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

On my way to this 4th of July performance, I saw a double horse trailer pull into Rock Creek Park. I could see fireworks when I got to Georgia Avenue. I could still see them after parking and walking to Takoma Station. I talked to Thomas, one of FF's other support people - he assists in setting up the equipment, particularly the drum kits, and also sometimes takes cover at the door at Takoma Station. At first when I arrived around 10 PM, he and Packy were the only FF people there. It was a very small audience at the beginning for one of their Takoma Station performances.

Familiar Faces
At the beginning of the opening "Jazz" set, the line up was Donnell, DP, Doc, Pooh, Godfather, BJ and Dwayne Lee. I believe the first song they performed was Miles Davis' Tutu (actually written by Marcus Miller) - I am big Miles Davis fan (particularly the fusion and post-retirement eras). Adia and Mike Muse joined in a little later. This was a pretty crankin' jazz set. At one point, a woman in the audience danced real close to Mike Muse, then after the song, went up to whisper to Donnell. Donnell yelled out, Pat (obviously a friend of his who was right next to him and onstage during their performance on Friday at Safari Steakhouse), "Come get your wife, I don't want to give any wrong ideas." Packy played congas during the performance of Marvin Gaye's I Want You, and then sat down again at a table in the audience. Donnell later called him up again to play - he finished his drink and then came up, and Mike Muse razzed him about his white cap. He played for the remainder of the song, and then went back in the audience. Later on in the set, Bojack came in and immediately walked up onstage and started playing. By some point late in the first set, the place was packed. Later on the set, Donnell called "Little Mike" up to come sing, Mike Muse said, "My son needs to come up": up came "his son", actually Gene Pratt of Suttle Thoughts and (formerly of Junkyard Band). He hesitated before singing, so instead he took a cowbell and drumstick and started playing to the beat. Donnell said, "That's what he used to play before people knew he could sing." He still called for Pratt to sing - Pratt tapped his head with both index fingers, showing he didn't know the words, and kept waiting to get the verses down, Donnell said "Did you hit your head?" to which he replied on the mic "No, I'm fine", but proceeded to go back to playing the cowbell.

During the break, Pratt talked to Donnell with Jauhar and Nephew, perhaps to complain for being put on the spot. I didn't hear what he said, but Nephew laughed real hard. At the end of the break, just before they started performing the second set, Little Benny walked in.

Donnell called Little Benny to play after the first song of the second set, Donnell said "Benny, come on up, it's a Rare Essence reunion!" Little Benny did both vocals and trumpet for three songs, then left early in Overnight Scenario. He did come back for the last song as well. This set really cranked! Donnell had also tried a number of times to get "Smooth" from the now-defunct Reality Band to sit in and sing as well, but was unsuccessful. They finished performing around 2:15 AM.

Donnell went over future performance announcements, including one for the DJ tonight for next Saturday. Donnell said that FF was playing that night as well, but had to be helped to remember at what venue, Reggie's. He also talked about Friday's big gig, but again had trouble remembering who the guests were supposed to be but did say, "Trina will be there, she called me" and that "Lavar Arrington will be there, he'll be here Wednesday, he doesn't miss a DC party" and "Who's that 'Bama? Oh, Roy Jones..." He was asked to do a birthday song for a girl named Dawn, he did Vinnie D's "Once was a porno star...", but was asked to stop before he finished, he said, "Hey, I don't know too many songs to sing..."

It's getting hard to rank which performances are best because the crank factor is really going up on a consistent basis (including this performance of course)! Donnell's band directing tonight was more obviously than usual. The signals can be hard to spot and I really didn't start to notice them until I attended the rehearsal about two weeks ago, when they discussed directions.

I took pictures tonight, but they didn't turn out well.

Happy Independence Day!