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

Despite the rain, it was a great evening. I arrived a little before 10 PM. I went over and talked to Doc. We discussed Gospel GoGo. A number of groups have broken up lately, especially since they don't always perform for pay. Doc said he didn't get the point of what Gospel GoGo bands are trying to accomplish - GoGo music with Gospel words. I said that it is possible they are trying to attract people who wouldn't normally go to church. I told him about a picture one of my fellow folklore students showed in class: a church sign saying "Wal-Mart is not the only place you can save." We also discussed Bass players and Guitar Players. Doc said most of them are crazy, including Jimi Hendrix. (Interestingly, Greg Tate talks about how Hendrix set the image for rock guitarists in Midnight Lightning: Jimi Hendrix and the Black Experience.)

Familiar Faces
The first set was delayed due to technical problems between the guitar and the mixing board. When they started, the line up was: Donnell, DP, Dwayne, Doc, Godfather, Jammin' Jeff and Smoke. It started off instrumentally as usual, and then Adia and Mike started singing. Later, Donnell called Tamara up to sing a song, like last week. To make up for the late start, they performed a really long set: about 90 minutes. BJ arrived a little late. Mike gave props to Marshall Thompson (lead singer of the Chi-Lites) and said he'd be there to see him front row, center on February 18th. Adia sang Destiny's Child's Soldier. At one point, they went over to congratulate a woman who had just gotten a job for Ward 4. Mike sat down at the seat next to her, and Donnell brought his Saxophone to the table as well and they serenaded her. Again, other than the opening songs, it is hard to distinguish between the sets musically now. The GoGo beat clearly dominated most of the first and all of the second set. A guy sitting behind me had a running commentary on their performance. They did an announcement for Tracy's birthday party at Cada Vez. There was a birthday shout out for a different Tracy as well.

Still, the second set was more crankin' than the first set. Again, they performed DIP in the second set, as well as Lap Dance. Donnell mentioned the Miami trip again. Donnell also requested a volunteer male singer for tomorrow's performance at Club U. They will be performing at 12:30 AM, with EU, Y2K, and L!ssen preceding them. Donnell said, "We need someone who can stay up late." Mike added, "Someone who is unemployed." Donnell called the group members together for a quick meeting after the show.