cool story, hansel... thanks, olaf...
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i was a poor 20 year old, working three part time jobs and going to school full time for recording engineering (recording bands in the studio/running live sound). one night my job working as a 'night guy' (i think that was actually my official title) at paisley park studios, prince decided to throw one of his famous middle of the night concerts. after coordinating the band, security, engineers and crew, i got a call from someone who claimed to be in pete droge's band. he said that they were in town, opening for tom petty the next night, and wanted to check out the studio. since there was a $20 cover per person that night, i notified security to let them in for free.i saw tom petty during his 'full moon fever' tour in 1989 - lenny kravitz opened - i was 14 years old. both sets were amazing. my most vivid recollection of that show was when petty came on. it was complete darkness. a treasure chest type object was backlit and it slowly opened up, revealing the silhouette of petty wearing his signature top hat. i loved that show. during the wildflowers tour, the tickets were too rich for my broke ass (they were like $50 each back in '95). and i was pretty bummed that i wasn't going to be able to go.so anyway, pete droge's band came out to the studio (sans pete droge - they said he was too tired or something). i showed them around and they were really appreciative. i told them to stick around for the show because prince is...well...prince. so then they asked if they could give me a couple of tickets AND backstage passes to the show the next night for my 'trouble'. um. hellz yeah - i responded without hesitation. they said they would put me on the band guest list +1. i did have some concerns that these guys were just a bunch of dudes so i took them up on their offer with the attitude that if the tickets weren't there, no big deal.the next night, i went with one of my co-workers to the show. sure enough, my passes and tickets were there. we caught part of pete droge and headed backstage. there, they had food and drinks waiting for us. we chatted a bit with the band and they were really happy they got to see the studio and the prince concert. petty came on and we headed back up to our seats in the 'families/friends of the bands' section. amazing seats. we could see facial expressions of all of the band members without having to look up at the giant screens.after the show, we went down to where the backstage pass owners were waiting to be allowed backstage. unfortunately for us, petty headed home directly after the show and wasn't available for photos, etc. whatev - i wasn't all that pumped to meet him, i just wanted to see him in concert again. and the fact that the seats were incredible and it was FREE made the whole experience worth while.
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