New Year's at Safari Steakhouse
Safari Steakhouse, 9430 Annapolis Road Lanham MD 20706


Godfather (only arms visible), Doc, BJ, James (guest vocalist), Darryl "Blue Eye" Arrington (only right hand visible), Mike, Donnell, Smoke, and DP


Doc, Unidentified Man, Godfather, Little Benny, Mike, Donnell, Smoke


DP, Donnell, Scuba Steve Covington, Godfather, Unidentified Man, Smoke, Pooh
All pictures taken by and Copyright – Jordan Rich

Since the flyer showed that the doors opened at 8 PM, an hour earlier than usual, I decided to come at 9:30 PM. I arrived and there was plenty of parking available at that time. I gave my ticket to Nephew. One of the security guards asked I had been at an event at the DC Tunnel, but I've never been there so far. Plenty of party favors were in boxes on a table outside to the right of the front door. I put my stuff on a table - second row, left side. This night there were nine tables in addition to the booths. The tables all had blue tablecloths with red-pink streamers on them. I went over and talked to Doc and Packy, who were the only ones from the band there at the time. Doc said he was there that early because the previous week he had had difficulty getting a parking space. I talked with him about his new bass. He said it was fretless, I told him about how I had just read Jaco Pastorius' biography and how he had turned a fretted bass into a fretless bass. He said that Jaco was crazy, and I agreed (his biography talks about how he was manic-depressive and was in denial of it.) He told me a story about how he had asked the delivery man to deliver it early so Doc's wife wouldn't see it, but he got stuck in traffic. It ended up okay. I left Doc and Packy to their work and went and got the free dinner. Supa Dan said hello while he went around putting out more balloons. DJ Flava (aka GoGo Rudy) came by and said he'd introduce himself to me. I talked with Mike, and asked him how his back was.

The comedian Skiba came on stage. He picked on a number of people, including Chuck Brown, said he smoked marijuana all the time. He also picked on Donnell, making fun of his belt among other things. Donnell and other members of Familiar Faces were still working on setting up their equipment while Skiba performed. A girl named Honey, wearing a yellow shirt, sat next to me. She seemed to be laughing the most at Skiba's jokes. Skiba had a pointed joke about PA tapes: "Forty-five minutes of fighting, fifteen minutes of pocket, and two minutes of we play here every Thursday." Skiba also poked fun at the GoGo pics guy, who I recognized as having worked security at the cookout. Naturally, he picked on me, as "The White Guy".

Familiar Faces
Familiar Faces' opening line up was: Donnell, DP, Doc, Godfather, BJ, Darryl "Blue Eye" Arrington on drums and Packy on congas. Strangely, they had no guitar player all night. One of the tunes they performed during this "Jazz set" was Mile Davis' Tutu (written by Marcus Miller). After, a few instrumental tunes, Adia and then Mike came up and started singing. They also had a guest singer for a song, James Lawson, who had sung on Wednesday as well. Smoke also arrived during the set. When he took over the congas, Packy switched to the cowbell. When Smoke started playing, it became a GoGo set. In both of the first sets I have attended this week; the first set is no longer as musically distinct as it was in the summer. However, I prefer the way it is now with the GoGo beat as opposed to the lighter feel. The first set was not going to be over before midnight, and Donnell made sure to have a time check for midnight. He asked if anyone with a Bulova watch could call out the countdown. At midnight, they asked family to come one stage under the mistletoe, including his son, Donnell Jr. He said that Donnell Jr. was "Only thirteen, only twelve" (actually he's twenty-one). He said that Nephew was way ahead, having already kissed four women under the mistletoe. They then performed Time to Party, one of the songs off their new album, Evolution. I didn't have a copy of Evolution yet so I didn't know the name of the song, but recognized the song from the studio sessions I had attended. Donnell ended the first set by saying, "Skiba, sorry about the test results. If Magic Johnson can make it, you can too..."

During the break, I hung out in the lounge and talked with members of FF. During the break, I saw a number of people getting GoGo pics, including a group of women who posed around Donnell Jr. One of these women was Lisa of the World, whom I recognized from the cookout. I went and watched the second set from next to and behind the right speaker, facing the front line sideways. There was a second soundboard there. The same bunch of women who had posed with Donnell Jr. danced nearby to me, either onstage behind the front line, or in front of me or behind the soundboard. The line up for the second set was different: Duane "Pooh" Payne played drums and Anthony "Little Benny" Harley was an additional vocalist. A girlfriend of Vic's (I think he was working the monitors) made some suggestions to me that I can't print here. FF performed Lap Dance from Evolution, which I didn't recognize as such at the time. For me, the highlight of the second set was Take Me Out to the Go-Go. Little Benny left toward the end of the set. Donnell sang Miss Keta Will You Dance for Me. He also did shout outs to Mo, Sweet Chelle and Lisa of the World.

During the second break, I talked with Pooh. I asked him about the advertising agency gig. He said he didn't have a permanent gig now, but that he would be playing in Atlanta the next couple of weeks.

At the beginning of the third set, Donnell referred to the group of women I mentioned above as the "Solid Gold Dancers." As usual, the third set was the most crankin'. Scuba Steve Covington from Y2K guest rapped. As the set ended, Donnell went to joning. He said to Angie, "I didn't see you at Club U. You missed, a show, you are no longer family." He then started singing a modified version of Family, but with negatives. Keisha came up at the end and had a song request. He gave her the same treatment as Angie. He called out 6'9 as well, saying "I am going to have to call out your name, David Gregory." He said of Doc (as Doc left the stage), "He's from Glebe Road. The n*ggas from Glebe Road are the craziest." Having seen the GoGo pics with Donnell Jr., he started on those women: "Don't you know my son is only thirteen? I will press charges: statutory rape! Shante, there's a police car outside waiting for you; I hope it was worth it!" Donnell also talked about their Saturday shows at Tradewinds, "it's just us and a whole lot of girls. Guys, all you need is shoes..."
Shawn and Shante were there.

After the show, I waited outside as Donnell gave me a copy of Evolution. While I waited, I saw them back up a truck to the front door, and they put all of the speakers into the truck. While I knew the speakers were rented (I had met a guy named Ed at an earlier performance at Safari Steakhouse and he had told me, pointing the large speakers, "those are my speakers."). I didn't know they removed them after every performance. I also talked with GoGo Rudy; he talked about his name change to Flava as being similar to Prince's change to the symbol. I also met and got the phone number from ex-911 member Paul "Rootie" Baltimore.