Blast from the Past at Club Levels
Club Levels, 1960 Montana Av NE, Washington, DC 20500

I arrived at 10:40 PM - this time I wasn't the first one there. The doorman recognized me. He said, "It's been a while". I paid the highly affordable $15. There were probably already fifty people there when I went up to the performance area. Iceberg Slim danced. Big Jim was there and said hello.

Ed Stewart was there, he said hello and introduced me to DC filmmaker Bruce Brown - so far I've only seen Streetwise among his movies. He talked about his large video/film collection with many performances, that "Ed wasn't ready for it yet". We talked with Big Tony when he came in. I didn't even try to bring a pen since I have had so many taken away from various venues (as a potential weapon).

Nece the promoter was there, wearing a shirt advertising the club's new restaurant starting Tuesday - Scoopie's Soul Cafe.

Rootie Baltimore said hello, he said, "You didn't go out of town (with FF)?" He told me he had written some of the songs on their album (Evolution). I knew that, I told him how Godfather had tried to call him about the chords for I Dreamed You at rehearsal. He said he wished the best for Donnell and them. He said it was really fun when 911 was first formed. He said he's playing for Ayre Rayde now.

I also said hello to Tee Bone, he asked me how I'm doing.

EU was up first - it was weird, there was no big announcement between switching from the DJ music to EU, they just started performing. They really cranked - their setlist was similar to what they performed the last two times I saw them at Bud's. They opened with Earth, Wind & Fire's Can't Hide Love. They performed for about 45 minutes. Then Billy the Kid, the MC suggested people go to the buffet, which I did.

Donny Ray said hello and "You sure get around." Sugar Bear greeted me as he left also. The food was good. After, I ate, I got a drink and on my way back, I spotted Roosevelt Littlejohn. We talked for a little while he was waiting in line.

Ayre Rayde was up next, they introduced themselves as "Maryland's own - Ayre Rayde". I didn't see China Boogie among them. Their performance was nice - the music was not very focused on lyrics. They did mostly originals, but they covered PFunk's Get Off Your Ass and Jam and another cover I don't remember. Again, they performed for about 45 minutes. Tee Bone was working the monitors for them.

Billy the Kid kept joking about how thin Tee Bone used to be. Laughing Lenny performed - he was okay.

Rootie talked with me some more. He said, "They (the new members of Familiar Faces) are living off of what we did." He said he remembered when they went from big crowds to no crowds. He was thankful to Donnell for being the first to give him a chance to put his songs on an album. He repeated wishing Donnell and them the best.

Trouble Funk was the headliner. They had a lot of technical trouble getting the sound up to their standards. They opened up with a tease of Ludacris' Number One Spot. Then after working on the sound some more, they performed almost entirely their own music. I don't remember it all - but they played Let's Get Small, Hey Fellas, Trouble Funk Express, Don't Touch That Stereo, Drop the Bomb, and finished with a tease of 4th Gear. Towards the end, the lights came on, Tony said, "we have a lot to play, turn the lights back off." They then had a young rapper and singer cover Keith Murray's Call My Name - it was very different in style from the normal Trouble Funk sound. During the performance, a guy walked by me and said, "A white boy!" The woman next to me smirked. At one point a guy standing next to me played pool on his cell phone during Trouble Funk's performance. Trouble Funk's performance was nice. It ended a little after 3 AM - I was right up by the stage at the end. It was a great performance and I'm looking forward to more.