NDB, 3DB, and Fatal Attraction at Bud's
Bud's 501 Club, 501 Morse St NE, Washington, DC 20002

I have put up the written transcript of my interview of Michelle Holmes last year online.

Bud, wearing a Santa hat, took the covers. Rob Sabbakhan, NDB's manager, was right there and he said hello.

Upstairs, Preston Blue, Kato (Fatal Attraction's co-manager), and SweetAngelmd27 all were surprised to see me.

The pre-recorded music being played was GoGo. A couple of guys traded dance moves to it.

New Dimension Band
NDB was up first. I wanted to see them with a real system. When I saw them last year in their hometown of Richmond, they didn't have big speakers. It was nice to see them in DC. Some of the faces had changed in the band. Their line up was: Steph (lead talker - he took over much of the interview I did with them), Francois (female lead singer, she wore a Michael Vick jersey), an acoustic guitar player/backup vocalists (also played tambourine), a backup vocalist/cowbell player, a bass player, two keyboard players (one of them wore a baseball cap that had 804 printed on the front and the shape of the state of Virginia on the back), Junie (percussionist - congas and timbales, he played shirtless), and a drummer. They had a nice beat going during their sound check. Steph said, "We made a long long long trip to party with our out of town relatives." Steph also did a shout out to Kato. He announced it was Junie's birthday. He also did a shout out to the haters. Steph announced that their first song was an original by Francois. They did a group prayer with the band huddled together. That first song was with acoustic guitar (he sat as he played) and percussion. The acoustic guitar wasn't used after that for the rest of the night. The sound was rough, but they definitely cranked. There's no doubt that despite them being based in Virginia that they perform authentic GoGo. They initially had about twenty fans in the audience, but it grew to about fifty by the end of their set. A group of ten or so had a GoGo pic taken then went on the dance floor and were really responsive to NDB. Nena was there, she wore a Santa hat. Rob was calling out signals to the band. Fans were beating their feet. Steph said at the end, "It's time to go right now." Rob announced an upcoming show. Their set was about an hour. Steph asked me, "Did you have a good time?" I said yes. He said, "That's where it's at."

3rd Dimension Band
This was my first time seeing 3DB. Their line up was: four vocalists (one of them a singer), a bass player, three keyboard players, three percussionists (one congas, one timbales, and one with multiple cowbells in a setup similar to Jacques from FF), and a drummer. There was also a guy sitting in a chair next to the cowbell player, I don't think he played anything. They also had a group huddle before they performed. They did a shout out to New Dimension Band and said, "We just came from the Black Hole that was crazy." They continued on NDB: "That trip from Richmond isn't an hour, that's a mission, a mission of love." They also did a shout out "to the one deuce n*ggas, we could play in Africa and they would get a green card to come see us." They started off with Donny Hathaway's This Christmas. They had a richer sound than NDB, and also cranked. They did a chant of "Where y'all from?" The frontline was very energetic, they had some nice harmony. At the end, they said, "Thank all the haters. If you down with 3DB, we out of here now." Tappy (or Taffy?), a white guy, came over and said he read my blog. We recognized each other from the recent Junkyard show. They also played about an hour.

Fatal Attraction
I recognized Wayne and Chevy from when they came to Familiar Faces shows in July and August. Teago (their other co-manager) was there. I kidded him about his Bob Marley shirt. He said, "Yeah, mon." He asked me, "Is this your first time seeing them?" I told them it was. I was looking forward to them since Ras Lidj called them "the best frontline in GoGo". Their line up (some I got from their website) was: Wayne (lead talker), Chevy (female singer), Daryl (vocalist, trumpet (he warmed up, but never played it), and cowbell), Jock and Vadda (vocalists), Brandon (bass player, played sitting down), JR and Kendall (both with double keyboards), a percussionist (congas, timbales, and roto-toms), and Ron (drummer). Wayne mentioned this possibly being a live recording. Wayne said, "We do two sets on Monday nights at the Market Lounge." They did a group talk facing the back wall before they played. A couple of people were joking about my taking notes. They also were energetic, sometimes jumping in the air, had synchronized dances, and had nice harmony. Their frontline is good, but I wouldn't say they are the best in GoGo. Their percussionist played timbales and roto-toms most of the time. He played congas both with his hands and with drumsticks. Fans were beating their feet. The security guard asked me what I was writing when I went over to watch the percussionist. They played a late song that was laid back, Chevy sang "Slow Down" (I didn't recognize it as the Bobby Valentino song). While she sang, the other vocalists and one of the keyboard players did exaggerated slow movements. They called out, "Where y'all from" and Wayne held his mic to the crowd. Daryl stood on one of the monitors. The last thing they did was, "Wack that sh*t". They finished at 3:02. Wayne said, "Hail to the Redskins." They are definitely good, but I prefer more conga play.

The one thing I didn't like was that there so many people smoking cigarettes.

As I walked out, Preston asked me, "Are they blogworthy?" I said, "Of course!"