You know what sucks?????

In the mid 90's thru wheneva Prince was performing every weekend at Paisley and of course I lived in Duluth at the time and on such short notice i could never make it. I am now living in the twin cities and my guess is the party days at paisley are over. I hope not Just venting

PEACE

yep, the days of the late-night parties out at paisley are pretty much overwith, from what i gather. i've lived up here for almost 5 years now, and i guess i lucked out and got to go to the last handful of parties over there.

i guess i'm one of the last of the paisley mohicans or something.

Yeah when he was doing that I was a kid...so imagine how pissed I am that I lived in the Twin Cities all my life and couldn't go to Glam Slam, PP or any concerts really cuz I was too young! Grr...now that I'm twenty four nothing is going on....grrr...

...but don't worry I'm sure Prince will come back soon and rock Mpls like crazy again.

Glam Slam was fun. I remember hearing a cool new tune... few words... just a really cool bass and horn thing going on...

... turns out a few months later I hear a new song from the brand new Gold Experience... same song, but now the words are complete... the tune was "Sexy MF"

Hollywood is the new Chanhassen.

The last few parties at the Park were sparsely attended at best, save the Musicology after shows.
I don't think the twin cities cares much anymore. And I could give a whole host of reasons for why that is. But I'll just leave it at that. And add that for as much as I got angry with it, I miss it terribly too.

Yea, Prince went LA, probably because the JW's have a smaller following in Minny.

Dansa, I get mad at you, because you live there, and you avoided going to some good gigs. Ya putz..lol

CarrieMpls said:

I'm curious... what are some of the reasons?

altavista said:

Okay, I'm scared to type this here for fear of being attacked, but I'll give it a shot.

Let me begin with a disclaimer stating that I know I am one of the lucky ones to have lived in MPLS during the 'good days' of PP parties. I was too young to do the Glam Slam thing but was at Paisley more times than I could ever count. I AM LUCKY.

Now, that being said. Prince really overstaturated the area in the mid/late 90s with his parties. MPLS is not all that big and Prince was commercially in his free fall. So, while initially the parties were packed, people started losing interest since he was always here. Add to that the nights when all of us would be huddled in 30 below windchills, waiting for HOURS for the doors to open and then standing/dancing for HOURS inside sometimes for a GREAT performance, sometimes for nothing, people as a whole got bored with it all. For as big of a fan as I am, it even got to the point when we sometimes just wouldn't head down cos we just couldn't get the energy up to drive that loooong drive at midnight on a Friday.

Then near the end of it all, it got weird, the parties went from being basically free to having all sorts of random cover charges. With no rhyme or reason. You'd drive out to Chanhassen, wait again, find out that it was gonna be $30 to get in and then hang around for hours only to have Prince not even do a walk-through. Then you'd skip the next week only to hear that it was free and dude played for hours.

Again, don't flame me. But after YEARS of this, people were bound to lose interest and get irritated. This probably sounds insane to folks who weren't here. But with how frequent it all was at times, it got very normalized. Expectations naturally started to form and those expectations naturally were not met every time. So folks moved on.

Of course, this meant that those who hung on till the bitter end got some very special moments. Quality of the shows aside, there's nothing like being in the Love4OneAnother room with about 75 people watching Prince play around on the soundboards, mix some music, grab his guitar and work it out for a bit. For as frustrated as I got at times, I wouldn't trade these moments for antyhing.

ps, to Prime...I'm sorry you missed it all too

I agree. Like even the best things in life, people started to take it for granted. The 1st time I went it was like a gift from God. Towards the end, I had to drag myself up and out to make the drive to Chan. Don't get me wrong, Prince was always the bomb (when he played) it just became routine.
[Edited 6/20/06 9:43am]

endorphin74 said:

I can understand the frustration. The (very) few times I got a chance to go I brought people who really didn't care for Prnce but i told them it will be great, so they came. After we stand for 3-4 hours (on that hard a$$ floor) he strolls in for a min and walks out, doddles on the key board or not show up at all....now my friends are looking at me crazy and i think people get mad about stuff like that...I am a huge fan for 22 years but there have been times when I have passed on a after party (after a concert) because i didn't feel like standing for another 3 hours before to see if he decides not to come. he's my boy but dang I feel like he craps on us sometimes. We made 3121 number 1 and Musicology the number 1 concert because we want to enjoy his music but he has pushed a lot of people away with his acts.

much love

- not hatin'... just venting a little

PRIME

prime said:

These posts offers some great insight. Thanks for being so honest!
[Edited 6/20/06 8:26am]

endorphin74 said:

Thanks...you know I have a friend who has lived in MPLS for almost 10 years and he has seen Prince a bunch of times. At the Olymipics in '92 when he sang Diamonds and Pearls (on TV) and Baby, I'm a star (not on TV), and one day he was driving with a friend out around Paisley and their was a lot of people there so they decided to go and guess what....P performed and the concert was long and great. PLEASE keep in mind my friend doesn't even like Prince... Go figuar

endorphin74 said:

too true.

i'm happy and grateful to have to gone to all of the paisley functions that i did, because i always had a lotta fun out there (save for the infamous Paisley Night From Hell--i know you remember that night, endo! ). not just because of whether or not prince & co. came out and played for folks, but because it was a great place to people-watch, be with friends, and just chill. the parties were a really great alternative to sitting in my apartment and being bored off my ass on a friday night or going to one of the crappy, hipster-saturated dance clubs here in downtown minneapolis. all in all, it was just totally cool. step outta the immediate prince fan community for a second and think: how many other people do you know who could honestly say that they got to party and dance at somebody's friggin recording studio? it was fucking unreal to me...

it was a really gracious gesture on prince's part to have opened up paisley park for us to hang out. i miss the friday night goodness.

briant said:

Oh, so your version of The Gold Experience has Sexy MF on it eh?

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

I KNOW I remember that night.

And well said, Deja and endo both. There was a lot of crap, but man there was a lot of magic too.

Thanks for the stories, y'all. An associate's been trying to get me to move out to MPLS.

"Great," I've thought, "Now that P has left town, someone there wants me to work for them..."

ThreadBare said:

We've all but given up. I was honestly a bit depressed. Other than last year and this year, Prince played on or within a week or so of my birthday for the previous several years in a row here. I miss it.

I'm touched as well.

FuNkeNsteiN said:

You read my mind...

BananaCologne said:

FuNkeNsteiN said:

hehehehehehehehehehehhehehe

briant said:

Sexy MF is not on The Gold Experience...