Rare Essence at Club U
Club U (inside Frank D. Reeves Municipal Center), 2000 14th Street NW Suite 10, Washington, DC 20009

Even though Familiar Faces was performing on Saturday night on the Odyssey, sponsored by the Positive Black Men Coalition, I decided to check out Rare Essence, to see how the band is now that the core of 911/Familiar Faces is gone from it. Unfortunately, I made 2 tactical errors: I decided to take the Metro instead of driving (Club U is only a little over a block from the U Street-Cardoza station) which meant I could not stay for the whole show, and I arrived too early. I called Club U at 9 PM to ask when they would open doors for the show, they said 10. So I arrived a little after 10:30, guessing that RE would start performing some time around 11 PM. I was not the only one taking the Metro there, as I followed two girls from the Metro straight to Club U. I had a few Cokes while waiting for Rare Essence to start up and the bartender correctly figured I had never been there: she kept waving to me, but I figured she was trying to signal someone else, until the guy next to me (wearing a t-shirt with the word "Brooklyn" printed on it) tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to her. She told me about the free buffet, where I got some chicken wings (whole wings, not like a wing place). I was not the only one who didn't already know about the free buffet, because a guy asked me if "The grub was free?" I told him where to get it. I also noticed that they sold roses (the Market Lounge and Mad Chef Cafe sell Polaroid pictures taken on site with a background of Moet Champagne bottles).

Rare Essence
Rare Essence didn't start performing until after 12:30, by which time I had been long bored with waiting (given that I didn't know anyone there). Before they started performing, the MC said he saw a lot of women violating the dress code; they should go to the bathroom and look in the mirror, that at the half, he would pick out the women dressed horribly and say "Unh". They started up with Take Me Out to the Go-Go, mellow at first. I liked the first set, but don't like Club U's set up - there isn't enough open space - like the bars when I was an undergrad at College Park, people are pushing through to move around the entire time and there is little space between people - I hate that! I was directly behind the soundboard for the first set, a girl I later learned is named Lisa was there. The DJ booth, next to the sound board, acts as an obstacle for the right stage speaker, therefore I couldn't hear the band they way I should where I was (I didn't want to be on the dance floor directly, since I couldn't see the band from there). I saw Familiar Faces' sound man, Jazz, come in during the first set and said Hi to him. People dance in a number of ways at the GoGos I have been to, but normally they don't dance frantically. Tonight was an exception: there was a guy in blue jeans with a black t-shirt and black baseball cap who was intentionally dancing as spastically as he could.

I moved after the first set ended, so that I was out of the way. During the break, the same guy in the "Brooklyn" t-shirt asked me to "Smack the ass of one of the three girls by me, to get their attention for him." Instead, I tapped the shoulder of the closest one and got her attention - he was clearly disappointed and said so. The girl next to her clearly knew him. A couple of minutes later, another girl tried to get to his female friend, but he told her not to and me to block her - I told her, he's just trying to get me in trouble. A few minutes later, she and I grinded briefly. Then I saw the friend (the one he wanted the attention of) giving a guy a hand job on the outside (with his pants on) (it certainly shocked me).

The second set started up, and I remained where I was. The music cranked more and the sound improved. Mid-way through the set, the girl I grinded with motioned for me to grind with one of her friends, who wore a pink shirt with the words, "Heavy Metal Lover" printed on it. Of all the performances I've been to, this is the only venue that has lights on during the entire performance. Unfortunately, I told her I had to go, as even though I was having a good time and the music cranked, I couldn't afford to miss the last train at the Metro stop. Even the most casual observer would have noticed that the women dressed more scantily than at the other GoGos I've been to.

I left shortly after 2:30 AM, when the second set was still going. Even so, I only beat the last train by 9 minutes. In a way, the evening was symmetrical - I noticed a girl in my train car on the Red line on the way home who had been in my car on the way down. When I got to Bethesda, the station closed when the last passengers got off the train - the station attendant locked the gate when I was part way up the escalator.

RE's line up is similar in composition to Familiar Faces', but they had a trombone, and the single keyboard player had three keyboards.

Club U closed in February 2005, so this will remain my only visit there.