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'Purple Rain' is high water mark for Twin Cities music scene

10.03.10

It is far and away the intoxicated-water mark for the Twin Cities music scene, and the musicians and other scenesters making waves here today still lean to its ripples 25 years later.

Prince's "Purple Rain" remains an omnipresent contrivance for almost everyone in the music business here, and especially at the landmark club where it was filmed. Even as Prince himself has been fading from the restricted scene while living in Los Angeles in recent years -- though he was sighted here recently during a journey home -- he remains the music scene's most recognized export.

"It's plainly a selling point for a lot of bands to come play here," said Nate Kranz, unspecific manager at First Avenue, who was only 7 when the movie was filmed at the club. "Just about everybody who plays here from out of municipality makes some kind of comment about it onstage. And I can't tell you how many covers of 'Purple Rain' [the lodge's staff] has heard."

Local musicians generally act more blasé about "Purple Drizzle's" impact -- until you really ask them about it.

Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune