Friday at Safari Steakhouse
Safari Steakhouse, 9430 Annapolis Road Lanham MD 20706

I arrived at 8:30 PM, so that I could set up for interviews ahead of time and make sure it was alright with the manager of Safari. I set up in the side lounge. While I was waited, I talked with Packy about interviewing him. He said that I could interview him that night when he was done setting up. He also said his brother, Darryl "Blue Eye" Arrington (the original drummer for 911) would be there tonight and that I should interview him as well. Adia arrived at 9:20, and we conducted the interview. I asked if Packy and Darryl were half-brothers since they have different last names. He said, "no, he's not really my brother, he lived in my neighborhood and looked after me." He also said that Darryl taught him to play the congas. He further expounded that Darryl had played with every major GoGo group except Chuck Brown. Packy and Thomas joked about Packy being Rick James' nephew (Rick James had died of a heart attack earlier in the day). While waiting to interview Packy, I talked with SupaDan, the DJ for Safari. He said that I should interview him, that Safari has had many GoGo bands over various days over years. He liked my question list. There were a few humorous interruptions during my interview of Packy, including Peanut (a fan) and Alvin (an employee of FF) wanting to be interviewed. Packy also said that he is working on a PA at Night Flight of his own band - Unity Band (not to be confused with the early 1990s GoGo band of the same name) and that he was interested in having it promoted online, that I should contact him later in the month. BJ had arrived during my interview of Packy (I was supposed to interview BJ as well, but he arrived late because his car is not running properly and he couldn't get another ride), but too late for me to interview him before Familiar Faces would start performing. I went back to my car to put all of the equipment away. I asked Nephew how to play management, he said, "I'm doing it right now." I asked Donnell if FF was going to continue performing at Xcalibur, given their cancellation the night before. He said they may switch back to Cranberries. I also asked him if the album was done, he said yes and that it sounded great.

Familiar Faces
The line up for the opening set was: Mike, Adia, Donnell, DP, Dwayne, Doc, Godfather, BJ, Darryl Arrington (filling-in for Pooh), and Packy. There was another guy with a red baseball cap on sitting down by the congas. He sat in and rapped with FF. I later asked Doc who the guest rapper was, he said Bryan, the original rapper with 911 (I assume he meant Bryan "B-Man" Baucum). Also later in the set, Chi Ali walked in and around behind the congas, said hello to band members and started playing the congas. In the middle of the set, a group of girls at the table behind me yelled for them to perform 911. Donnell responded: "We're in the middle of our happy hour set. See the collar on my shirt; we're more mature now..." Later on, Bojack arrived and took over, with Packy playing the cowbell until Charlie arrived. At the end of the set, Darryl was still playing and Donnell said, "Blue, stop with that 'Bama sh*t, you've been listening to JuJu too much".

During the break I talked with Doc and Dwayne. Doc told me he had bought Bootsy Collins' anthology, Glory B Da' Funk's on Me!. I told him that my name is in the notes, I worked on that when I worked in master use licensing at Rhino. I told him that I had gotten it autographed by Overton Loyd, the cover artist for it who has done the cover art for many of P-Funk's albums. I also got it autographed by Bootsy himself. I told him I had also had autographed one of the covers for the Funkin' on the 1 box set (by the people at Funk To The Max), which has tracks from Bootsy's band before they were hired by James Brown. He talked about how it was cool that it had "Freak to Freak" from Bootsy's alter-ego, the Sweat Band. I told him that was the first time the track had been released on CD in the US. The whole album had been released in Japan by a Japanese label called P-Vine, a subsidiary of Blues Interactions. P-Vine has released (or reissued on CD) a number of P-Funk (and GoGo) albums that have not been released in the US. The Sweat Band LP was originally released on George Clinton's Uncle Jam label, which went under when Zapp delivered their hit album, Zapp to Warner Brothers instead. I told him about getting the two Headhunters "solo" (without Herbie playing) albums (Survival of the Fittest and Straight from the Gate) from BMG in Japan, they are funky as hell! I also said that Bootsy has another alter-ego, Zillatron. The Zillatron album, Lord of the Harvest has been reissued earlier this year; it was originally released by RykoDisc. (I meant to tell him about the two major online vendors of P-Funk, The Funk Store and Funk To the Max). Doc said he had all of Bootsy's albums, but didn't like the latest (Play with Bootsy, just released in the US in June) with all of the guest stars (Macy Gray, Snoop, etc.). I told him that I really like the album before that, Fresh Outta P University. I asked him how he liked Larry Graham. He said that without Larry that you wouldn't have the boom boom bass that he pioneered (or in Doc's words, "That I don't know anyone else did first"). He did also say he didn't like the "One in a Million You sh*t". Doc told me that he got Blue to start playing drums, switching from the congas. Blue was a member of Physical Wunders and the drummer didn't show up for a gig. Blue didn't want to play the drums, but Doc made him do it. I asked him if he was a salesman at Lexus, he said, "Hell no! I take cars apart and put them back together again. Actually now I supervise people doing it and when they can't figure it out, I do it. People say they never see me with grease on my clothes, that's because I mostly supervise." Dwayne walked in and sat on his hands to warm them up (today was much cooler than the day before). I asked him about his wearing the sunglasses last Friday during the second set. He said, "Godfather gave those to me, I think he found them. So, I put them on." Peanut mentioned something about Boolah; I said he was in a Jazz band with Tony Sharpe (Jazz Visions). I first heard about the new band online a few days before Boolah's last gig with FF. I talked with Doc and Dwayne about Rick James (I am not a big fan of more than a few songs of his, but I do like his production work with the Temptations). I asked if they could perform one of his songs in tribute to him. Doc said he didn't know how to play many of his songs, but Dwayne said, "We can do Bustin Out, follow my lead." I asked Bojack where he got that nickname from, he said his Grandmother gave it to him. Shortly after that the break ended.

The women who had requested 911 earlier stood in front of Donnell. Three of them were celebrating their birthdays. Donnell said repeatedly, "I don't mind you drinking; I just wish you didn't drink so much." Then he said, "Can we get a breathalyzer here?" The first set was good, but as usual, the second was better. Many regulars were there: Kato, Juanita, Michelle, Mama Chelle, the NY girl whom Donnell had noted a while ago for doing the "Harlem Shake" and FF's manager Baba Tutu. They performed two Rick James songs back to back, Bustin' Out and Mary Jane, and then Donnell said, "That's enough Rick James". They had three male guest rappers in the second set, Jay Gotti, Chi Ali and another guy.

I went to my car in the break after the second set, and talked with BJ, Godfather, Thomas and Doc in the parking lot. I joked with BJ that he looks more like Gary Payton than Vince Carter to me, he said, "that's worse." Godfather told me about his store. He said that all of the shirts he wears to performances come from his store. I told Godfather and Doc that Familiar Faces was on the cover of the upcoming print edition of "Take Me Out to the GoGo" (or TMOTT as it is also known).


In the third set, Michael Smith, the drummer from Rare Essence walked in and Donnell acknowledged him on the mic, "that's my man, Michael Smith" (but Smith didn't sit in). Someone joking called out Strange, a reference to Grace Jones' character in Boomerang. At the end of the set, Donnell had the crowd doing the "happy feet".

After the third set (which cranked), I walked out to my car to leave after talking with Donnell (he walked outside with Michael Smith). Mama Chelle said hello, and a girl named March called my name. She ran over to me and hugged me (Mama Chelle said she was drunk), and asked that I post her name. Then another girl named Shonda also said, "Hi, Jordan."