Wednesday at the Takoma Station
Takoma Station, 6914 4th St NW, Washington, DC 20012

Tonight I brought my Dad's digital camera and my copy of Donald Passman's excellent music industry how-to-guide, All You Need to Know About the Music Business. When I first walked in, the cover-taker (actually Familiar Faces' manager and co-owner Baba Tutu) saw me with the book and said, "You're not going to read that here are you?" I told him "No, I'm just bringing it to give to someone." After I sat down, I saw Duane Face, so I went over and game him the book. Not long after, the (police) Lieutenant (I discovered Clark was his last name tonight) arrived and Donnell teased him by mocking his posture. The Lieutenant immediately went over to Adia and began hitting on her - he makes no secret of his interest in her.

Familiar Faces
The highlight of the first set was intense drumming by Pooh - he even sent a drum stick flying. Donnell did several birthday announcements for Michelle. Donnell mentioned how BJ is sitting in for Doc at bass. I had talked with Donnell last night about FF's members having side projects, so I assumed that's what Doc is doing now, but he was actually on vacation. There was a smaller than usual crowd tonight, not sure why. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the flash to work on the digital camera - I'll need to practice later. The Lieutenant came over and said hello to me, "You're becoming a regular."

The second set's intensity increased over time. Tara not only danced this time, but rapped a little as well. As usual, they closed the set with Prince's Purple Rain, with a really intense solo by Boolah - this was in effect his swan song, as it turned out to be his last show with Familiar Faces.

A woman came over and introduced herself to me as Mama 'Chelle, she told me she was here for her birthday and that she had been reading my online write-ups. I didn't think that hardly anyone including FF had been reading my posts until this week. At the rehearsal, some of the band members did talk about my postings. Donnell's joning was all aimed at the Lieutenant- he said the Lieutenant "Went to the Bahamas and came with 'Stacy Jones' (meaning his loafers) without socks, Crockett & Tubbs, Miami Vice." He also said the Lieutenant got his shirt from "The Land of Lilliput." The Lieutenant said, "Haterade!" The Lieutenant added his name to Familiar Faces' email list and Donnell said to Nephew, "Do we want to the Lieutenant coming to all of our shows?" He also started to talk about an incident when the Lieutenant was drunk, to which the Lieutenant said, "Don't talk about that!" Donnell talked about how Adia would be driving to the next show, and that clearly excited the Lieutenant. Adia didn't know what Donnell was talking about, but she was upset, and the Lieutenant echoed all of her responses to Donnell. After Donnell finished joning, Packy started to perform and played with one of the mics (which was not on).

DeeDee from the Positive Black Men Coalition came out and spoke with me briefly right after I walked out.