with his guitar as the lady walked to the center mic and told us, "If you decide to leave the Arena, the only way you can get back in is to go to the main entrance and show your ticket stub." The band continued to play softly in the background, and she ended her speech right on the last beat of a measure, and Prince cued the band to jam on the very next beat as he played lead guitar. He smiled. The timing was perfect. One of Prince's staff came out and wiped off his microphone that the lady had used. And then when they finished the jam, he said something like, "I'm just not sure I was into that esoteric type of rap that lady was speaking." People laughed.

The last song Prince performed at the soundcheck was a rocking guitar piece, reminiscent of Jimi Hendrix. He sang lyrics on top of it, but I couldn't make them out until I heard, "I never meant to cause you any trouble." He was singing "Purple Rain" to a hard-rock song, but the melody line was completely different. He stopped the song, "I guess those lyrics don't quite fit that song." He told us that all the songs they had just performed were in preparation of the Fillmore aftershow "except that song I just did. That was a gift for you."

Prince let Bill (a fan) go to the stage and play his blue cloud guitar. Bill played some bluesy chords softly in the background, and then some "Purple Rain." I had been talking with Bill outside before they let us in for the soundcheck – very nice guy. While Bill was playing Prince’s guitar, Prince told us about another "Prince Celebration" at Paisley Park, though I couldn't hear him give any specifics.

Prince sat at the front of the stage and answered dozens of questions. He talked about how a radio station in one city should play music that people in that city would be into, including their local bands, and that a station in another city should play the music their local people wanted to hear, including their local music scene. He told us, "But radio is controlled. It's pretty much New York and L.A. who control what the rest of the country hears. That's why wherever you go in the country, you're going to hear the same thing. You need to tell your radio stations that you want to hear groups like Milennia or The Fonky Baldheads. Or... just turn the radio off."

Prince continued answering questions for about 20 minutes. One person asked, "Who is your hero?" We all knew she meant musical heroes, but Prince took the opportunity to share his faith and said, "My hero is Jesus." About half of us applauded.

Around 7:40PM, Prince ended the session. In unison, we all said, "THANK YOU!!" He dug that. And then he and his band left the stage. Ahdio #1 began to play (with some variations) until the show started at 9PM.

I went to buy the "Supercute" single. At the main table, someone had just bought a blue cloud guitar, and someone else asked, "Do you have a white one?" The seller said, "We only had one, and I just sold it." So he bought a blue one instead.

During the opening performances of Milennia and The Fonky Baldheads, very few people stood up and danced, even when the band asked them to.

I thought Millenia was okay. They definitely have good voices, but I'm not into their style of music. It's directed more at the teen hip-hop audience. Milennia tried many choreographed moves which I thought needed a lot more work. But they weren't bad.

Then came The Fonky Baldheads. I loved their sound and energy. But most of the crowd just sat there. The Fonky Baldheads were yelling, "Get up!" and few did.

During Prince's show, the sound was bad, and the guy operating the spotlight had little idea about what he was supposed to do. I kept looking up at him. Najee would be playing, and the guy would have the spotlight on Prince who was standing off to the side watching Najee play in the dark. The spotlight kept missing the real action.

Prince talked to the audience a few different times during the show. He told us about his best friend Larry Graham asking, "Prince, have you ever thought about doing a show cuss-free?" And Prince said, "No, I use those words for effect!" And then Larry said, "Well, okay, see you tomorrow little brother." Prince continued, "And that really bothered me. I thought about it all night. I wouldn't say some of those things to a child or to some other people, why should I say them to you? If I wouldn't disrespect them, why should I disrespect you?" A lot of people cheered and applauded.

A little bit later he told us that Lawrence Fishburne asked for tickets to the show, and Prince said, "Only if you tell me the plots to Matrix 2 and 3. So.... the plot goes like this... Nah... he didn't tell me... and that's why he's sitting way up there in that nose-bleed section!" And then he told us about Jada Picket-Smith asking him for tickets. "And I said only if you tell me the plots to Matrix 2 and 3. So, the plot goes like this... Nah, she didn't tell me either... and that's why she's also sitting way up there!!" People laughed.

I wanted to beat the traffic out of the Arena so I could get to the Fillmore in San Francisco. I left toward the end of "The Beautiful Ones" before the encore. As I was walking out, a security guard was blocking my exit. I asked, "Isn’t this the way to Prince's tour buses?" He said, "Uh... I don't know anything about any tour buses." I told him, "Well, I parked my car next to the tour buses." And he said, "You're not going to leave are you?" I said, "Yeah." He moved out of the way, and I walked out of the Arena. When I got to my car, I saw that they had opened the gates right behind me -- a quick get-away for Prince and his people to leave the Arena. I was on the highway within a minute and on my way to the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco.

When I got to the Fillmore I was told to stand in a line half a block away from the entrance. About twenty minutes later, a man walked by and said, “There's a line for you on the other side of the building." I was about 10th in that line. As we stood there, I saw some of Prince's limos and cars go by with the same drivers that I saw at the Arena.

The longer we stood there, the wider our line became. People refused to stand at the back of the line. A couple people in my line told one guy, "Hey, the line is back there," and he said, "I'm not waiting in line." Someone asked, "Why not?" And he said, "I'm security, so it doesn't matter." Then people started to heckle him a little bit, "I can't believe people are still using that one. I'm security. Yeah, right."

When the Fillmore opened its doors and started letting us in, a huge crowd of people tried to get in at the same time. One guy behind me told these people, "Why don't you guys try getting in line like we are!" But people kept cutting in and shoving their way through. "I thought we were about Love4OneAnother!" Somebody stepped right in front of me and tried to lead his girlfriend through. She tried to get around me from another direction, and the person behind me cut her off. He said, "It doesn't matter how hard you try, you're not going to cut in front of us." She cussed at him, and he said, "Well, I don't care. We've all been standing in line for a long time. Why don't you try going to the back of the line." Then I heard a few different people exchanging nasty words.

As the line surged forward, I bumped into a security guard. She said, "I can only do one of you at a time. Stand back." And she shoved me back, but I couldn't move. She shoved me again and said, "Get back!" I said, "I can't." The line was getting tight. So she patted me down and then let me in. I was up the stairs and onto the dance floor. The whole front row had already formed, and I was the first person to get the center spot in the second row of standing people. Many people were at the bar ordering drinks, and several people were already upstairs taking the balcony seats.

The velvet rope had been placed about 15 to 20 feet back from the stage to allow room for Prince's people to move equipment back and forth in front of the stage for setup. Most of his equipment was in big black boxes (with wheels) stenciled with the address: "P.R.N. Productions / Chanhassen, MN" One box was stenciled with Larry Graham's name, and they took his bass guitar out of that one. Another big box addressed to Prince was opened. Inside there were four keyboards in a purple-lined mold, including two Korgs. One Korg was placed on a stand for Morris, and the other Korg was placed on a stand for Kip. Morris and Kip each had another keyboard also, but I forget what those were. And then they put a percussion kit stage-left from Prince. Most of us knew what that meant. "Sheila's here!" During the soundcheck earlier that day, Prince said he had made a call to Sheila asking her to come to the afterjam, but she hadn’t replied. Sheila, who lives in the area, hadn’t been on good terms with Prince in years.

Takumi, Prince’s guitar tech, checked the Telecaster with the leopard-print guitar strap and then checked Habibi. Another tech checked all the basses. And the drum tech checked the drums. Prince's sound crew checked each and every mic several times. Every once in awhile I swear I could hear Femi's voice, but I didn't see him. I looked back at the soundboard room, but couldn't make out the people in there. And then Najee walked on stage carrying his two saxophones (tenor and soprano) and a flute; no cases for them. He got some applause as he walked in, and he nodded to us.

Prince's songs were being played over the sound system -- many of them from the New Power Soul album. The Fillmore had placed purple cellophane over lights that were focused on two rows of chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. The main lights above the stage were also covered with purple cellophane.

The sound technicians checked the levels on each mic, and then wiped each one with a towel. They were moving around very fast. At one point, when they were removing amps from their boxes, they had dropped one over on its side. Some of us said, "Ohhh," but they picked it up as if nothing happened. We watched as an empty stage became filled with mixing boards, drums, keyboards, guitars, mics, and dozens of cords within two hours. The techs looked very stressed and tired, rushing back and forth, back and forth. Some people in the crowd started to say, "Come on. It's good enough." And one guy tried to get us to chant, "We want Prince! We want Prince!" He looked at me and said, "Should we do it?" No one answered him. I was thinking to myself, "Well, we should give them time to get things right." The techs checked the mics one more time, and then one of them spoke into a mic and said, "It's good enough for me, if it's good enough for you." I'm not sure who he was talking to -- the person standing at Prince's mixing board, the person at the Fillmore's soundboard, or maybe Prince himself? About five minutes later, they wrapped it up and cleared the stage.

Security came to the front of the velvet rope and started to move it while walking backward, but people started to rush them, so they stopped. They tried a couple different times saying, "Now, we're going to take it easy and walk." So, we started walking forward with the rope in front of us, but the people in the back rushed forward, pushing all of us against the stage. I got the wind knocked out of me and someone spilled a drink on my sleeve. One of the security guards got crushed like we did, while another one jumped up on the stage just in time. He yelled at the back rows, "Get back, get back!" Several of us looked back as if to plead with those behind us. He yelled several times, and finally things started to loosen up a bit.

At 3:15AM the band came on stage and started to play "Daisy Chain" and we all started to dance (the best we could while being squeezed against each other). Then Prince started singing the first two verses (without a chorus). We couldn't see him from the front. Someone later said they saw him singing from the bar in the back of the room, and that's why he'd say things like "There's nothing to see here; everybody dance." Then DVS (the white rapper from the Fonky Baldheads) came out to rap his part. Some of us sang along the best we could and waved our arms in the air... as best we could. After his rap, DVS left, never to be seen again, and then Sheila E. came out to the stage. We all went wild!! She was wearing a bracelet, a necklace, and a belt, all with crosses on them! And over to the left, I saw Prince slowly creeping onto the stage with his guitar. He walked up to his microphone and sang a couple verses again. During the whole show, he and Sheila were smiling at each other and interacting quite a bit, whispering into each other's ears and laughing. They stood right next to each other at the front of the stage, with Prince behind his guitar and Sheila behind her percussion. When Prince came to the chorus, we all busted out in unison, "Bless my soul! Save my name! I ain't never going down to the daisy chain!" It was the only part of the song most of us knew well since it had only been available for a week. Prince and the band jammed on this song for about 20 minutes or more. Sheila played percussion, sometimes kicking her heel up on her snare. She did this to damper the sound a bit as she hit the sticks against it. She also played the cowbells and hit some rimshots. The cowbell sound was too loud, and she turned one of the mics away. One of the sound men snuck up by the mic and seemed to ask her if she wanted the microphone removed or adjusted. He left it. At the end of the song, after the applause, it was quiet for a minute, and Sheila turned to find a place to sit or stand. One guy next to me yelled, "Sheeeeila!" and she turned and smiled toward him. People cheered.

Next, Prince introduced Rosie Gaines. Everyone was very happy to see her and she received a lot of cheers and applause. She started to sing a song called, "Do Right Man" -- a blues song about a woman who has been hurt by relationships and is now looking for a good man. "A do right woman needs a do right man." She sang it like she meant it, oftentimes meeting my eyes and looking for understanding. "You know what I'm saying? Mmm, hmm." And I'd say, "Amen!" Her voice was wonderful. She added many ornamentations to the words. The timbre and range of her voice fluctuated often -- sometimes sounding like a screaming synth and other times sounding like a grumbling trombone, "wah, wa, wahghgh...” It was beautiful, and the cheers from the crowd never seemed to stop.

Then the band picked up the tempo and Rosie started to sing, "Car Wash." I forget when Mllennia showed up, but I'm pretty sure they were singing backup on this one. Sheila was playing tambourine, and Larry Graham was playing bass. This was nothing more or less than a jam. Everyone was having fun. At one point, Prince looked to Sheila as if she should do something. She looked confused. All she had was a tambourine in her hand. The band played a little softer, and then all of a sudden Sheila started to jam on her tambourine, hitting it back and forth, against her legs, shaking it side to side and upside-down, getting as many different rhythms as one could possibly get out of a tambourine while still making it sound good. I'd never seen someone play a tambourine solo before! And then a few of the other band members played some short solos. Najee got a chance to shine. He played some beautiful sax improvisations, and then the whole band began to jam again. The entire auditorium was jumping and singing along, "Car wash! Working at the car wash, yeah."

Then the band started to play a slow ballad, "Ain't No Way." Beautiful song. Milennia's voices really harmonized well on this one as Rosie sang lead. Toward the end of the song, Milennia became more and more passionate as they repeated in the background, "Ain't no wayaaaay.... Ain't No Waaaaay..... AIN'T NO WAAAAAY!" And then the music died down as if the song was ending. But no, the tempo changed double-time and all of a sudden we were part of a gigantic gospel choir with Rosie screaming at the top of her lungs. The house was jumping. The tambourine was banging. The cymbals were clanging. The song exploded! And then the crowd cheered and applauded as the song came to an end. Rosie left the stage with Milennia.

Prince picked up Habibi (if he already didn't have it on), walked to the center mic, and the band started to play "Joy In Repetition." Most of us sang along with him the whole time. Before he sang, “love me…" he said, "Just the girls please." And when he sang, "and they ran out the back door," he jerked his head toward the Fillmore's back door. Then he played a electrifying guitar solo, and I noticed the expression on the security guard's face start to change. He had been standing between Prince and me throughout the show. At the start of the show, he gave some funny looks every once in awhile, like he really wasn't into it, but now I could see that he was impressed with Prince's guitar playing. During this song, and the next three, Prince went guitar crazy. Habibi was magical and had us all under its spell. At one point, Prince did the Chuck Berry guitar strut, and at another point, he held the guitar out to his side and played it that way, without looking at it. He was having a lot of fun, and I don't think he messed up on one single note. Everything he did sounded perfect. Everything the band did sounded perfect.

Toward the end of "Joy In Repetition" while Prince continued a long guitar solo, he sang "Joy!" and asked us to sing along. He continued to play and cued us each time he wanted us to sing, "Jooooy!" Najee played saxophone along with Prince's guitar part, and at times it was hard to distinguish who was playing what part. I forget during which song it was, but at one point Prince motioned for Najee to do a solo, and we could barely hear him. Prince looked back at the sound room as if to say, "Wake up!" Prince grabbed his microphone stand and started to carry it over to Najee, and that's when the sound techs finally awoke and turned up Najee's mic. He’s an awesome sax player!

The next song Prince and the band played was "Paisley Park"!!! He revised this into a rock song. In the original version the beat sounds something like, "Boom-Dah Ba-Boom-Pah." And now, in the version he played this morning, he threw in some power chords, emphasizing the "rocking" chair motion of the "Ba-Boom" part. I can't remember, but I think Prince used the Telecaster on this one. His guitar, and Blackwell's drum playing, made this song sound fantastic! You couldn't help but rock with the rhythm. I just can't describe how much I loved the way it sounded. Prince kept motioning for us to sing along. He put the microphone to the crowd. We forgot some of the words, and I was watching his lips to help remember the words, but he had changed some words (making mention of his ex, Mayte, in one part), but when it came to the chorus, we all chimed in – we knew that part! After a few choruses he started to jam on his guitar, really emphasizing the swing feel of the song. "Boom-Crunch-Ba-Boom-Crunch." And then when he brought the song to an end, I heard him say into the microphone, "Learn My Music!" He took one of Sheila's percussion sticks and smacked her snare drum angrily. He walked over to her. She was standing by Blackwell’s drums. He said something to her and they laughed. I think he was more upset at himself for missing the words than at us.

Sheila walked up to her percussion kit, and the band started to play a long Santana medley including Tito Puente's “Oye Como Va.” Each band member seemed to have a solo part, and I believe Najee alternated between flute and soprano saxophone during this medley. Prince totally ripped (a good word) on Habibi, and Sheila went crazy, doing some of the tricks that she's been known for, flipping her sticks and hitting them against the drums while she placed her heel on top of one of them at various times. She was hitting anything and everything -- cow bells, high hat, rim shots, snare -- with feet, hands, sticks, whatever. Prince went into an extended Carlos Santana-influenced guitar solo. He had his eyes closed during most of his guitar playing on this medley. One time I looked up at him, and he opened his left eye, looking straight at me, no one else, then closed it again, and kept on playing. That was a bit freaky. And the same security person who didn't seem to be enjoying himself at the start of the concert was now starting to sway his head along with the guitar solo, at certain points opening his eyes wide in amazement when he didn't seem to believe what he was hearing. It looked like he wanted to turn his head and see if Prince was truly the one who was playing guitar. When I wasn't looking at the security's reaction, I was looking at Prince's fingers fly across the frets, all the time while his eyes were closed. And then Prince started to sway with the guitar, hitting and moving hard on certain beats each time during the bridge. Carlos Santana, Jimi Hendrix, or Prince? I forgot who I was watching. It was like the whole room started to disappear. We were in some kind of celestial atmosphere where the music was the only thing we breathed -- our life source. I felt like I was going to float away with the melody, right out the door, and into the night sky. Lucky for me, Prince brought the song to an end before I left my body entirely, and we all came back down to earth.

Throughout the night, Mike Scott did some powerful guitar playing. At one point he played some very strong power chords, and at another point he was strumming some very cool acid/psychedelic blues-jazz chords. I gained new respect for him.

Rhonda Smith was there too. Just seeing her play and be a part of this evening was joy enough for me.

I think it was at this point that John Blackwell performed a drum solo. I've never seen anyone hit drums so hard. He just slammed those sticks into those drums! How could he not break them? He was like two drummers in one. It seemed impossible that one man was creating all those beats, even while he was throwing sticks around, moving his hands around like a windmill, putting a stick in his mouth with one hand and then within a split-second taking it out with the other. It seemed humanly impossible, everything he was doing.

When his drum solo came to an end, I saw Sheila start to walk toward him. I was hoping Prince wouldn't cue the next song. He didn't. Sheila went over to the drums, took Blackwell by his blue shiny shirt, and yanked him to the ground right off of his stool! She sat down, and John stood up with a little boy smile on his face (the first time I had seen him smile). Sheila was going to show Blackwell what experience sounds like! She played her solo for about a minute or so (sounding very similar to the Lovesexy and Sign O' The Times drum solos she’s performed), and then when Sheila’s solo started to come to an end, Prince snuck over to the drums. He playfully tugged at Sheila to get her off the drums and then he sat down and did a very short drum solo. At the end of it, he held the sticks in the air and tried to humorously imitate Blackwell's windmill technique. We all laughed, and he got off the drums. Blackwell rightfully took command of the drum kit once again.

The next song was the funkiest of them all. It was "Come On," I don't remember if Prince played an instrument on this song or not. He may have had a guitar strapped on which he played at different parts of the song. Actually, I think he had his bass. The drum and bass combination was totally funky and we couldn't help but do our best to dance in unison with the beat. We all sang the chorus as loud as we could, "Come on, baby. Come on, shake it now!" This song lasted quite awhile. I thought it would last all night. It could have gone on forever. This has to be one of his funkiest songs ever, and it was good to hear it live and to feel that beat pulsating under my feet and throughout my body. I was sure it was going to be the last song. How could he top it? The band even walked off the stage as if it were the end, but we continued to scream, cheer, and clap, hoping they'd come back. And they did!

Prince came out with his bass and met Larry at center stage. You could really see the brotherly love for Larry in Prince's eyes. Larry was radiant, and Prince was all smiles. They played off of each other, having a great time. It sounded like they were playing parts from their revamped version of "Everyday is a Winding Road." And then Prince stopped the "duel of basses," came to the microphone, looked at us, and sang, "Whoooooa... wo-a!" He asked us to sing along, "Whoooooa... wo-a!" And then he went back to playing bass with Larry, every couple measures cueing us to sing the "Whoa" part. However, there were a couple measures of silence between each "Whooooa...wo-a!" and some girl came up with a brilliant idea to fill that gap. She sang, "Ow! Ow-a! Ow-a!" We liked it too, and sang along with her, "Whoooooa.... wo-a! Ow! Ow-a! Ow-a!" We kept singing it that way, and Prince stopped the band while motioning us to continue. He held out his microphone to record us, while looking at Larry and smiling. We did that a couple times, in time, and then Prince cued the band to join in again. It was a lot of fun. None of us missed a beat. Then Prince came front and center and started singing "I'm going down..." (I forget, but I think he may have switched the bass for his Telecaster guitar because I'm pretty sure he played that funky descending section in the song, if not the rhythm part as well -- or maybe it was Mike Scott). "Yeah, yeah, yeah." We all sang along, "I'm gonna put her in the back seat and drive her.... to Tennesse." And Prince said, "No! ...San Francisco!!"

Prince brought "Alphabet St." to a close and he walked off the stage with the band following him. We were left standing in a dark purple atmosphere screaming, cheering, and clapping for several minutes. Then "Mad Sex" started to play over the speakers, with the crowd singing along. Prince's sound crew came out and started packing up right away. I bet they were looking to get some sleep as bad as I was. It was now 5AM on Sunday morning and I hadn't gotten a minute of sleep since 8AM Friday morning. I left the club right away, walked past all of Prince's limo drivers and the crowd outside, got into my car, drove outside the city limits, found a place to park, and slept for four hours before continuing on my way home. Hundala-see ya!
[Edited 11/22/05 3:40am]

It's awesome 2 see that all of your efforts paid off!

man...testimonials like this make me miss the paisley parties. i remember reading other people's paisley party reports here on the org, and writing my very first report not too long after (it's still around...gotta dig through archive.org and find it, it was from the npgmc opening party back in 2001). i remember it, i wrote it in 1st-wave princebonics n'shit.

thanx for posting this, man!

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

why?

Thanks for that Snap, that's real cool of you to post up.

As for that female security guard, after telling her i couldn't move back because i was being pushed forward i would have said:

'and if you shove me again i'll have you for assault'.

As for the soundcheck and the 'esoteric rap' quip by Prince, that made me laugh out loud.

Kick-ass report, again - thanks.

Man what a great story Snap. The day you found out about Prince being in San Francisco was the day I saw Prince for the very first time here in San Diego on the 27th. That was the night my life changed and hearing your story about what happened the next day was just too cool. I was sick those 2 days but boy was I a happy camper anyways. Great stuff!

GoldenGlove said:

Why what?

BananaCologne said:

eh, he's just being huffy because i asked a mere question on one of his threads.



[Edited 11/22/05 13:46pm]

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Thought as much.

Well mr huffypants, in answer to your question, (seen as you asked an' all...) because it's infinately more interesting than your innumerable 'vote off' threads.

THAT'S why.

Great story, I enjoyed reading it

Thank you for sharing. He missed L.A. on his last two tour stops so I went to this show.

Can I saw that that the actual concert seemed so much less entertaining than the soundcheck and the awesome aftershow? The line outside of the Filmore was very crazy but after we got inside, everything seemed to chill back a bit.

Really really great detailed review. I do remember while we were walking to our seats, he made a comment that we can grab a margarita from the back on our way out.

Also, it did seem like Rosie was sitting there the whole time and we didn't notice her til he called her. I was like, whaa...? I remember him saying aren't they nice? And then later on when someone gave him some sort of dolphin-shaped thing as a gift and we said awww then, he was like why do you say awww? We are grown people.

Yes, John's looks after getting thrown off the drums was priceless. What a fun fun show. Haven't been back out there since that show because L.A. has not been skipped but will always remember that soundcheck and aftershow. (A show with a screaming fan onstage chasing him around during "sexy dancer" is not how I want to remember that night. lol.)
[Edited 11/22/05 20:26pm]

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

ONE!?!? more like 301, u have been harrassing me for ages and i will NOT stand 4 it!

Mod or no mod...