Peace in the Streets, Holy Christian Missionary Baptist Church for All People, 5110 Nannie Helen Burroughs Ave NE Washington, DC 20019
I knew I had to go to this as soon as I saw the flyer.
Perhaps because of the woman who drove through Unifest, there was a tow truck parked so that it blocked the road in.
They had free meals. I ate and then waited for the GoGo bands; I think I missed one, because a band was carrying timbales off the stage as I arrived. The stage was a portable one that belonged to the DC parks department.
Davonte (spelling?) - 3 PM
a kid, singing his single, "Puppy Love"
LadeeJay79 was there.
Jahaur, Ron Moten, and Kim were there.
Billy The Kid had kids do a talent competition, including singing, rapping, and dancing.
A couple of rappers performed, but I wasn't really paying attention as I was waiting for the GoGo bands to perform.
ASAP - started around 4:32 PM
1) Female-led Fantasia's When I See U
2) TJ-led Gnarls Barkley's Crazy / Percussion solo
3) Male rapped / Percussion solo
4) Female-led The Pussycat Dolls' Buttons?
Shameika was there.
5) Male-led 50 Cent's P.I.M.P.
The congas were behind the rest of the band in the PA.
I talked with TJ after the set.
Pastor Steve Young and Mayor Adrian Fenty talked to the crowd.
Dirty Columbians
Rap group - they were pretty good. They performed 2 songs.
Front Line Soldiers
Rap group - they performed one song, it was really cliché.
ABM (All Bout Money) - 5:23 PM
1) Male-led Lil Wayne & Juelz Santana's I Can't Feel My Face - the crowd loved it, it was hard to make out the lyrics over the music
Billy the Kid came out and told the crowd to back up and calm down
2) ? / Male-led "Let's talk about making love" / DJ Unk's Walk It Out
3) Male-led "Oh killa"
4) Male-led "Where ya been" - interrupted by Billy the Kid
5) ? / Male-led "Playa..."
They were done at 5:40. This was my first time seeing them perform. They are a young GoGo band and their music, banging toms the whole set, was basically noise to me, but the mostly young crowd loved it.
Backyard Band - 5:55 PM
I put this picture up to show the keyboard player in back playing with his son on his shoulders
Ralph "Big G" Glover was not present.
Billy the Kid told the audience they needed to act right or they would shut it down.
Antonio "The Cuban Cigar Smoker" came onstage.
1) Weensy-led Musiq's Teach Me
2) Weensy-led "Keep it gangsta" / Los-led Unabomber - it cranked, the crowd loved it, they played both congas and toms
Monique G. was there, she said hello.
3) Weensy-led Rodgers & Hammerstein's My Favorite Things / Los-led "Ain't no place I'd rather be"
4) Los-led "Be low" - the crowd chanted / Los-led Hurricane Chris' Ay Bay Bay
5) Weensy-led Cyndi Lauper's Girls Just Want to Have Fun / Los-led Choppa
6) Weensy-led T-Pain Featuring Yung Joc's Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin')
The set list is just what I could make out since it was hard to distinguish songs from each other because of the lack of identifiable transitions.
They finished at 6:30.
Unseen Band came onstage, but Billy The Kid said there was a mix up and Unseen left the stage and Mission Band came onstage.
Mission Band
I could not make out much of their set, except "I want to praise God". This was my first time seeing them perform. They are a young Gospel GoGo band and their music, banging toms the whole set, was basically noise to me just like ABM, but again the mostly young crowd loved it. The Holy Christian Missionary Baptist Church for All People is their church.
Raw Image Band
Big Sixx said, "Been a long time, but we back and we about to get something started." Big Sixx said, "It's been a year since I've been onstage."
They did a group huddle before they performed.
They started at 7:07 PM.
1) Kay-led Rihanna's Umbrella - it had a light crank, the crowd sang along, Big Sixx stopped it due to a technical problem - the PA was not picking up the bass drum, once it was fixed, they resumed and it cranked more afterwards, people in the crowd held up umbrellas
2) Devlin-led "I'm thinking about you girl... I want you all night long... get to know you
3) Big Sixx-led "All my gangsta" - Billy the Kid stopped them due to time issues, but Sixx yelled to Marty (their manager?) for more time and got it, they resumed, it cranked, Love played the toms
4) Devlin-led "Been so lovely" / Trey Songz' Gotta Go
5) Big Sixx-led "Y'all tell me you running"
6) Big Sixx-led The Shop Boyz' Party Like a Rock Star - lots of reverb
7) Big Sixx-led "Shake it out baby, shake it" / "Oh oh oh oh"
Big Sixx announced they would have a real reunion in a month with Big G of Backyard Band.
This was my first time seeing them perform, but of course I've seen Love, Stomp, and Chris perform lots of times.
Packy and Boo were there.
I talked with BJ before the set.
My eyes hurt, I think I got sunscreen in them, but I recovered before they started performing.
Rare Essence - they started at 7:59
Mike, GoGo Mickey, 32, Antonio, Shorty Dud, Shorty Corleone, Blue Eye, Whiteboy, BJ
GoGo Mickey, 32, Shorty Corleone, Whiteboy, BJ
All pictures taken by and Copyright - Jordan Rich
The line up was: Andre "Whiteboy" Johnson (vocals & guitar), Charles "Shorty Corleone" Garris (vocals), Dave "32" Ellis (vocals), Mike Baker (bass), Byron "BJ" Jackson (Keyboards), Darryl "Blue Eye" Arrington (drummer), Milton "GoGo Mickey" Freeman (congas), Quentin "Shorty Dud" Ivey (percussion).
1) 32-led The Shop Boyz' Party Like a Rock Star - it cranked
2) Whiteboy-led Welcome to this RE Party - it cranked
3) Shorty Corleone-led "You ain't ready for this right here"
4) Shorty Corleone-led What It Do - it cranked
5) Shorty Corleone-led Work the Walls - it cranked
6) Shorty Corleone-led Overnight Scenario - the crowd sang along, it cranked / outtro
7) 32-led All Da Time - it cranked, it was ended by people in the audience running
Whiteboy said, "I hope running to catch the bus, we don't need no trouble."
Whiteboy said, "Please be careful walking out of here."
They were done at 8:30 PM.
While Backyard Band and Rare Essence played toms almost their entire sets, I really much preferred the way they sounded to the way ABM and Mission Band sounded. Personally, I prefer the toms to be an accent to the congas. In addition, I really wished Rare Essence would play the toms less because I'd love to hear GoGo Mickey stretch out more. I hear GoGo Mickey stretch out more often in his guest appearances than when I go see Rare Essence. If he stretched out on the congas more during Rare Essence performances that I attended, I would go them more often.
