Friday at Safari
Safari Steakhouse, 9430 Annapolis Road Lanham MD 20706

It was raining on the drive over. Googie walked in behind me. When I sat down in the lounge, a regular came up to me, said hello, "You always sit in the same spot". Very true before the show starts. Donnell did test the mics; he even announced it in the first set. At the start, Smoke wasn't there, nor BJ. I saw Yaquim and asked how old he was, he said 34.

Familiar Faces
First Set
Donnell talked about "a legend in the audience": GoGo Mickey, who was celebrating his birthday at midnight. Donnell said, "Don't buy him any drinks until Midnight." Donnell said on the mic, "Jordan, Dwayne needs to talk to you on Tuesday"
1) Mother's Day - instrumental, Donnell led with his soprano Sax
2) Miles Davis' Tutu
3) Adia & Donnell-led (Sade's) Cherish the Day
4) Mike-led John Legend's Live It Up
5) Mike-led Bobby Caldwell's What You Won't Do for Love
Mike talked about his dreaming of you, which led into:
6) Mike-led I Dreamed You
7) Adia-led Incognito's Can't Get You Out of My Head
Donnell said, "Mickey, if I had known you couldn't stay, I would have had you play. GoGo Mickey is 38 (considering he's only three years younger than Donnell, Donnell sure razzes him about his age), I remember when you started with raggedy Reality band, did you hear me Googie? If you're not playing tomorrow come on by the Tradewinds, oh that's right you are, I got a flyer on my car. Tell Rare Essence to stop putting flyers on my car."
8) Mike-led John Legend's Ordinary People
Donnell had a couple of announcements, "We're going to Miami in July to film a video with Mr. Cheeks. Tom needs to talk to Booby in the parking lot and bring $35."
DJ Flava (aka GoGo Rudy) filmed the performance with a video camera.

It's been a long time coming, but here are some vocal techniques and performance tendencies: Break time - Donnell will say, "Ten for ten, nine for nine, we're going to break."
At the end of performances, he will say, "Had fun withya, done withya". He will also say to guys at the end, "if you don't have the (phone) number by now, everything dead." He will go through and introduce the band when they are playing and will call their name when he wants them to solo.
He adds other people's name to Miss Keta Will You Dance for Me.
He allows women and sometimes men to dance on stage with them.
The front line players other than Donnell will leave the stage when they are not performing.
He will intentionally have short pauses (often signaled by yelling "Wait a Minute") in performing during sets, especially during Work the Walls and will have them resume again at full intensity for dramatic effect.
Certain songs, such as Role Call and Ride Out, have set dances.
He uses "my baby" or "sweet" as affectation for women.
He uses key phrases such as "Hey Ya", or "Wait a Minute."
Shaking hands, hugging and going around the audience are done every night by all of the band members.

During the break, it was obvious that the rain had lead to a smaller audience; it was easy to find a chair. However, there was a large crowd for the second and third sets. I was sitting next to Doc, he was tired. Smoke came, shook hands with him then me. Doc complained to him: "How come you did a normal handshake with him and I had to do all this (a much more elaborate thing)?" I said maybe he thinks you are in Phi Slamma Jamma and explained what that was (Drexler and Olajuwon's "made up fraternity" at the University of Houston). I asked Jacques (because of Soldierette's question) if Whop had broken up when he left. He said not yet, they are essentially broken up by fact now. Their drummer left them hanging; they tried to fix a flat tire, when that happened other stuff broke and now the car is in the shop. I introduced myself to Telando.

Second Set
1) Adia-led Jill Scott's Whatever
2) Mike-led Toto's Georgy Porgy
3) Mike-led Marvin Gaye's I Want You
4) Mike-led John Legend's Used to Love U
5) Alternating Donnell-led Trillville's Some Cut - Doc rapped / Notorious BIG's Warning / Keith Murray's Call My Name (tease)
Used to Love U and the Some Cut medley were really long, the heavy GoGo beat started with Some Cut and continued throughout the set
6) Donnell-led Brown & White / Ride Out - they did their Ride Out dance.
7) Alternating Donnell-led Rare Essence's Uh Oh (Heads Up) / Ayre Rayde's Welcome to the GoGo (tease)
8) Kay Kay rapped
9) Donnell-led Rare Essence's Marinda

Nita, Tasty, and Sharmba Mitchell were there. Stacey asked me where my camera was; she does websites. James was there (hitting on Tasty who laughed), but he didn't sing. They didn't do any of his songs.

Donnell acknowledged Doc from Ayre Rayde.

Some guy named Pee Wee was there.

Sixx went up to 6'9, he is almost as tall as 6'9.

Third Set
Donnell acknowledged all the basketball players there, 6'9 who went to Maryland University (actually the University of Maryland) when Bias was there. Sharmba Mitchell came up to Donnell, and said something to Donnell. Donnell said, "David Gregg (6'9), that's cold". Donnell claimed he was better at basketball than 6'9 and Sixx. Some guy from West Virginia, Tree from UConn, Luke, and Lawrence Moten (a Syracuse alumnus who was denied admission to Maryland the same week as Donyell Marshall) were there. Donnell said he took Sharmba in 15 rounds at Sugar Ray Leonard Gym. Mike said, "15 rounds, that's a big bag of love".
1) Doc-led Snoop's Drop It Like It's Hot
2) Donnell-led Rare Essence's Body Moves
3) Donnell-led Prince's Take Me With You
Interrupted by a fight
4) Donnell-led Hold the Note
Donnell did a call, "Did you hear that" before moving on to the next song
5) Donnell-led Miss Keta Will You Dance for Me
6) Donnell-led "Your spot" (tease)
7) Donnell-led Keith Murray's Call My Name (tease)
8) Donnell-led Rare Essence's Uh Oh (Heads Up)
9) Donnell-led "F*ck them n*ggas, I'm that n*gga"
10) Donnell-led Rare Essence's What N*gga What?
Donnell said, "Had fun withya, done withya"
11) Donnell-led Rare Essence's Work the Walls