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

Familiar Faces
This became quite an evening. The line up at the start of the first set was: Mike, Adia, Donnell, DP, Dwayne, Doc, BJ, Jammin' Jeff, Smoke, and Jacques. Godfather came in later in the set. During the first song, which was much extended, Jacques played roto-toms and timbales - pretty rare for a first set. He traded solos with Smoke, but the true highlight of the song and even the night was Jammin' Jeff's solo. Not only did he crank on the drums, but stood up and used his drum sticks on the signs behind him, Godfather's stool, the speakers, the mic stands, the congas, timbales, then put the sticks down and beat on the neck of Doc's bass with his bare hands as a percussion instrument. He then hit on the signs and the heating duct above before going back to his drum kit. Mike's highlight was O'Bryan's Lady I Love You. The first set was longer than usual, and definitely crankin. Many members of the usual crowd were there, plus Sharmba Mitchell and Big Don Pimp.

During the second set, the performance of Terror Squad's Lean Back featured at least three of the same four guest rappers as last week - Ebony and the other two girls. I didn't see the male guest rapper last week well enough to know if it was the same guy this week. The other Ebony was there as well. The set cranked in the way that happens to me - it is so great that it seems like more time has passed than is really the case. They closed with Lap Dance. Donnell did shout outs to people for coming, including Michon (Jacques' girlfriend) and me.