Saturday at the Market Lounge
Market Lounge, 1309 5th Street NE, Washington, DC 20002

Tonight was a special engagement at the Market Lounge, to celebrate the birthday of Big Darryl, the owner of the Market Lounge. I arrived at 10:30. The drums were set up, but the band wasn't there yet. I talked with Imani, the bartender I had seen dancing at Takoma Station a couple of weeks ago - she's a nice girl.

Pooh and BJ were the first to arrive. Jazz asked me if I had been to the cook out earlier in the day with Chuck Brown, but I woke up at 4 PM. Apparently I missed a good show. When Donnell arrived, he handed Doc's bass in its case to Doc, back from his vacation - he smiled and hugged it! Donnell came over and pointed out Iceberg Slim to me. I had noticed him as he is hard to miss, but I didn't know what he looked like: he is bald and has the physique and size of an NBA big man, he is around 7' in height (he wore a jersey for Negro League Baseball, with matching shorts and athletic shoes). Iceberg Slim (whose nickname was the pseudonym of the late Robert Beck, a pimp-turned-novelist) is a local rapper who provided the lead vocals for Trouble Funk's Don't Touch That Stereo and Pump Me Up, two of their best songs. I went over and talked with him briefly and told him that I was a fan. I also told him how I knew a friend of his, Dr. Blynd, who wrote "The Funktionary", a dictionary of Funk and philosophy.

Familiar Faces
The line up tonight was: Mike, Adia, Donnell, Doc, Godfather, BJ (on keyboards), Pooh, Bojack, and a new guitar player (Dwayne Lee in his first appearance as a permanent member of the band) and another percussionist, Charlie Allen. There was a free buffet tonight, and it was really good, including Alaskan King Crab legs. They started off with just a few songs of what they call their "happy hour" music, before segwaying into dance music directly in the first set. Donnell did multiple shout outs to Iceberg Slim and a birthday girl named Australia in addition to Darrell. The set (and the following one) was longer than normal for FF. At one point during the set, Donnell thanked Imani to her back; I am guessing it was his way of showing his admiration for her backside.

I saw Tara and said hello. After the break, Donnell called the other band members up to get started on the second set. Right after that, a guy in the audience kept yelling "Get started now" - he was obviously drunk. FF started up while the bouncers peacefully escorted out - he danced to FF as he walked out. The second (and final) set cranked really hard - I would say after the Club Levels performance, this was the second best performance I've seen of them this summer. Late in the set, Tara went up and danced on stage, then rapped. Shortly afterwards, there was another male rapper who sat in (from the dance floor), then another male guest vocalist on stage, named Jay Gotti.

After they finished performing, Donnell talked more about Darryl's birthday and called up Mike Muse (who was signing the email guest list and talking to some girls) to sing Happy Birthday - he said, "You don't want me singing, the girl will still be there when you're done." Mike went up saying "I was just signing the list, he sees what he wants to see" and sang Happy Birthday to Darryl, then Donnell said, "Watch what he does" to the girls. Mike sang more elaborately for Australia, and had her come up on stage and hugged her: Donnell said, "See Darryl, you don't get a hug from him." There was a birthday cake and Donnell teased Iceberg Slim: "Iceberg Slim, no napkin, no knife, no fork, just getting to business, licking off his fingers..." The drive home was fine, I'm getting used to the circles.