Thursday at the Xcalibur
Xcalibur Restaurant & Lounge, 2519 Pennsylvania Av NW, Washington, DC 20500

This is Familiar Faces' new Thursday (weekly) spot. An unusual aspect of their performances at this venue is that men have to be on the guest list: in Donnell's words tonight "to keep out the Riff Raff". This was the first performance where on my way there, I got to see people outside in DC - it was still daylight until shortly before I parked. I ended up getting lost, but once I got my bearings, I parked not too far away. This venue is right over by George Washington University. The restauarant part is on the ground floor, both outside and inside. The performance area is on the second floor. The stage was cramped - the stage and dance floor are about 14 feet wide, with the stage also not being very long.

Familiar Faces
The line up was scaled down: Mike, Adia, Donnell, Pooh, Bojack, Godfather and BJ (on Bass). The dance floor has two plush yellow chairs and a red couch on the opposite side with a number of plush ottomans. During the performance there were spinning multicolored lights. Behind the dance floor was the bar, which was three steps above the dance floor (about 1.5') - there were some dark brown wooden chairs. I arrived shortly before the performance started - Godfather told me "The pasta is really good", but I ended up not eating. The frontline - Mike, Adia and Donnell only had one microphone between them. After starting off with an instrumental, Donnell called up Mike saying "Adia and Mike are getting too comfortable in those recliners." After that song, Godfather started playing the opening to Grover Washington Jr.'s Mr. Magic, so Bojack walked up with his plate of food and started playing along. The performance was sort of a hybrid - they performed the songs from what they call their jazz set, but with Bojack playing, making it have more of a GoGo beat. Also, do to the one front line mic, Adia got more opportunities to sing solo. Also, Donnell's sax lost a little of its aural punch by not being amplified.

I spoke with Jazz during the second set. I also said hello during the performance to DeeDee, Tara (in the audience only, not performing, I noticed she wore black spiked high-heels, so it would have been hard for her to dance), and Ebony. A number of members of their usual crowd were at this performance. After the first set, Donnell said, "They (the neighborhood I guess) don't really want us here, so be quiet when you leave." Late in the second half, someone from the restaurant came up to let them know it was almost time to finish. Donnell called up Adia to sing "Secrets" (actually Alicia Keys' Diary), for this song Godfather and BJ switched instruments - it wasn't until this song that I could tell BJ was playing bass as all but his head and legs were hidden by the congas. They switched back after this song and Donnell told everyone not to drink and drive, of one guy he said, "Don't drive, it's too late for you to not drink." Donnell called Mike back up to the mic, to "End as they began, on a high note." After the song, Mike also went over their schedule and told everyone "Not to drink and drive." No joning tonight! On my way to my car, I ran into a woman who said she had locked her keys in her car - unfortunately, I couldn't be of any use to her. It was a kind of a damper on the way back.