While other San Jose clubs advertised "official after-parties" for Prince's two sold-out concerts last weekend at HP Pavilion, the tour bus parked outside of Pete Escovedo's Latin & Jazz Club was all the advertising they needed. Prince was indeed in the house last Saturday night. Astute fans already know of the Prince/Sheila E. connection and sleuthing paid off as the line curved around the downtown venue.

Club manager Zena Escovedo said they were notified on Friday that Prince might show up. Prince's people scoped out the club on Friday afternoon. He was a no-show at the club on Friday night but at 11:30pm on Saturday, Zena got the call. Fortunately, they planned ahead. They hired extra security and Prince's people arranged the lighting, fabrics and the candles. At 11:45, the tour bus pulled up and Prince made his way up to the club's VIP section. He unwound from the last Musicology tour date with his band mates, employees and friends Nikka Costa, Larry Graham and others. He also made himself available to fans—coming down to shake hands and mingle for a minute before disappearing back upstairs until the club's close at 2am.

At this point, the club kicked the public out and turned the keys over to Prince. Being the last night of the tour, Prince set up a catered spread, brought in pool tables and set up a giant screen on the main floor where a burned DVD of the evening's concert was broadcast. The party went on, as the cliché goes, until the break of dawn.

"I put pajamas on and we partied until 5 in the morning," Zena says. "We watched his concert. Everyone ended up eating, playing pool."

The only snag is that Prince didn't perform. Prince's after-shows have become legendary for their special guests, setlists and long hours of jamming. Last minute, Pete Escovedo put in a call to the city about getting a late-night permit to allow Prince to perform after hours at the club. Pete says that city officials responded that it could "take a couple of months" of paperwork to greenlight such a permit. Faced with a looming Purple Invasion, the club scrubbed the idea and went ahead with just a party, no performance. If the city approved the permit, Pete says, Prince would have played.

"I've heard that a lot of the merchants are trying to lift that [late-night] ban so they can have different things after hours," says Pete. "That would be nice to have: breakfast shows, after-hours parties. That would be a plus for the city. If name people like Prince and Gloria Estefan know it's available, then their people can plan for it. We can invite the mayor and political people and they could see how nice it is."

Zena added that Prince was an ideal host, telling poppa Pete, "We're gonna have to do this again." Sure, Prince, maybe in a couple years when San Jose government wants cool things.

interesting read...what's the source on this story? you got a URL for it?

Anxiety said:

http://www.metroactive.co...-0438.html

this just further proves what i already thought...

SAN JOSE SUCKS!!!

i'm telling ya... y'all shoulda come on down...we was getting on the boogie!

There is another Prince party tonight and tomorrow. But I am going to Beyond the Valley of the Dolls on the big screen


mmmmm yeah!

That's a shame. Pete has a great little club. It would have be awesome.

sosgemini said:

Exactly.San Jose is such a dead city.I'm surprised that Pete even decided to open up a nightclub here,as opposed to more "happenin" places in the Bay Area like Oakland or San Francisco.
[Edited 9/17/04 6:41am]

Stax said:

[Edited 9/17/04 19:01pm]

Yea, I heard about the permit thing. San Jose is SO lame. I think the only reason he ended it there is b/c the response to the June concerts was truly amazing. But yea, San Jose BLOWS...

Unfortunately,I live in this crappy city

I have to live here with a bunch of squares too! But it's good to know Prince is still loved here by the cool people!!