That Time I Saw Prince At Paisley Park
So I saw Prince at his rehearsal space/recording studio Paisley Park this weekend. Here are some highlights (probably tl;dr but you’ve been warned):
- A Twitter account associated with Paisley Park, @purpleessence, announced on Friday night that the facility would host a “dance rally for peace” the next night starting at 9:30. Knowing there was as good of a chance Prince wouldn’t perform as their was that he would, I decided to role the dice and make the trip anyway. - I got to Paisley Park around 9:45 PM Saturday. It’s located in the Minneapolis suburb of Chanhassen, which is pretty much like any other suburb you’ve been to…if you live in Des Moines, think Clive or Waukee. The main difference is that at one intersection, there’s a warehouse-looking structure bathed in purple light. I turned in to the parking lot and entered the building, paying the $30 entry fee. A small snack bar was set up, selling only bottled water and small bags of Doritos and Cheetos, as far as I could tell. - The crowd was gathering in a sizable room, from the ceiling of which was hung a huge version of Prince’s male/female symbol. There were two large screens in the room on which either Rio or Rio 2 was being projected. Really. Two DJs were taking turns playing records; between them, a small stage was set up. I stationed myself right in front of the stage, but there was no particular jostling for position going on. Everyone was very chill, and there was quite a variety of age groups represented. - After about an hour of DJing, a wall or curtain slid away on my left, revealing a much larger room, about the size of an open warehouse area. Here was a large stage fully set up with gear. So it looked like Prince was probably going to play tonight after all. I settled in the second row, right in front of a mic stand featuring the symbol. - On a large video screen behind the stage, live videos of Prince and his current band 3rdEyeGirl played, including an excellent version of “Something In The Water” from 1999. There were videos of other artists interspersed, including Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock. Then we were treated to more live Prince videos, but these were from the very stage we were now standing in front of, taken last year. He played an instrumental version of the b-side “She’s Always In My Hair” as Appollonia, his Purple Rain co-star, sat next to him on stage. - Then we were treated to multiple videos of Rosie Perez dancing on Soul Train, followed by about an hour of Soul Train showcase dances. The DJs started up again, playing plenty of Prince songs and Prince-related material along with other artists like Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, James Brown and Daft Punk, to name a few. - And then Prince and the band came on. They launched into the title track from 1995’s Chaos And Disorder album, with plenty of guitar solo digressions. This was followed by “Dreamer,” from 2009’s Lotusflow3r. After about 4 minutes of the standard song, Prince moved over to the keyboard and synth setup, where he vamped and improvised for awhile on different settings, including a woodwind sound just like that found on “I Wonder U” from Parade. He then came back to the mic and talked/rapped about Baltimore, the police and unity, among other topics. After this song, the high school kids in front of me had to leave because of their curfew. I moved to the front row, dead center in front of Prince. - Next was a version of “Crimson And Clover” by Tommy James And The Shondells, which he also covered on Lotusflow3r. The screen featured psychedelic imagery as he played. Next was “Guitar” from the Planet Earth album, followed close behind by the title track from last year’s PlectrumElectrum LP. This instrumental track left plenty of room for Prince and guitarist Donna Grantis to guitar-spar. Then they left the stage. - After a brief interval, drummer Hannah Ford started a drum loop. Prince came back out, grabbed the bass and preceded to launch into “The Whole Of The Moon,” the 1985 single by Irish band The Waterboys that he first covered last year. As he played, the stage behind him filled up with attendees who danced along. And then, as the drum loop played on, Prince thanked the crowd for coming out and left the stage. Though he only played 6 songs, because of the jams and digressions, he probably played for roughly 40-45 minutes. Cell phones weren’t allowed inside, so I’m only guessing. -The concert portion was followed by another hour of DJing, almost exclusively Prince material. A decent amount of people danced and some waited by the crash barrier, just in case the master of the house decided to pop out again. But after roughly an hour, an employee said thanks for coming out, and those of us remaining were ushered out. As I walked through the lobby I saw the motorcycle from Purple Rain in the corner next to a poster from the movie. I looked at my cellphone when I got to my car. It was 2:15 AM, so I was in Paisley Park for about 4 ½ hours. - And that was what happened when I went to Paisley Park.
Here's my write up again of my Paisley Park experience from just under a year ago. So glad I made the trip.
