Junkyard Band / Beenie Man / Backyard Band / Trouble Funk at Mayo Island
Mayo Island Enterprises LC, 503 S 14th St Richmond, VA 23219

I figured this was my only chance to see Trouble Funk this summer, so it was worth the trip down to Richmond despite the 2+ hour drive each way. The parking was free. Unfortunately, cameras were not allowed. Many people came prepared with folding chairs - this is an outdoor venue on a grassy field with the performance area being a stage within a tent. They delayed letting us in the gates until around 5:40 PM. This event was only for those twenty-one and over, and they required IDs, which irked many of the people waiting to get in. I found the other people rather polite: two girls who set up their folding chairs in front of me deliberately set down their chairs in a way to minimize their obstruction of my view, even asking me. The performers were transported backstage (blocked off by security and police tape) by a short bus. Trouble Funk sold copies of their last official release, a live performance last year at Mayo Island (I of course already had a copy that I picked up at Showplace in Lanham, MD). The CDs came with a poster that announced they will shortly have a 25th Anniversary performance DVD/CD!

There was an MC; I believe he is a local (Richmond) comedian.

Junkyard Band
Junkyard performed first, with three vocalists (two men and a woman), a drummer and two percussionists (one at a time, but one came from playing the congas and more to playing strictly congas and was replaced by another percussionist) and I can't remember if there were one or two keyboards. This was my first time seeing all of them perform, as when I went to see them at the Mad Chef, the crowd as well as the dim lighting blocked my ability to see anyone other than the two male vocalists who sat on top of speakers right below the ceiling. Their performance was good, but they only performed a short set of around 30 minutes.

Beenie Man
After a short break, Beenie Man came on. The crowd was feeling it, but I wasn't. To be honest, pretty much the only Reggae artists I am really a fan of are Toots (whose music I can't get enough of!) and Bob Marley. I walked around a little during this set. People were real polite - when I ever I got up, no one took my spot. The reason he performed second was apparent in his closing words, he had to leave because he had a performance in Jamaica that night. His set was over 45 minutes.

Next came an hour long break with pre-recorded music with an additional MC. They hyped up the crowd by playing old school hits and having them sing along. The crowd grew noticeably big during the break; there were a lot more people there than during the first two sets. This was by the far the largest audience at a GoGo performance that I've attended - at least several hundred people. It was also the most diverse crowd of any of the GoGo performances I've been to this Summer.

Backyard Band
Backyard performed next. They had four vocalists (including Big G of course), a sax player, a trumpet player, two keyboards, a guitarist, a bass player, a drummer and a percussionist. They performed a crankin' long set. Clearly they got the best crowd response of the night. Big G talked about appearing in a film Divided City (by Bruce Brown, who earlier did Streetwise (aka 24/7), a movie also featuring GoGo musicians as actors) and in The Wire. They announced that their upcoming album, Hood Related 2 (two CDs like the first one) would soon be in stores. A number of people left after their performance. They performed again later that night at Club Neon.

Trouble Funk
Last was what I waited for: Trouble Funk. Their line up was four vocalists (not including Big Tony, who was on vocals and bass), a guitarist, a sax player, a trumpet player, three keyboard players, a drummer, and two percussionists (with two separate percussion kits - one with congas, timbales, and I think roto-toms, one just with a large set of roto-toms). Big Tony's voice is back. They opened with Welcome Back, the theme song to Welcome Back, Kotter. I believe the next song up was Andy's Groove, but I'll have to listen and confirm. After that came (Let's) Get Small. Then, on request, they performed two covers Juvenile's Slow Motion - at first Big Tony said, "No, we'll skip that", but then said, "Let's see" and then they hit it. The second cover was Usher's Yeah! During their set, a couple of girls tried to help me improve my dancing - one said, "Let me help you dance on the beat"; not likely to be improved in one set... Next they performed Pump Me Up. Then they performed a medley of Trouble Funk Express, Supergrit, Xavier's Work That Sucka to Death, and Don't Touch That Stereo. They closed with Drop The Bomb. They got the second best crowd response of the night - I loved every minute of it. They finished promptly at 11 PM. As everyone walked out, there was a CSX train traving on tracks above the back of the field.

There was an after-party at Secrets, 2001 East Franklin Street, Richmond, VA 23223. I did not attend since I had a long drive ahead of me.