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

I missed the first set as a prior engagement went long. When I arrived, Nephew waved me into the booth with him where he sat with two of the three girls I hang out with at Safari Steakhouse performances. I asked them where their friend was, they said, "She's in Louisiana, she's in the military."

Doc waved me into the side lounge that I've never been in. Apparently, the band members hang out there during their breaks. I hung out with Doc, DP, Godfather, Packy, and Dwayne. Doc talked with Packy about the next night's performance at Club Levels - he said that even though he grew up with the owners, he feels uncomfortable there for some reason. He went on to talk about how he thinks that FF is catering to what they think the audience wants, instead of defining a sound and having the audience come to appreciate it. He said that Nelly and Outkast created their own sound and made the audience come to them and have been very successful (even though he added that in their latest album, OutKast use a lot of Earth Wind & Fire's grooves). He said that every band that has really defined its own sound has "f*cked up somehow" - Backyard had their own sound and then changed it; Northeast Groovers had their own sound (although he could hear Trouble Funk in them). "Chuck (Brown) started the groove, but Rare Essence perfected it."

DP and Doc compared how tired they were, having worked up until shortly before the performance, Doc won because DP didn't play at Xcalibur the night before. During this conversation, Kevin "Kato" Hammond and Mark "Teago" Ward of Take Me Out To The GoGo Magazine came by and introduced themselves to me. Kato asked Doc about Physical Wunders still performing.

The sound man (probably Googie), who is a friend of Doc, came in and talked with Doc - Doc had sold him a bass, that he in turn had sold to someone else and the amp for it had already cracked. Doc said that it was probably because whoever bought it had tried to play it too loud - that most GoGo musicians play much louder than they really have to because the PA system should amplify them anyway. He asked me how loud they were and I told him I had missed the first set. Doc asked Kato when he was going to take Whop's picture down from the front page of Take Me Out To The GoGo, I mentioned how Adia's picture was up for the longest time, Kato said he would put up another FF picture (I noticed later he has up a FF publicity picture of Godfather). Donnell called the other members of FF back to perform and I ordered food and said hello to Mama Chelle at the bar, then went and sat down.

Familiar Faces
The line up was complete: Mike, Adia (with her hair down for the first time I've seen), Donnell, DP, Dwayne, Doc, Godfather, BJ, Pooh, Bojack, and Charlie. The second set was pretty crankin'. I talked with Charlie - he couldn't believe how long my blog was. After the set, Mama Chelle sat down and talked to me, she said that because of her work, she can't go out during the week and enjoys reading about the shows she can't attend. She asked me about why there was no description of Thursday's performance; I told her that I hadn't had time to do it yet. Even people I didn't know knew me by name. One girl asked me "If I really liked GoGo or was I just doing this because it's my job" - I guess she, like other people, don't realize what I am actually doing. While some people think I am a reporter, I am actually working on my Masters thesis in folklore at the University of North Carolina. Also, I am doing my thesis on GoGo precisely because I am a GoGo fan. Fortunately, FF is busy enough that there is less time between performances, so it makes me longer to write descriptions.

After I finished eating, I went to get a drink (soda - I don't drink alcohol) and they started up. I decided to watch the third set from the bar because there was a better view from there. The third set, as usual, cranked the most. There were a couple of guest male rappers, one of them rapped during the performance of Terror Squad's Lean Back. One of the two guest rappers was Steve from Y2K. The third set was noticeably loud (given my discussion with Doc). I noticed for the first time that Safari had GoGo pics and sold roses. I talked with Donnell about the studio sessions; he told me that there were more sessions on Sunday at noon. I told BJ that I had videos of his drumming; he said he was interested in them.

I noticed on my drive home that the performance had really eased all my frustrations of the day.

Thursday at Xcalibur
Xcalibur Restaurant & Lounge, 2519 Pennsylvania Av NW, Washington, DC 20500

I arrived early so that I could interview Pooh before Familiar Faces started performing. I arrived a little after 8 PM, the upstairs area, where they perform, was nearly pitch black and empty except for the Scottish bartender Annie.

I found an electrical outlet in the alcove leading to the women's bathroom, so I set up on the couch there to conduct the interview. Pooh and Doc were the first to arrive.

Some work men came in (Xcalibur is new) and one showed how nice the men's bathroom was to the other and said that "It's too big; people will be having sex in there."

I interviewed Pooh after he had eaten. He asked me to post it online after I have transcribed it - the only negative was the pre-recorded music playing at the time was rather loud. Here is the transcript (not exact with every um, etc.):

JR: When did you join the group?

DP: 03, like August, around this, almost this time of year.

JR: Where did you learn to play music?

DP: I?ve been playing since I was like five years old. I was playing the choir at five years old. I always knew ever since I can ever remember.

JR: What other groups did you play with besides 911/Familiar Faces?

DP: Before 911 there was Northeast Groovers, Raw Image, Pure Elegance, Obsession, there?s a number of groups.

JR: Do you have any side group that you are playing with now at the same time as FF?

DP: Gospel group Heaven Sent. I play in church, the Union Temple Baptist Church. That?s about it now.

JR: Other than entertainment, what purpose does GoGo have do you think?

DP: Entertain, as far as entertaining?

JR: Yeah, what do you think is the purpose of GoGo? Entertainment is obvious... I mean do you think there's another purpose to GoGo?

DP: Represent DC.

JR: Okay. What do you think makes GoGo so popular?

DP: The nation, the national's capital. DC natives, metropolitan area. If you weren't born and raised on it, you won?t enjoy it. So it's a DC thing.

JR: What do you think about it primarily being a DC thing?

DP: It's a good thing, it's a bad thing. The good - it's always home. The bad - it's not nationwide everywhere like R&B, Jazz, Gospel. It's not like that. It's not like that. I think it should be, but it's not a music that grew on everybody.

JR: Do you think a group of musicians from outside this area can be an authentic, be considered authentic by DC natives as a GoGo group? Like if someone formed a GoGo group of say people from Pennsylvania?

DP: You're asking would it work?

JR: Yeah, do you think it would be possible for them to be considered authentic or...

DP: It wouldn't be the same, it wouldn't be the same vibe.

JR: How do you define GoGo as?

DP: Always related to African music, drums. I think of GoGo drums, Congos.

JR: What instrumentation should a GoGo band have to have?

DP: A lot of pockets. Keep the crowd going. Keep everybody moving.

JR: How do you define Pockets & Sockets?

DP: How do I define them?

JR: Yeah.

DP: It depends on whatever mood I'm in. How I feel when I play. I could be coming out of a song? I may look out and see how everybody's date is sitting around and I try to get them up on their feet. If they're already dancing, I try to get them dancing harder.

JR: Do you think all music performed by a GoGo band is GoGo?

DP: (Laughing). Once it's got the GoGo beat on it, then it's GoGo.

JR: Does all GoGo music have to be dance music?

DP: Hmm, to me, it do. If it has a GoGo beat then it's danceable, you dance to it.

JR: What do you think of the current trend of some GoGo groups like TCB not really playing Congos at all?

DP: It's great because it catches all the younger crowd, high school kids, middle school kids, it's just a generation thing. So they're doing their thing so. When it's on the older circuit...

JR: What do you think needs to be done to maintain the tradition of GoGo for future generations?

DP: They need some guidance. Some of that has lost the touch of the true GoGo. It's not really...

JR: What do you think the true GoGo is that's being lost?

DP: It's not that many pockets being played by younger bands. There's a lot of noise making, it sounds to me... but that's the younger generation that's what they want, so that's what they get. That's what they pay to get. So older crowds, they're not going to go for that. When they get older, the younger generation, I don't know what they're going to expect. I don't know if it's going to be bad for them at one point. I guess it's kind of bad for them because the bands are not motivated to be true to get to the next level.

JR: What do you see as the future of GoGo as?

DP: I see the future of GoGo almost like, like a rap thing just IN DC. I don?t think it's going to go anywhere because bands; they're not willing to do what it takes to go to the next level.

JR: And what do you think it is that they need to do to?

DP: Bands need to come together and form this area together to get a unit to be able to go around the world or go national. Although people like Chuck Brown they have been over the world, but as far as the younger bands, they don't, they don't have what it take to travel.

JR: Trouble Funk too (has been around the world).

DP: Trouble Funk, EU.

JR: EU, yeah... What do you think about the way PA Tapes are distributed and paid?

DP: As far as listening, the sounds, whatever?

JR: Well, I mean in terms of as a musician, I mean as a member of a GoGo band, how would you rather... You know what the situation is now, you sell the master and then they sell it out and there are no royalties. Beyond that, do you prefer that more PA tapes? How many live performances should be put out by band say in a year?

DP: It would be nice if they put out, because like you said we don't get royalties, it's being sold.

JR: You just think commercial...

DP: Commercial CDs.

JR: Okay, how many studio albums do you think a band should make in a year?

DP: It depends on how they are laying the grooves down. They changing the grooves every couple of months then they can go out in the studio and a do a number of tracks put 'em out. Not bring them out until year to year so it's the same thing, may change up to a few ___s (something I can't hear), but that's about it with that.

JR: What made you decide to join a GoGo band? I mean you've been in a number of them.

DP: What started me off in a GoGo band?

JR: Yeah.

DP: My brother. He influenced me. He played the trombone. Talking about Quentin, which was "Footz" used to play drums for Rare Essence. What he did every show, I had tapes of them and I used to listen to the tapes, played the tapes. So that's how I got started with GoGo.

JR: Okay. What's your primary reason for playing? Is it simply for money or...

DP: Career. It's a job.

JR: So you plan to make this your career? Do you have another job now or is this...

DP: No, no other job. Playing drums.

JR: Yeah, I just know that some of the other guys who... I understand that GoGo like Funk is a lot of people, I mean you got eleven people playing at a time and that's a lot of people to split money between...

DP: Right, right.

JR: I mean that's one of the reasons that Funk went down after the 70s is because it's expensive to maintain, you know, that many people in a band.

DP: Yeah, it is.

JR: What do you think about the amount of cover songs that are played as opposed to original material?

DP: It's cool. It gets everybody warmed up, started off. You know, it's like, it's like exercising. You can't just go out there and go all out, you know, you got to warm them up. Let them tap their feet, nod their head and then they ain't necessarily move out on the floor. By the time they get on the floor, it's time to turn it up, give them what they want.

JR: What other styles of music do you incorporate in your playing?

DP: Gospel, Jazz, a little fusion and that's about it.

JR: What else do you listen to besides GoGo?

DP: All the time Gospel music and Jazz music: Chic Corea, Dave Weckl band, plus some fusion, basically Dave Weckl band, Dennis Chambers, people like that.

JR: What do you think defines a good performance?

DP: What defines a good performance from the band?

JR: Yeah.

DP: The energy in all the music. If the energy's in there once it's set from beginning to end; it's a good night, can't complain.

JR: What do you think is the connection between the audience and the band?

DP: The energy. You feed off, you feed off the crowd and each other. So you see everybody moving, we got some kind of connection going. Have to keep them going to the next level.

JR: How many people in the shows do you think you know personally outside of the band obviously?

DP: Wow! I can't count. Some people may know me, I don't know them, they just know of me, that type of situation, but there's quite a few...

JR: What do you think about the fact that some people associate GoGo with fighting and violence?

DP: I think it's just their opinion. I guess they're trying to label it the same way they label Rap as being violent. But it's all there to me, I mean you don't have to go out and put what you're saying on the CD, it's just music to make you feel good. Bob your head, dance to or something. A lot of people take music out of context these days. I think the artists need to go back in, all artists need to go back in, regroup and think about what they want to put out before they take it to a level they didn't intend it to go to. To prevent the violent thoughts, they need to know what they are saying in their lyrics before they stir up thoughts.

JR: What do you think about how Familiar Faces is right now?

DP: Laid back. We?re not the violent type. We're like the cool crew, like the pretty boys. We're not R. Kelly, you know were not that that type of vibe. Just party, have a good time.

JR: How do you see the future of Familiar Faces down the road as doing?

DP: I see the band doing a longevity type road, staying their own identity. It's not like the style will ever die out. I don't know how long each member will stay in the band, but the band should be around for a pretty long time.

JR: Is there anything more you wanted to say or ask me?

DP: How'd you get tied up in?

JR: When I was in college one of my fraternity brothers was a big Funk fan and he was white like me and he took another one of my fraternity brothers who was my closest friend to an Earth Wind, & Fire concert. And so he started listening to it and I started listening to Funk. I was into Funk more than he was. So I read about GoGo and I really honestly have only heard like one PA tape (Note: I am referring to SOULO 2001-06/10 St. Ames Church PA GoGo Slide) that I didn't like. I like music that cranks a lot. Well GoGo does more than any other music that I know of.

DP: So you like to keep moving?

JR: Yeah.

DP: Cool. What do your friends think about GoGo?

JR: Most of my friends think I'm weird and... I have a Cousin who I hadn't talked to in years because she lives far away and I emailed her my website and she?s like, "I didn?t know I had a Black Cousin."

DP: (Laughs).

JR: I was like, okay.

DP: It's cool and do you ever let her hear any GoGo tunes?

JR: Yeah, and when I've told people that this is what I want to do my work on for my thesis people have asked me and I've played some for them.

DP: Who else have you interviewed other than this band, Familiar Faces?

JR: This is it 'cause like I figure aside from the band members, I plan to interview people who are regulars. It's more a matter of logistical difficulty of going up to different people and having time to actually interview them. I am also planning to even though Boolah's not performing with you guys, interview him and Duane Face who sat in while Doc was away.

DP: Right.

JR: I guess I am open to as many people who know about GoGo as possible.

DP: I think it's real cool that you decided to do us.

JR: Well you know I went to the Chuck Brown concert, the one that's out on DVD. That was the best concert I've ever been to and 911 stood out as the best.

DP: They left their energy with you.

JR: Yeah.

DP: That's what it's all about, that's the energy, that's what I was talking about. Once you ___ them out, you can't go anywhere, it's there. It's what you always expect when you come out to see that one band. That same energy that they left with you, maybe like 2001 it's still with you now. I know they didn't sound like this. They're not the band that you're doing your thesis now, you know. I know it's not the same band, but...

JR: I know that like Rah and 32 aren't members. (Rah is supposed to be) The new lead talker for Raw Image (a rumor, but it never happened.)

DP: I heard that also. The guy that played last night (Smoke), all three of us were in Northeast Groovers together with Rah and 32. Also the female that sang last night, Michelle (Blackwell), she played too.

JR: Oh, really?

DP: It was like a Northeast Groovers reunion for me, to be onstage with them two.

JR: You know Duane (Face) said that Groovers is his favorite band.

DP: Yeah, he keeps telling me. That?s a lot of energy right there... by the first song, by the time the first song was over... but I enjoy Familiar Faces just as much. I've got nothing to complain about. I am ___ relaxed guys, Pooh don't need no publicity? (This sentence is really hard to make out, I am not certain of the words).

JR: (Laughs).

DP: I mean all our publicity.

JR: (Laughs). You were twelve last night... (According to Donnell's teasing of Pooh)

DP: My age doesn?t matter... it could be twelve, fifteen, thirteen, the oldest I?ve been is sixteen. It's all cool. So when does your thesis come out?

JR: I have another semester of classes, and then after that I take comprehensive exams, and then I defend my proposal and then I actually work on the thesis. The sooner the better, it may be that there is more stuff that I need to ask and I?ll come back up after I take my exams. I would say attending performances is fun too.

DP: Right. It's cool man. How do you like, enjoy coming out every night? It's almost like you're a band member, you're at all the shows. You're just not physically playing.

JR: I'd love it if I could do it all the time, but waking up on time to go to classes or stuff like that... I am hoping to continue actually working on this after I graduate because I am going to go for a doctorate (Note: I do plan to continue working on this, but I am not going to be pursuing a doctorate.) after this. I am hoping to go to a school in the area, I was looking at GW but their... the head of that... he said that the scores they are looking for are REALLY high.

DP: Oh, okay. Not so good. Extremely high scores. Then again, you know somebody...

JR: Actually, I was born at their hospital, GW...

DP: I was born at GW also. The old one (hospital) before it moved. You know I had to tell Donnell the he can't say I was born last week or something, you know he got a lot of jokes.

JR: Yeah, I don't know if you remember he was talking about when we where here a couple of weeks ago.

DP: About your blog?

JR: Well no, he was talking about his family was reading what I posted and talking about dating Michelle, and they were like, "You can get into trouble for what you?re saying" and he said, "It's just jokes, it's not serious."

DP: Right, he got a lot of jokes, a whole lot of jokes. He's a confident dude, a real good dude. I'm glad I met him. The band got a lot of, a lot of laid back dudes.

JR: You know I feel like in a lot of ways that I'm lucky because I got to work with a bunch of people who are so willing to work with me and to...

DP: There's a lot that won't, they won't give you the time of day...

JR: Yeah, actually I don't know if you read about, there was an article about this rapper named Blyss

DP: Blyss?

JR: in the Washington Post like last month and he's a DC rapper and he's trying to make it big. And so the guy who's writing this article went with him to a show and he was taking notes and they kicked, threw him out of the show.

DP: Because he was writing notes?

JR: Yes. When I went to the cook out, I went to the front and I took pictures of the front of the Mad Chef...

DP: M-hmm.

JR: Just 'cause I was going to put them on my website and they came out, they're like, "Are you a reporter? Can I have your business card?" I was like, "No, I?m just here to work on a thesis..." (I can't hear the rest of the sentence.) That's the same type of thing I think they were worried about that was a week after, a week later was when Ant (lead talker of Elevation Band) died and then actually right before the cook out there was another guy who apparently was a regular (poster) on PA Palace named Kenny who had been killed. After leaving the Mad Chef; he was killed in a drive by afterwards. Apparently it was something that started there.

DP: Oh okay, Wow! Rough.

JR: Alright.

DP: Thanks for the interview.

One of the things he talked about was that he used to be a member of Northeast Groovers; he said that with Smoke and Michelle Blackwell at Wednesday's performance, that it was like a reunion and gave him lots of energy when playing. Doc agreed - he said that all they needed was Rah and it would be like being the Northeast Groovers. We also discussed the ongoing rumor that Rah will be the new lead talker for Raw Image. Doc said that they (Raw Image) are just noise to him, that they have no identity. He said it was better in the 80s when every band had their own identity. I also asked Pooh about what he thought of the name change from 911 to Familiar Faces - he said, "It was new; the members come from all over." Pooh also said that he was comfortable with the interview because he was a communications major. I asked him if he graduated yet, given that he had played three seasons of minor league baseball and he said not yet, that he would be graduating soon.

Familiar Faces
The line up was: Mike, Donnell, Doc, Dwayne (arrived during the second song), BJ and Pooh. Donnell started off the first set by saying "Every Thursday Familiar Faces is here, and Jordan. He must like the food (I was eating at the time). I think he uses the same plate every time." The food is good - I have tried their crab cake and steak and cheese sandwiches. The first set was good.

During the break, Donnell asked me what was up - I told him about interviewing Pooh and he laughed. I talked with Mike, asking why he was called Black Elvis, which I heard here. Donnell said, "He doesn't want people to know he's Black Elvis because Black Elvis said some bad things about 911." Mike said, "I am not Black Elvis, but I know the guy." I asked him about the other nickname mentioned, "Dickie". He said, "That is my real nickname." Donnell told a story about how he called Mike and Mike's sister answered and asked him if he wanted to speak with Dickie. Donnell said that he had to think for a minute that Dickie was Mike.

Mike said that a British Sex Reality TV show wanted to follow him around based on his website, Rearview2.com, which is dedicated to the female buttocks. I told him about the FHM model known for her "perfect" butt - Vida Guerra. He told me about another model (not appropriate to post here). Donnell was familiar with Vida, said that he didn't like her, "She has a face like a cheerleader." I said, "She's not known for her face." I also said that she dated Jeremy Shockey.

Donnell told a story of how Donnell had asked BJ (who ate pasta as Donnell told this story) how the food was and BJ replied "Alright." Donnell responded by saying, "Hey BJ, this is Greg, the owner (who stood right next to him at the time)." BJ denied the story was true (and the food is certainly much better than alright).

Mike said BJ should sing, DeeDee said, "You could save Donnell the embarrassment." Mike responded by singing Stand by Your Man. Donnell said, "People have told me they like my singing."

A couple of girls came up during the break and one asked where the band was, Donnell said, "They're on break." She asked if she could go up to the mic and sing, and Donnell said "Go ahead." During the second set, a group of girls including those came up and danced for a while. Someone was filming, but he was more concerned with customers than the band, it was probably for some type of advertisement. Also during the second set, Boolah showed up, said hello to BJ and sat down by him. When Mike saw him, he said, "What are you, a genie? Did you just pop up from thin air?"
Boolah (sitting in audience), BJ, Pooh, Mike, Doc, Donnell, Dwayne
Later, Donnell joked that "Boolah was stalking them." They appeared to be done, and a guy in the audience with a woman asked them to "Play another song, at least a half-song." They performed an entire slow ballad for them to slow dance to. Then they performed their typical closing song, Prince's Purple Rain. I decided to shoot some videos from this. I was only looking through the viewfinder. Doc walked off the stage with Boolah following. After they walked out, Mike joked about "A band member walking out who needed a breast reduction" (he referred to Boolah, not Doc). DeeDee laughed about it. When I looked up after capturing the movie (it only captures three minutes at a time), during which Donnell said, "Jordan's going to go to Rearview2 and never come back to any of our shows," I noticed that BJ and Pooh had switched instruments! I decided to keep shooting - Donnell said, "Take the picture Jordan, I don't know how much more of this I can take!" Donnell encouraged them to "get all their fantasies out."
Pooh, BJ, Mike, Dwayne (behind Mike), Donnell
All pictures taken by and Copyright - Jordan Rich (Note: Pictures artificially brightened by flash, it was darker than it appears.)
He joked about their gospel style and started to sing a gospel song. When Doc walked back in, Donnell said, "A lot has happened since you left." Donnell said that "BJ even has the drummer's look down."

After the performance, Donnell and Mike talked about Mike's girl "Miss Brown" and her friends at Takoma Station on Wednesday. Mike talked about when he was at Howard (University), he met the girl of his dreams, but she dumped him after he didn't make it on to Star Search. Pooh and Donnell kept joning on how he didn't make it, with Donnell doing fake hysterics - "I didn't make it on Star Search!" Donnell said this was another of Mike's "Fish that got away stories." Mike even knew who won on Star Search, Bo Williams. Bo was the only one to beat some competitor named Stan, who wore white shoes. This got Mike to talk about that scene from National Lampoon's Vacation where Randy Quaid's character gave Chevy Chase a pair of white stacks and thought he was really giving him something nice. Donnell said he had never seen that movie, Mike even saw it in the theatre. Donnell said he understood, apparently Mike went with a couple of his friends and saw the movie after smoking weed. Mike talked about he did perform at the Apollo, but not on TV. This further lead to a discussion on how New York hates DC. Donnell and BJ talked about a show at the Ritz in New York City where Rare Essence toured with Shabba Ranks - the audience threw quarters. Mike said that when he was at the Apollo, they told him to say he was from "Forest Heights, MD not DC" because the audience hates DC. BJ, Donnell, and Mike said that that's because "DC is not on New York's jock, that Baltimore, the West Coast, everywhere else follows New York."

Donnell was curious about the terrible parking in the area, what would happen if there was a huge turnout? Donnell also talked about instead of everyone hanging around waiting to be paid, that they will be paid once a week, maybe starting as early as August 1st. That's unfortunate for me, as them hanging out having these discussions is great for me.

Unfortunately, apparently there was a miscommunication between Donnell and I as I was to meet up with Donnell later to observe him going over the mix of the live recording, but when I got to Night Flight Studio, there was no one there. They had finished before we left, and Donnell and I had not conferred.

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

I arrived early so that I could talk with the band members, as Donnell said it was okay to conduct my group interview of them at rehearsal on July 27th, but that I should confer with each of the band members. I told BJ about the conversations online about why he doesn't sing in performances.

Nephew asked me, "Why did you have to tell everyone (via this blog) that I was sleeping? I was very tired from running." I asked Nephew how the studio sessions on Monday went. He said that they went okay, but that Mike and Adia still need to come back in again to finish it - Mike is more experienced, he's been recording for twenty years and Adia has only for two. Nephew said he didn't know if the mix of last week's live recording was done.

Adia said she was tired, she went up to the stage and later passed by, noticeably walking funny, she looked at me and said, "I was in the gym today" (as if I would think otherwise? or even if it was my business?).

Familiar Faces
They started a little late. Before they did, a young guitarist played with Dwayne's guitar a little. The line up for the first set was: Mike, Adia, Donnell, DP, Dwayne, Doc, Godfather, BJ (on a Yamaha SY-85 keyboard, see here for details), Pooh, Bojack, and Charlie. For the second song, they had a guest rapper named "CBR"? from Memphis by way of Atlanta. At the end of the third song, it was cut off and Donnell said, "that was BJ (meaning the ending of the song), I would have let them sing forever." BJ got up and said, "Bullsh*t!" For the third song, Pooh, Bojack and Charlie had a furious jam. Mike said, "I don't what that was, but I like it..." (Me too). At the end of the first set, Donnell said, "I know my baby Michelle Blackwell didn't come in and disrespect me by not saying hello to me." Of course she did after that.

At the break, I told Adia, "your boyfriend's not here." She said, "who's my boyfriend." I said, "The Lieutenant." She said, "I'm glad, but don't mention his name because you know he'll show up if you do." Sure enough, ten minutes later, he walked in. Later I walked over to her and she said, "I told you!"

I talked with Donnell and asked him if the live mix was done, he said, "No, it will be done tomorrow."

Pooh was the only one who said he won't be at the rehearsal, but said I could interview him before tomorrow's show.

As good as the first set was, the second set, as usual, was better. Donnell did announcements and he turned around and told Godfather, "I don't need music playing while I talk." He said, "He comes from the church, having music behind the preacher." Some of the women sure danced hard - one girl danced in a crouch with her butt just off the ground, then with her knees fully bent and her back on the ground. Donnell was concerned and helped her up. Smoke of Nu Styles Band (formerly of Northeast Groovers) sat in a for a while on congas. A guy named "Whitie" guest rapped for a song and later Michelle Blackwell sang Happy Birthday. Boolah came in and talked with Donnell (later Donnell said (when Mike asked him) that this was Boolah's exit interview) and sat in the audience - I talked with him about interviewing him before he left. For their last song they started to perform an old Rare Essence song - I didn't catch which one, but they cut it off. People in the audience kept urging them to resume. Donnell said of Pooh, "He's too young to remember that song. He's only fifteen, he was in pampers when that came out, he's only twelve." At the end, Donnell said, "You have to leave, we're responsible, release the dogs, lock the doors." I went over and said hello to Smoke. This was a very crankin' performance, especially with the full percussion playing.

Sunday at the studio
Night Flight Studio, Fort Washington, MD

Familiar Faces
I sat in with Familiar Faces at the studio to work on their upcoming album and possible PA as well. I first arrived at the originally scheduled time of noon. Night Flight is in the back of a house in a residential neighborhood - its owner is Kevin, formerly of the GoGo band Prophecy in his mother's home. I played pool with one of the employees, then waiting for a return call from Scotty Beats (the engineer FF was to work with); who told the manager Jeff that it was re-scheduled for 8 PM as D-Floyd had to work. I left and came back a little before 8 PM (I did see at home that FF had emailed me about the re-scheduling, but I had already left by that time).

I could see FF's equipment minivan already parked there. I walked around back and Bojack, Thomas, and Googie sat there with Bojack's congas and Bongos set up in their stands. Bojack asked me about where in Bethesda I am from and what other GoGo bands are my favorites. I told him Trouble Funk and that I had seen them last weekend. Thomas had three cell phones and a two-way radio. Bojack talked about how his Mercedes was in the shop. They discussed how the second percussionist at Reggie's, Charlie, is a protege of Bojack's. Bojack held a cowbell, insisting that he could play a beat with just the cowbell (and drum stick), but Googie said without another beat to match it with that it was "Just noise". Scotty came back and told us the current session was running long, the FF session wouldn't start until 9 PM.

Googie had somewhere to go, all three of them got up and walked out: Bojack didn't leave, but the other two did. At one point I went back to my car to get cough drops (I had literally coughed myself to sleep after getting home from Reggie's) and Bojack talked with Jauhar out front.

Donnell showed up later and talked with Scotty about (producer) Rich Harrison's hit songs with major label artists that feature GoGo beats. Rich Harrison is from DC and is Scotty's cousin, Scotty engineers for him. At one point, Scotty asked Donnell if he thought Rich might have heard a specific GoGo song as inspiration for the GoGo-featured song Take Your Hand on Usher's album "Confessions". Donnell responded, "Did Jay-Z hear Overnight Scenario?" (This is a reference to Jay-Z's sampling of the song for the song Do It Again (Put Your Hands Up) from the album Life and Times of S. Carter, see here for more details). Later, Donnell referred to this as how they get big and keep us (GoGo bands) in the "poorhouse".

We finally got in at around 9 PM. I used my Dad's DV video camera, but the battery, which was supposed to last three hours, died in a little over four minutes and he didn't leave me an A/C converter, so I used the other digital camera I have been using for the rest of the session - I took a few stills and a number of movies. We were in the Platinum Room (there is also a Green Room at Night Flight). There is a mixing board along with a MacIntosh computer system. The software used is Pro Tools HD - Scotty said that the HD version allows you to create a warm sound.

Scotty, Donnell, Bojack, Jauhar and myself were in the studio. In a discussion with Jauhar, Donnell had said he was surprised after reading an interview of Marc Cary, about just how smart he was.

Today's sessions focused on mixing/editing the live recording from Wednesday. FF's album, which Donnell said with work on the packaging and all should drop in the top of September, has been worked on for two years. Mike and Adia will overdub their vocals on the studio tracks on Monday to reflect the changes in personnel since the tracks were originally laid down. In addition three tracks from the live recording will be included on the album, and Donnell is considering including the entire live performance (Scotty was present and working the sound at the performance) as a bonus with the album.

Bojack was not present at the recorded performance, so he was here play the congas and bongos for overdubbing onto the the live mix. Apparently Dwayne had a bad cord, since his feed went in and out on the recording. It turns out that BJ played the grand piano on Wednesday because his keyboard did not work. Scotty and Donnell had a conversation about it. BJ said the Ensoniq ASR-10 (which belongs to Familiar Faces, not BJ) worked properly at home, but did not function at Tuesday's rehearsal. Donnell told him to bring the Yamaha keyboard which works, but he ended up bringing the Ensoniq on Wednesday, and it did not work. Scotty said that they don't make or even REPAIR that model anymore; he suggested that BJ come by and copy his sounds on to Scotty's ASR-10, which he can then transfer to a sampler to preserve them in case the ASR-10 ceases functioning altogether. BJ also played the mini-moog on Wednesday, but for some reason it was not recorded. Also, Donnell's tenor Sax had squeaked during Wednesday's performance- he talked about how he was so angry, he wanted to break it in half. So Scotty edited to remove some of that as well.

Jauhar left and later Nephew and Mike came in. Mike only stayed for a little while - I guess he was there in case he would be recorded in that session, but it did not happen.

When Nephew came in, he wanted Donnell to settle an argument he had had earlier in the day with some girl over whether Patti Labelle is a better singer than Chaka Khan. Donnell said that he had this discussion with the late Ms. Mack (Rare Essence's manager) years ago. She had said that you can't really compare Patti, Chaka, and Aretha Franklin. They come from different musical backgrounds (Gospel, Jazz and R&B) and are so good at what they do respectively that you can't really rank them. Donnell said that Whitney Houston and Beyonce (Knowles). Nephew said that prior to Beyonce's solo album (Dangerously in Love); he didn't know she could sing. Donnell said people just see her as hot and don't realize she has real talent. They turned to Scotty to settle it. He said that Beyonce really is talented in that vein, although she has to "create power", but that she is very talented. However, he said someone who will blow up is Fantasia (Barrino) from American Idol. He said that he's never seen American Idol, but that he heard her on in his hotel room in New York and that her singing so affected him that he cried. Donnell also talked about Lalah Hathaway, the singer and daughter of DC native singer Donny Hathaway. Scotty talked about how Donny met Roberta Flack at Howard University. Donny was an undergraduate and Roberta a grad student. Donny would play the piano and sing outside and that caught Roberta's attention. Shortly after this conversation, Nephew went to sleep and slept until the end of the session.

Donnell told Scotty that Adia "Would be a star for this market, she has the personality, she just needs to work on her intonation."

Googie came in later and assisted on the mixing - Donnell said, "Googie help Scotty, he doesn't know anything about GoGo." As soon as Bojack finished, he left. While working on this, a number of musical discussions went on. Bojack thought Saturday's performance at Reggie's was terrible. Donnell said that "Bojack just hears what's going on around the congos, he doesn't hear what the audience hears in total." I told him I thought it was really crankin', but that I still thought that Club Levels was their best performance this summer. Donnell said that he hated it. He also told me that while it appeared that Go-Go Mickey just happened to be there (which is what I thought), it was pre-arranged, that "He was paid to be there and you can print that." (It makes me wonder how many other of the sit-in performances by other artists are pre-arranged vs. happenstance). He said that it was like "Michael Jordan with a bunch of senior citizens. Go-Go Mickey is so talented and dominating, he is a like an octopus, with his hands a thousand places at once."

I talked about how Rare Essence is releasing a live album with DVD on August 3rd. He was well aware of it and said that "It was a mistake." I asked him why and he said that "Rare Essence is a group known for its innovation and original songs, and that for them at their high level to do covers unless they do it at the highest level (in terms of quality music) will lower them in terms of prestige in the eyes of GoGo fans." He went on to say that "L!ssen does the best covers." He did say that he heard the RE album and DVD was good. I mentioned how I heard L!ssen was reverting back to more GoGo, Googie asked Donnell about that because he hadn't heard about it. Donnell said that "L!ssen had been doing 70% covers and 30% GoGo and now there reversing the ratio." He said, "That was a mistake too."

I asked why Familiar Faces had only put out one PA release this year (and only six total the previous three years); Donnell said, "That with the care that Backyard and Rare Essence have taken with their PA releases, it has really raised the bar on quality. This makes substandard releases highly noticeable. Old PA's have had fights and other things that aren't being included now."

Donnell and Scotty also talked about other studios in the area, Cue, Central Recording Studio (Bladensburg, MD) and Sheffield. Cue offered to buy any equipment/software required by Scotty as an incentive to try to keep his cousin, producer Rich Harrison, as a client. He asked for Pro Tools HD, and they declined (I can't print why here). Donnell talked about how Rare Essence had used the studio before with another engineer known as "Face".

They discussed of how studio speakers "lie" - that the recordings sound differently in regular speakers. Donnell talked about how they recorded eighteen different mixes of Lock It - they would go to the one band member's Saab in order to listen to it, but later it would sound differently. It turns out the band member had tuned his car stereo so that it would sound like the studio's stereo, thus defeating the purpose.

They only got through the mixing the Jazz set of the recording, so we all left at a little before 3 AM. Scotty arranged a time with Googie for Monday to resume working on the mixing and Mike & Adia's overdubs.

Saturday at Reggie's
Reggie's Sports Kafe, 4881 Glen Dale Rd, Bowie, MD 20720

Reggie's is fairly close to Safari Steakhouse. I arrived a little after 10 PM. The support staff was setting up - they had to move the two stacks of three speakers as the bottoms of the hanging lamps were below the tops of the stacks. There was a really thick audio cord.

Elevation Band
Elevation Band's members showed up at about 11:15 PM. One of the vocalists, Chi Ali, came over and introduced himself to me. Their female vocalist was in a really bad mood sitting at the table by me (since their lead talker had only recently been murdered, I can understand that). She basically had to be persuaded to come on stage. One of Reggie's bartenders made them move the audio cord so that people would not trip over it before allowing Elevation to start performing. While they warmed up, there was a lot of distortion. While the distortion was gone when they started playing, the one audio guy worked on the audio (and standing in the middle of the band) during their entire set. Their line up featured four vocalists (one female), a guitarist (who played behind the right speaker with his back to the audience), two keyboard players (each with two keyboards), a drummer (who was shirtless) and a percussionist. Most of the members of Familiar Faces arrived during their set; Chi Ali did a shout to D-Floyd as soon as he saw him walk in. Adia walked up and handed her tambourine to Chi Ali. Ali appeared to have his eyes completely shut at times when he spoke. They were pretty crankin'. All of the band members appeared to be in their 20s. I did miss a little of their set when I went over to the buffet, which was almost completely gone anyway.

Familiar Faces
A lot of FF's regulars were there: DeeDee, Michelle, another one of the party goers from Thursday (whose name I don't know). Ron "Moe" Moten, the organizer of the cook out on the 27th, was there as well. Nephew said he was glad I had posted (Michael) Jordan's field goal percentage and that it was over 50% before he played for the Wizards. FF's line up was: Mike, Adia, Donnell, DP, Dwayne, Doc, Godfather, BJ, Pooh, Bojack, and Charlie. Bojack added bongos, congas and roto-toms to the equipment Elevation used and Pooh had some of his own snare drums and all his own cymbals. I recognized Charlie immediately as the second percussionist from the cookout, and went over to talk to him (that's how I know his name). The crowd really gathered for them - and they gave a really crankin' performance (Bojack and Charlie played in both sets) - up to their maximum crankin' level (although Club Levels is still their best performance I've been to this Summer). During the first set, Doc came up and sang lead vocals on one song. In the second set, a male guest danced behind the front line for a time. They performed in darkness until around 2:45 AM when all of the lights came on. They did a false ending, and then performed the rest of their closing tune, Terror Squad's Lean Back.

A friend of Donnell's named Tom-Tom asked for a copy of the tape of tonight's performance. Donnell said that Googie hadn't taped it, that Googie isn't the same Googie anymore, he used to drive the truck, carry the equipment, uncoil the wires, work the sound equipment and tape performances all at the same time. Tom-Tom said that Googie said he had a minidisc recording of the performance, to which Donnell said, "He's lying." Donnell suggested maybe Go-Go Nate or Go-Go Orlando (the pride of Charles County) could tape next time.

Another fan's description.

Thursday at Xcalibur
Xcalibur Restaurant & Lounge, 2519 Pennsylvania Av NW, Washington, DC 20500

When I arrived, Doc was the only member of Familiar Faces there; he worked on setting up the audio connections. The prerecorded music was Familiar Faces, but I didn't recognize it. Donnell asked Pooh if he needed a rug for his drum (there is always a tan rug inside the biggest drum in his kit).

Familiar Faces
There was a fairly sizable crowd for this performance, most of whom were here for a birthday party, including DeeDee. Allison was there as well. Familiar Faces started performing late, but largely it was because the party organizers didn't want them to start performing until the guest of honor arrived. They did some light improvising while waiting. The line up was: Mike, Donnell, Dwayne, Doc, BJ, and Pooh. The guest of honor was Ms. Holmes, Michelle's mother. Michelle probably organized it. I hadn't recognized her when she came in because she changed her hairdo. They called her up (front & center) for her favorite song. That started people dancing - she even tried to get me up. Clearly Donnell knew many of the party goers from the Holmes-Jackson families. Despite being without congas, BJ and Pooh provided a strong backbeat for this performance.

At the break, Greg the owner came and talked with me briefly, but he was distracted because he was concentrating on which speakers were playing the DJ music. I asked Donnell about the FF music that played when I walked in, he told me that it was a compilation they put out - a FF release I thought I didn't have. One of the guests asked Mike if he would sing any Frankie Beverly. Mike said that "Donnell doesn't like Frankie Beverly". Donnell said, "No, I like Frankie Beverly", to which Mike said, "You're just saying that." In the second Set, Donnell made fun of Keta (spelling?), saying that she really loved apple martinis. The party started dancing again - this time Michelle pulled me on to the dance floor much to the band's encouragement. Shortly later, Mike called her up to the mic - to sing the female part. Michelle at first just danced behind the mic, but also sang with the choruses before improving 50 Cent's In Da Club. The dancers formed two parallel lines with one solo dance in middle (switching off at times). Donnell said that he could tell that the Apple Martinis had hit Keta. Donnell also razzed Mookie, Shawnelle, and Andrea. Some of the women had a lot of flexibility - they would go into a crouch with their butt barely off the ground, then come right back up again. Later on, Donnell said that Keeta was crazy, even crazier than Michelle, who he thought was the craziest girl in DC. Mike did describe Michelle's dancing as "Like a tall (22 ounce), cool glass of water" (Michelle is tall). Mike compared one of the dancers to Luther, the dancer on Solid Gold who didn't dance, he only pointed. He also said that BJ looks like the original Lionel on the Jeffersons (actor Mike Evans who temporarily left to work on "Good Times") - I don't see any resemblance at all. At one point Mike imitated what he called the funniest scene in any movie ever, the "Sexual Chocolate" band scene from Coming to America. They did their usual closing song, Prince's Purple Rain. Then Mike said that "They had an unofficial contest - who is the most conservative - DeeDee wins, she didn't sing, dance or even sweat." Then they started performing again and briefly DeeDee danced with Mike, but when he tried to get her to sing, she ran away.

When they done, they broke down the equipment and waited to be paid, like last week. They cut the birthday cake (rather large, over three feet long by around 15" wide) and offered it around at this point.

Much of the conversation after that was on the merits of Kobe Bryant (who just that day had decided to re-sign with the Lakers) vs. Tracy McGrady and Michael Jordan. Donnell is a Kobe fan and Nephew argued with him, saying that Kobe will never win anything now and that now that Tracy McGrady is in the West, he will burn Kobe four times a year. Donnell kept repeating what other (than McGrady)superstar lost 19 games in row like the Orlando Magic did and he had even talked about quitting. Donnell also talked about how Kobe played great defense and McGrady played none. He also said that McGrady was like Dominique Wilkins, he scored a lot because he took a great amount of shots. While Donnell acknowledged that Kobe is a ball hog, he said so was Michael Jordan (whom he and I hate). Nephew said that that was because they ran the offense through him. Donnell countered that he took a tremendous amount of shots and Nephew said that MJ shot 50% for his career. Donnell wanted to bet on it, but Nephew backed down (It is close - 49.7%, compared to Kobe's 45.4%). Donnell went on about how Jordan had the ball taken away from him in the 1995 Eastern Conference finals, "raped, molested" in his words for the winning score and that Jordan didn't even chase after him. He told Pooh he was too young to remember (Pooh is 24). Nephew pointed out that Jordan only played 17 regular season games and the playoffs, Anderson said he did that to 45 (the post-retirement jersey number Jordan wore), he never would have done that to 23. Donnell also talked about the steal that was made into a commercial, when Iverson as a rookie took the ball and Jordan landed on the floor. Donnell then went on to defend the Shaq trade - Shaq was traded on Wednesday to the Miami Heat for Lamar Odom (a small forward), Caron Butler (a wing), Brian Grant (a power forward) and a first-round draft pick. Slava Medvedenko is the only center currently on the Lakers' roster. He and Grant would be mincemeat against the other teams in the Western Conference. Donnell talked about how the Bulls never had a real center (but did not play in the Western Conference, either). He also talked about how Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was not that great in the end of his career (he got the Lakers to the finals his last season and they would have been competitive if both Byron Scott and Magic Johnson hadn't been injured) and earlier. He pointed out that Kareem was out of Game 6 of the 1980 Finals and Magic Johnson scored 42 points for the win. I pointed out how Kareem would have been the Finals MVP but they didn't want to award it to a player who wasn't physically present at the final game (to present the trophy to). He tried to draw Doc, (like me) a longtime Laker fan, but Doc said, "All these guys have made millions of dollars, they aren't giving any of it to me, I don't care." Nephew said that "Shaq is 7'1" 360 pounds, who can contend with that?" Donnell said that Greg Ostertag is 7'1" 360. I said Ostertag couldn't even handle Eric Montross (in the 1993 NCAA final). Donnell said, "okay, Shaq is more athletic." Donnell also said that Shaq couldn't defend Tim Duncan, but Nephew and I pointed out that Duncan plays power forward, not center. DeeDee laughed through much of this discussion and at one point said something that fortunately I did not hear, since Mike said, "Watch out, everyone will be reading that tomorrow." She replied with "Yeah, I'll probably have to fight Charles' girlfriend" (a reference to comments by her at an earlier performance).

They then talked about their next gig at Reggie's on Saturday. Pooh asked if they were playing with Dynasty Band. Donnell said no, Elevation. I confirmed that I had already seen the flyer on PA Palace's board. The flyer is below. Pooh said that they really have to be on their game with Elevation.

I asked Nephew whose nephew he is, and he pointed to Donnell. He said, "It is good to have a boss who won't ask you to do anything he won't do." Donnell replied, "There is a method to my madness."

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

I read Nephew's posting that this performance was going to be recorded for a live album. With that in mind, I not only took pictures, but short movies (in the second set) as well. I figured this would be a unique opportunity this summer. Unfortunately, doing this not only caused me not to be able to pay full attention to the music, but also made my thumbs and shoulders sore.


Godfather, Dwayne, BJ


Doc, Pooh, D-Floyd, DP, Godfather (behind DP), Dwayne


Packy, Adia, Doc, Mike, Pooh, D-Floyd, DP, Godfather
All pictures taken by and Copyright - Jordan Rich (Note: Pictures artificially brightened by flash, it was darker than it appears.)

When I arrived, I talked with Donnell about the upcoming studio sessions. The Lieutenant was there and said hello. Doc and I discussed the Trouble Funk performance I attended on Saturday; he wondered why they don't play now and then in DC. I talked with Doc for a while about musical direction of a number of GoGo groups including Familiar Faces. He talked about how L!ssen is reverting back to (regular?) GoGo from their Neo-Soul R&B stance. Doc said he couldn't understand why they felt the need to change from what is working. He said he wasn't aware of any original songs they had, I told him about Sunshine, which came out together with a DVD (which is a documentary of L!ssen). I also told him about how Rare Essence has a live DVD & CD coming out on August 3. I told him how I will pick it up so that I can compare it to Familiar Faces. He said they have a totally different sound, that with D-Floyd, people are used to him "Trying to bring down the house in DC", whereas Familiar Faces has more of a laid back Jazzy feel to it. He said he wasn't sure how to label/categorize FF. I suggested Neo-Soul Jazz (covers) and Rare Essence songs. He reiterated to me that he isn't sure where Familiar Faces is going. We talked about FF's upcoming album, which is part studio and part live (tonight's performance). Doc said it will be interesting how the studio album comes out. It will have original material, some of the tracks have been in the can with different (previous) personnel from 911 - he said the older material is too valuable not to use.

The performance started a little late because they had to be more conscientious about making sure all of the mics and the sound were what they should be. Papers were on the floor next to the drum kit that I assume were recording contracts for the album. This performance had BJ on grand piano - the first use of the piano I've seen this summer by them. It turns out that this was because his Ensoniq ASR-10 was not working; see here for more details on this and other aspects of this performance. Other than the set-up, I was impressed by that the fact that they were recording did not make them act differently than other live performances.

Familiar Faces
The line up tonight for the first set was: Mike, Adia, D-Floyd, DP, Dwayne, Doc, Pooh, Godfather, and BJ on Mini-Moog and Piano. A guy named D-Bone came over and told me he is working with FF, promoting them and that he would be interested in my pictures. In the second set, Packy played percussion together with a guest percussionist, Demetrius Owens. Allison, the girl from the last Safari Steakhouse performance danced front and center. It was a good performance, but unfortunately I was distracted by the taking movies. They closed as usual with Prince's Purple Rain. The only joning by Donnell was when he asked two girls if they worked with "Luther's janitorial service."

After the performance, I talked to Demetrius (that's how I got his name). He told me that Ricky Wellman was his uncle and asked me if I knew who he was. I said of course, he was the drummer for Chuck Brown and Miles Davis (and is currently with Whop-N-Em). He said that Ricky performs (with Whop-N-Em) at Takoma Station on Tuesdays, that I should check him out. I then introduced myself to Marvyn "Blak" Johnson of One Fam Entertainment - he said he knew who I was from taking pictures and that he liked how I wrote about everything that happened in my blog write-ups.

See here for some of Mike's nicknames.

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.

Friday at Crystal City Hyatt
Hyatt Regency Crystal City, 2799 Jefferson Davis Hwy, Arlington, VA 22202

I left home at around 8 PM. I unfortunately was only able to find a parking space nine blocks away. I walked in, asked where the Allen Iverson event was, and went down the escalators. I talked with Cookie and one of the other Positive Black Men Coalition staffers. I noticed there was a group of ladies dressed like cheerleaders in matching white shirts and skirts and white sneakers. At the weapons check, they made me hand over my pen and told me I couldn't take my camera in. I walked back to my car to put it away.

As I walked out, I saw a guy who is one of Iverson's handlers, he said, "I hope they don't wait too long for him (Iverson), he won't show up until 1:30 (AM)". I assured him I was here for the band.

When I returned to the Hyatt, BJ was at the escalator. I asked him when Familiar Faces was performing he said some time after 12:30 AM. I was relieved that I didn't miss anything. I went through the weapons check again, and a group of girls were there, wearing white shirts with various sexually explicit messages printed on them. They were a group (later on I saw that their shirts had messages on the back as well as the front).

It wasn't until 9:40 that I actually got in to the floor that the activities were at. When I got to the bottom floor, I asked where the events were occuring; a woman pointed out the VIP room and the performance area. Another guy asked me if I was from ESPN (I have no idea where that came from) and if I was chased (because I was sweating from walking 18 blocks). A (stenciled) image was projected against one wall showing the PMBC and the other co-sponsor, Nothing But Attitude.

I sat down at a table in the performance area (I saw Packy & Thomas setting up) and checked it out while soaking in the cool air conditioning. There were two areas for GoGo pictures and certain areas roped off specifically for the celebrities. Tables and chairs were on either side of the dance floor. DeeDee told me that food was supposed to be served soon in the VIP room.

I went over there and sat down by members of Familiar Faces. I spent a long time talking to BJ, Doc, Dwayne, and Packy. A girl from VH-1 and a producer talked with BJ, Doc and Dwayne. Dwayne talked about how he's been playing music all his life; he's never had a job outside of music. He said that he makes his real money as an audio engineer, that he plays more for fun than money. (I am not certain of the exact order of our conversations, but I will include what I remember). They talked about how Junkyard Band has the best stage presence, but Packy said, "They just need a new drummer." Doc talked about how Y2K is the most versatile GoGo band, they can play well in any genre. He recommended that I check them out live some time this summer.

Doc and Dwayne also talked about the lack of direction in Familiar Faces, that the members are individually talented but don't have great chemistry together as a band (Doc had talked about that the night before with me as well). They both also said that when they were hired (Doc in October), they were told this was 911, but "Familiar Faces is not 911". But probably personnel differences is not the only way that "Familiar Faces is not 911." Dwayne asked Doc, "What is our direction?" Doc said, "I'm just a hired hand, I follow the guy next to me." Doc said, "We are doing a lot of Rare Essence songs."

We also talked about Trouble Funk - Doc had talked with me about them on Thursday. He said he had ordered Trouble Funk's "Live and Early Singles" from 2.13.61 (Henry Rollin's label). Packy talked about Trouble Funk's percussionist who played a "super tom". Doc said that was Mack, that he was dead. Doc talked about how Trouble Funk didn't get enough respect as trend setters, he asked me to tell him how the audience treats them on Saturday. Packy also talked about how he remember twenty years ago when "(Let's) Get Small" came out, he was five years old at the time and when they played it, everyone got down and danced.

Doc and Dwayne talked about how (non-DC) rappers didn't want to perform with GoGo bands, because the GoGo bands would outperform them. They talked in particular about an '83 performance at the Capital Centre with Trouble Funk and Kurtis Blow. Doc said that that's why Kurtis Blow then recorded with Trouble Funk I'm Chillin': if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. They agreed that GoGo bands don't think that way. They discussed whether there could be a main producer for GoGo, not just someone to mix an album, but do song selection and more work. They agreed that if GoGo were to go mainstream, it would change and not be GoGo as we know it. Dwayne also talked about how they (GoGo bands) are Blacklisted, that Rappers from outside DC hate DC and make fun of people from DC.

The cheerleaders came in - I had seen people having their picture taken with them. Dwayne suggested they may be selling a calendar as well. They put the food out at 11 PM and we all went and ate.

Miss DC sat at the table next to ours; she wore a formal red dress and her sash.

We saw Little Benny hanging out with Godfather. Doc said, "I know he's (Benny) not going to sit down with us. He must be performing with Soundproof Band." Dwayne said, "I'll call (James) Funk". Both Dwayne and Doc agreed that James Funk has the most ability to work the crowd of anyone in DC - that's why Chuck Brown hired him. Doc said that Funk could say that it would just be him performing and he would get a crowd to come. Dwayne talked about how the first time he had seen Rare Essence perform was at the Capital Centre and that Rare Essence was the closing band and that they were late coming from Baltimore. He said that people were sleeping but as soon as Funk started performing, everyone woke up immediately and started partying. They said that 80% of DC rappers imitate the style of Funk, that there are three rappers that are followed: Funk, Chuck Brown and Little Benny. Doc said that Funk really knows music, all genres, that's why he get along with the other radio personalities at his station who are in their 60s (Funk has to be in his 50s). Dwayne said the negative side of Funk was that people would consider him "a tyrant". Both he and Doc agreed that that's how all great band leaders are perceived, they know how they want everything to be. Dwayne talked about how Funk would even scrub down the microphone cords. He also talked about how when he first started working with Funk that he had moved to GoGo from R&B, so he wasn't aware of his stature. Funk set up all the equipment, then went to another room to let the band practice while he listened through the vent. He said Funk came in and asked, "Who changed the settings on the amp." Dwayne said he did, and DP went over and said, "Don't you know who that is; you don't mess with James Funk." Doc said, "He's the last of the clan that started Rare Essence." (His brother "Footz", the drummer was shot and killed on September 17, 1994, and his mother, the band's manager Ms. Mack, died of natural causes).

The Lieutenant was there, mostly chasing after Adia. He was drinking (alcohol) and talked about how he "would take the shortest route across the state line (to DC) that could, rather than risk the Virginia police." Speaking of drinks, there was a gimmick of putting a glowing green fake ice cube in our drinks. They were actually plastic cubes with a light inside.

Doc talked about the pain in his playing hand. Somehow the topic of hair and vanity came up - Doc said that he would just let nature take its course when he started to lose his hair.

Doc & Dwayne agreed that back in the day, Sugar Bear was not just the best bassist in GoGo, but in the East Coast. BJ, Dwayne, and Pooh work together in a Gospel GoGo band called Heaven Sent. Dwayne talked about how MVP was told for certain shows by promoters that Little Benny was not allowed to perform with them after fellow artists complained (out of jealousy).

After Soundproof's first set, Doc & Dwayne weren't sure if they had a second set or FF was supposed to go on. Packy asked them, and they said, "You're supposed to tell us, that's your job!" Packy left and came back and said that Little Benny hadn't performed with Soundproof in the first set, but would probably sit in on the second set.

Doc talked about how Tony Brown's (drummer for EU) son Anthony "Chief Rocka" Brown was killed after a show. Doc said, "I never want to have that feeling, you're not supposed to bury your kids, they're supposed to bury you."

Dwayne and Doc and I then talked about music and video trading and PAs. Doc talked about a concert video he had, Wattstax. I told him that it is coming out on DVD in a few months (September). I also told about a DVD out on Stax that has a bio of the Bar-Kays, called Soul Comes Home (I haven't picked it up yet, but plan to). Doc was impressed with my Funk research, he asked me, "How old are you, 50?" Hanging out and especially talking with the band (essentially backstage) was the best part of this night. I didn't meet any celebrities, but this was far better.

Soundproof Band
After they set up a DJ table in the VIP room, I decided to go to the performance area and check out Soundproof Band's second set. Unfortunately, the acoustics were horrible: the musicians were way behind the vocalists in the mix. When I first walked in the room, I could barely hear the musicians; I had to walk into the dance area directly in the path of the speaker's output to hear them. People were definitely into it (including Nephew and Donnell), dancing to them, but I wasn't feeling it. As DJ Kool would say, "The music ain't loud enuff..." They had four vocalists (two men and two women) in addition to Little Benny. I have forgotten the exact line up. I'm not hating on Soundproof, I really don't have an opinion on them until I hear them in a venue with better sound. I only caught part of their second set anyway.

During the break, Familiar Faces set up. A girl named Ebony (not the one who frequents Takoma Station) came by and introduced herself as a friend of Donnell and told me she had been reading my blog. She also introduced me to a (female) friend of hers (whom I recognized as a regular at FF performances), who gave me an awkward smile (understandable since she had no idea who I was). DP came over to say hello, he said, "A big show, I hope we do well." This was a big show; the crowd was much larger than at Safari Steakhouse, which is their normal biggest audience.

Familiar Faces
Most of the members of FF wore black. They had a special set up - they did an opening skit with Adia and Mike sitting on a white bench with a black curtain behind them (the rest of the band and their instruments were hidden). There was also a smoke machine. In the skit Mike told Adia "He was still in love with her". She said, "You waited until the night before the wedding to tell me?" and walked off the stage. This was the lead-in to Mike singing solo a love song with the (hidden) band playing behind him. Then they wrapped up the curtains. The line up was: Adia, Mike, Donnell, DP, Dwayne, Doc, Pooh, Bojack, a second percussionist (not sure who), Godfather and BJ. While clearly still the sound from the congas was behind where I would like it, the sound in general was good and they cranked. They performed one long set. It was obvious that a number of people were in attendance to star-gaze, as when the celebrities left the performance area, a majority of the crowd left as well (presumably to the VIP room), although I did see some of the bodyguards dancing on the dance floor after that. The lights came on and they finished with Prince's Purple Rain, with Dwayne playing a great solo. That's what I had been missing from him - he doesn't solo nearly as much as Boolah.

When they finished performing at around 2:45 AM, sheriff's deputies escorted everyone not in the band out (not just out of the room, but to the floor above) including me. So, if there were any post-performance remarks, I was not there to hear them. Unlike at the Mad Chef, I was able to retrieve my pen (they're expensive). As I walked out, a guy asked me if I saw the players (the celebrity athletes), I told him I saw Iverson and I heard that Lebron James was there (announced by the DJ during the break). He said that Tracy McGrady, Randy Moss, and Tim Thomas were also there.

Thursday at Xcalibur
Xcalibur Restaurant & Lounge, 2519 Pennsylvania Av NW, Washington, DC 20500

Tonight I left as early as last time, but did not get lost and parked right by the Xcalibur, so I arrived real early. That was good because it gave me a chance to talk with the band members, particularly Doc. Donnell worked on setting up the audio equipment. He said, "With Googie not here, I am the only one who knows how to do this." Doc said, "You have no idea what I can do." Doc came over and asked me if I knew IzReal "Izzy" Wright. I said that "I don't, who is he?" He told me that he has a studio in Waldorf (MD) and that he works with Ras Lidj.

Ras Lidj
He said that Izzy had told him about my website and that my assumption was incorrect: Physical Wunders has not broken up, that they (nine members strong) still perform twice a month on a circuit "Like a chitlin circuit" mostly in non-traditional GoGo venues in Virginia. I told him also that he (Doc) had emailed me a few years ago to correct my discography. (I really need to do a major update at some point soon.) He said that Physical Wunders put out nine records, three of them albums, the rest singles. Then he left me to eat (I had a delicious crab cake sandwich).

I thought for a moment about what Doc had said - I had emailed Sean Wright who must be Izreal; I had gotten his email address from the Washington Post MP3 website on Ras Lidj. I had looked up the site because a girl posted on TMOTTGOGO that she really liked Ras Lidj when he sat in with Familiar Faces at Takoma Station, but Donnell had called him Reggae Ray (which Doc told me he used to go by), but Kato had said that he was Ras Lidj. He said yeah, he had gotten Ras Lidj into performing with Physical Wunders. Doc went further to discuss how Sugar Bear of EU gotten him into the business in the 70s, that he had been performing for 28 years. He discussed an opportunity to tour with Ginuwine (real name Elgin Baylor Lumpkin, who had started off singing with Physical Wunders) that he declined because he is married with kids and has a good job. I told him about Rhino's handy man, who was a drummer that Dweezil Zappa tried to recruit, turned down that offer for the more steady paycheck. He recommended other musicians, and the touring band ended up breaking up, justified his caution.

Doc talked about how Physical Wunders had opened for 50 Cent and that when 50 Cent came out, there were eighteen guys wearing identical outfits including bulletproof vests and that it wasn't until he started rapping that you could tell which one was 50 Cent. This was because someone was out to get 50 Cent at the time.

Doc said that there are a lot of GoGo bands with a lot of talented members, but without the chemistry that makes great bands. He said that chemistry is more important than all of the members being really talented, for instance Earth, Wind & Fire is a great band, but not everyone was really good. I told him how after their second album, Maurice White fired most of the band, and then the new EWF made it big. He talked about how not enough GoGo groups had their own definitive sound - Backyard Band, Junkyard Band, EU, Trouble Funk, Rare Essence and Chuck Brown are trend setters. He said in he believes Junkyard Band is the quintessential GoGo band. He said that a lot of young people forget that Trouble Funk started the roto-tom sound, and that Rare Essence ran with it, but Trouble Funk started it. He played a Trouble Funk tape and his son said, "They stole that from Backyard", but Doc corrected him. I told him how Duane Face had told me he didn't have any Trouble Funk records. I told Doc how I am planning to see them on Saturday at Mayo Island, Richmond. I told him how their latest official release, Unplugged Live at Mayo Island which was recorded last year, but released this year, has crankin' music, but (Big) Tony's voice is gone. He said Little Benny's voice is basically gone, but he gets by anyway. He said he needed to get the Trouble Funk compilation listed on my website with all of the big hits (except for Arcade Funk); I told him it is on Amazon. He also said that early Northeast Groovers best continued Trouble Funk's roto-tom sound.

Doc talked about how it is a shame that GoGo bands don't support each other enough that rappers will hate one another personally, but tour together if it means money. He said that bands that leave (the DC area) have a tough time getting back the local respect when they come back, that it took EU a long time to come back. He said a lot of groups go through different membership changes, that Andre ("Whiteboy" Johnson - the guitarist and now leader) was the only member of Rare Essence still with them, that he remembered Rare Essence before Donnell was a member. I mentioned how someone on the PA Palace board said that Rare Essence is the Temptations of GoGo, to which Doc agreed, he said "Go-Go Mickey could leave and his replacement would be really popular, definitely not as talented, but as popular". He said that it is unfortunate that pretty much all of the members of Familiar Faces have other projects going on, that whenever one guy leaves and either comes back or is replaced, that it takes time to get back "Up the pyramid". He talked about how Ms. Mack told Rare Essence that they shouldn't leave (DC) that they were making plenty of money in DC.

Doc said he isn't a hater, that L!ssen has something going, if they make it, he will wish them well. He also told me that he studied the history of successful Funk bands such as Earth Wind and Fire and the Bar-Kays to see what they did to be successful (Doc, if you read this, here is Larry Dodson's email address larrydod@juno.com from the latest Bar-Kays album). Then I went back to eat my sandwich.

Unfortunately, very few people were in the audience. Donnell mentioned he didn't have time to call anyone (it is an invite only audience for men); he said he knew Bojack wouldn't come. Donnell asked me about the photo of Doc on this blog that his son told him about (it was actually only linked to in an earlier post, but here it is):

BJ talked about how he has a picture from 1985 of Doc with a glass bass. Doc also mentioned that he wore leather pants in that picture as well.

Donnell talked about how funny some of my descriptions are, particularly the note about Rayful Edmonds. I told him how I added a Sax picture to last night's description based on his friend confusing the Soprano Sax with a Clarinet. He said that family members were telling him that he should say things like "He's seeing Michelle" (see here, but Donnell said his response was "They're just jokes."

Familiar Faces
The line up was: Mike Muse, D-Floyd, BJ, Pooh (with a different drum kit than he normally uses), Doc, and Dwayne Lee. This time at the Xcalibur, they had two front line mics, and Donnell did the audio set up. The pre-recorded music they played while FF was not performing was different from at other of their performances - it was dance techno - ugh! They started out instrumentally, and then Mike joined in. I was tired and started to fall asleep a bit in the first set.

The Lieutenant showed up during the break and said hello.

During the second set, the audience and band members were distracted as the TV above them was showing Dancing with Divas: A G-String Special, which is apparently an HBO series about strippers that shows all. While singing Marvin Gaye's I Want You, Mike turned to the TV and said, "I have to take a five minute break to watch this. I didn't turn this on, but whoever did read my mind. I know nobody with pay attention to us for the next ten minutes." Shortly after, he resumed singing. During the second set, both Nephew and girl in the audience were sleeping (not because of the music, I can assure you), at one point, Mike dedicated a song to DeeDee of the Positive Black Men Coalition because she was the only woman awake. Before performing their last song, Donnell kidded, "Here's a song we came up with in 1982", Mike responded "1984", of course it was Prince's Purple Rain. Donnell said he didn't like Prince: Mike said you don't have to like him, but you do have to respect him. Donnell started singing Raspberry Beret, and went on about how his favorite Prince song was about where his friend went off to war on the album, Around the World in a Day. Donnell said that he thought the same about Rick James and he went over the skit on the Dave Chappelle Show. Donnell heard that George Clinton (who had performed with them (either RE or 911/FF) at some point somewhat recently) got thrown off a plane for smelling too bad, that he never takes baths anymore if he ever did. A long musical discussion ensued as well as a discussion of humorous stories which resulted from Donnell challenging Pooh on having been a minor league baseball player for the Chicago Cubs organization. DeeDee asked Pooh how old he was, that "He looked sixteen". He said "Twenty-four". Mike responded to Pooh that he had a cousin who played minor league baseball. The result of this discussion was that Donnell said, "That's what I miss about Rare Essence, that they would tell lies and each member would top them."

Mike talked about how it took longer for him than a musician to memorize songs, but was easier for musicians. Donnell said, "Don't you mean musician" (singular) - a jab at BJ. BJ said, "You think yours are the only songs I have to memorize; another guy wants me to know twenty-eight songs." Donnell asked "Rahsaan?" - BJ tours with Rahsaan Patterson. Donnell talked about a show at the Warner Theatre with Rahsaan and Rachelle Ferrell (wasn't sure of the last name, just a stab in the dark based on looking at Allmusic.com), how if she were playing in his living room, he'd be in his bedroom watching M*A*S*H re-runs. My waiter (a Caucasian guy with dark hair, dark glasses, black slacks and a gray collared shirt) said, "What you should have said is, if she were singing in my drive-way, I would go out if I had to take out the trash." DeeDee asked why he didn't like her and that Cookie didn't like her either, he said she made weird faces when she sang and sang obscure songs instead of her hits.

Mike Muse talked about how he really liked Steve Wonder's album, Fulfillingness First Finale, as well as the song, Girl Blue (from his 1972 Album Music of My Mind), which Mike said was a quintessential Neo-Soul song.

Donnell talked about liking India Arie until she started dating the midget (Musiq). Donnell debated with DeeDee over whether Musiq's song, Love (off the album Aijuswanaseing is about God (Donnell for, DeeDee against). She said that he said it wasn't in an interview, but Donnell and Nephew said that didn't mean anything, he could be lying. Donnell also talked about the merits of his song Halfcrazy from the album Juslisen.

Charles Smith had cancelled Saturday's date at Reggie's. Charles was a basketball player at Georgetown (graduated in '89) and played for the Boston Celtics before having his career ended when he hit someone driving drunk. They talked about Charles' girlfriend - BJ and Donnell said she was cute, but DeeDee said she couldn't get past her mole on her face. This led into a discussion of Steve McNair's (starting quarterback for the Tennessee Titans) drunk driving arrest video. He had been arrested in 2003, but the video became public last week. I told how the officers involved had taken home copies of the video. Donnell made fun of how McNair had said, "Don't you know who I am" and the cops said they knew who he was and cuffed him anyway. The video also shows him taking a breathalyzer and Pooh said you don't have to, "I would never agree to take a breathalyzer."

At one point DeeDee talked about her heritage of having a grand parent who was Filipino and a grand parent who was French-Canadian. Mike said in response, "French-Canadian, Cappuccino!" Nephew laughed real hard. DeeDee said, "Eric (the only time I've heard him addressed by his given name) what are you laughing so hard for?"

Bojack had said (at some point) that he and Go-Go Mickey were the best percussion duo, but Donnell said that Jungle Boogie and Dave could sing. Mike went on to talk about how Jungle Boogie would like his hands when he played the congas (even the drumsticks). Donnell said, "Remember when Dave Green went nuts? He was playing when all of a sudden he started kicking the congas. Donnell had asked 'what's wrong?' Dave Green responded, 'They killed Martin Luther King!' Donnell said, "This was in the 80s..." (probably 15-20 years after King's death).

Donnell talked about a fight BJ had with Whiteboy where BJ said, I'll be back, everyone got there stuff and split before he could return and in Donnell's words, "Go postal". He also mentioned how after Godfather was fired, he came back the next day walking with a limp (not real) walking with a cane, and they supposed that Godfather was going to hit Whiteboy with it (since he was known for hitting Jas Funk upside the head once).

At some point, Mike talked about how BJ doesn't sing - Donnell said he can't, except for when he sang the James Ingram part of the song Secret Garden (which featured a quartet of Ingram, Barry White, Al B Sure! and El Debarge) from the Quincy Jones album, Back on the Block But the funniest vocal they kept talking about with that song was Godfather doing the Barry White Part "Yeah, baby
I'll take good care of you
That's what a man is supposed to do
And I'll be there for you all the time
Let you hair down
Let me get you in the mood
(Come on, come on, come on, come on)
Come on, take me, take me with you". They kept talking about how he smoked a bunch of cigarettes and put his head back to sing in the low bass and that he hit it in the first performance, but not after. Someone asked why he did it, and Donnell said (Jas) Funk told him too, you don't turn him down. They said that Go-Go Mickey did sing the Al B Sure! part of that song. A further discussion on this occurred online here and a follow-up here.

They also talked about how on rare occasions, Godfather plays the Flugelhorn. They also talked about a members only meeting of Rare Essence where they voted to go against Ms. Mack, but that she was smart. When they told her about the vote, she cried and asked to see s a show of hands of who voted against her - Footz (her son) was in front and he showed his hand proudly, but no one else did (they chickened out) and that was the end of the mutiny.

They also talked about two vocalists singing, with one vocalist running off the stage during the song; why - because his teeth fell out! The also mentioned how during a song, the RE vocalist Lawrence humped the ground, BJ said he saw him do it another venue as well. Nephew also talked about Big G (of Backyard Band) had been in some movie recently (I discovered Saturday that it was Bruce Brown's Divided City) and that he had signed a multi-episode deal to appear on HBO's The Wire.

I talked a couple of times with Greg, the owner of Xcalibur, about my thesis, he was interested. I did miss some of FF's conversation when I talked with Greg (which is okay). The reason that I had this fortunate experience of getting to hear and participate in these post-performance conversations is that the band members waited to be paid. After Donnell obtained the fee, and divided up the cash, people started to leave, so I walked out. Doc and Dwayne were outside and asked me the URL of my site. I told them that Donnell had their money, so they went back in.

Another fan's description.

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


Doc, Pooh, D-Floyd, Godfather, DP


Pooh, DP, Godfather, BJ, Dwayne


Bojack, Adia, Doc, Mike, Pooh, D-Floyd, Godfather, DP, BJ


Packy, Adia, Bojak, Doc, Mike
All pictures taken by and Copyright - Jordan Rich (Note: Pictures artificially brightened by flash, it was darker than it appears.)

When I walked up, Nephew took covers, he told me he was doing well, but would rather not being taking covers.

Familiar Faces
The line up was Mike Muse, Adia, D-Floyd, DP, Dwayne Lee, Doc, Pooh, Bojack (second set only), Packy, Godfather and BJ. Prior to FF starting performing, a friend of Donnell's went up and asked him about his "clarinet" actually a straight Soprano Sax. Donnell laughed and said it was a Sax, Mike said it was actually black and white and painted gold... (Note: I knew that both of Donnell's Saxes are Saxes, but wasn't sure which was which, so I asked for an identifying picture to visually identify sax types - it is below).


The first set, their Jazz set, started off instrumentally, and then Adia and Mike joined in. During the set, Packy complemented, "Good job, Duane (or Dwayne)!" Donnell said, "Watch out we have two Duanes now" - Duane "Pooh" Payne, the drummer, and Dwayne Lee, the guitarist. When Mike started singing, he said, "Hey Hey Hey", which was the trademark line for the character Dwayne Nelson on the 70s sitcom What's Happening. (Side note: I met the late Fred "Rerun" Berry (from What's Happening) at Rhino's Retrofest in 1999; he was a founding member of an LA-based break dancing group. I didn't think with his physique that he would be capable of advanced moves, but he astonished me with both his moves and his flexibility.) DeeDee introduced me to Cookie, also from the Positive Black Men Coalition. I recognized her from Donnell's talking about/to her at Takoma Station before, but hadn't spoken with her.

During the second set, a blonde girl with short curly hair in a white sweater and blue jeans danced in an unusual manner that had my waitress (also blonde, with a black shirt and jeans) smirking in my direction. Donnell asked (are you from), "New York City?" She whispered to him he said, "Harlem, doing the Harlem Shake, I knew it before you told me." The second set cranked as usual, but there was a smaller crowd than usual. Donnell said Adia wouldn't be there on Thursday (Xcalibur). The ending was a little weird - Donnell said, "We're done except for one song" which was Prince's Purple Rain, their usual closing song - Mike had a particularly exuberant extended vocal solo. After that, Mike Muse started singing Bobby Caldwell's What You Won't Do for Love to keyboards with Donnell intentionally mumbling the words along with him (the horn riffs in that song always remind me of the theme song to Too Close for Comfort). They finished performing a little earlier than usual, and the lights didn't come one until after they were done. No joning tonight.

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

On my way to this 4th of July performance, I saw a double horse trailer pull into Rock Creek Park. I could see fireworks when I got to Georgia Avenue. I could still see them after parking and walking to Takoma Station. I talked to Thomas, one of FF's other support people - he assists in setting up the equipment, particularly the drum kits, and also sometimes takes cover at the door at Takoma Station. At first when I arrived around 10 PM, he and Packy were the only FF people there. It was a very small audience at the beginning for one of their Takoma Station performances.

Familiar Faces
At the beginning of the opening "Jazz" set, the line up was Donnell, DP, Doc, Pooh, Godfather, BJ and Dwayne Lee. I believe the first song they performed was Miles Davis' Tutu (actually written by Marcus Miller) - I am big Miles Davis fan (particularly the fusion and post-retirement eras). Adia and Mike Muse joined in a little later. This was a pretty crankin' jazz set. At one point, a woman in the audience danced real close to Mike Muse, then after the song, went up to whisper to Donnell. Donnell yelled out, Pat (obviously a friend of his who was right next to him and onstage during their performance on Friday at Safari Steakhouse), "Come get your wife, I don't want to give any wrong ideas." Packy played congas during the performance of Marvin Gaye's I Want You, and then sat down again at a table in the audience. Donnell later called him up again to play - he finished his drink and then came up, and Mike Muse razzed him about his white cap. He played for the remainder of the song, and then went back in the audience. Later on in the set, Bojack came in and immediately walked up onstage and started playing. By some point late in the first set, the place was packed. Later on the set, Donnell called "Little Mike" up to come sing, Mike Muse said, "My son needs to come up": up came "his son", actually Gene Pratt of Suttle Thoughts and (formerly of Junkyard Band). He hesitated before singing, so instead he took a cowbell and drumstick and started playing to the beat. Donnell said, "That's what he used to play before people knew he could sing." He still called for Pratt to sing - Pratt tapped his head with both index fingers, showing he didn't know the words, and kept waiting to get the verses down, Donnell said "Did you hit your head?" to which he replied on the mic "No, I'm fine", but proceeded to go back to playing the cowbell.

During the break, Pratt talked to Donnell with Jauhar and Nephew, perhaps to complain for being put on the spot. I didn't hear what he said, but Nephew laughed real hard. At the end of the break, just before they started performing the second set, Little Benny walked in.

Donnell called Little Benny to play after the first song of the second set, Donnell said "Benny, come on up, it's a Rare Essence reunion!" Little Benny did both vocals and trumpet for three songs, then left early in Overnight Scenario. He did come back for the last song as well. This set really cranked! Donnell had also tried a number of times to get "Smooth" from the now-defunct Reality Band to sit in and sing as well, but was unsuccessful. They finished performing around 2:15 AM.

Donnell went over future performance announcements, including one for the DJ tonight for next Saturday. Donnell said that FF was playing that night as well, but had to be helped to remember at what venue, Reggie's. He also talked about Friday's big gig, but again had trouble remembering who the guests were supposed to be but did say, "Trina will be there, she called me" and that "Lavar Arrington will be there, he'll be here Wednesday, he doesn't miss a DC party" and "Who's that 'Bama? Oh, Roy Jones..." He was asked to do a birthday song for a girl named Dawn, he did Vinnie D's "Once was a porno star...", but was asked to stop before he finished, he said, "Hey, I don't know too many songs to sing..."

It's getting hard to rank which performances are best because the crank factor is really going up on a consistent basis (including this performance of course)! Donnell's band directing tonight was more obviously than usual. The signals can be hard to spot and I really didn't start to notice them until I attended the rehearsal about two weeks ago, when they discussed directions.

I took pictures tonight, but they didn't turn out well.

Happy Independence Day!

Friday at the Safari Steakhouse
I was sick with a cold, so I missed Familiar Faces' Wednesday performance at Takoma Station and Thursday performance at Xcalibur. However, I have basically kicked it enough to attend tonight.

Safari Steakhouse 9430 Annapolis Road Lanham MD 20706

On the drive over, I noticed the moon was red! As I walked up in the parking lot, a guy in a Terrell Owens (49ers) jersey said, "Hello, here for your regular Friday" and shook hands with me - I didn't recognize him, but he obviously recognized me. The bouncer at the door felt no need to card me, as he recognized me, but he did frisk me. I sat down at a table shortly before they started up.

Familiar Faces
Their first set was what they call their happy hour or Jazz set, initially the line up was - Adia, Donnell, Doc, Dwayne Lee (I talked with him during the first break), and Pooh. The rest of the line up for the first set was - BJ, DP, Godfather, Mike Muse (the percussionists usually don't play in the first set, tonight there was Bojack, Packy and Telly). Also during the first set, Donnell called up Bryant "Luther" Roberts (or Big Lu as his friends from his table, which was right next to mine, called him) to sing. (Before FF started performing, people from his table asked that the lights be turned off in the audience area, the air conditioning was not working and we all sweated right away). During the first set, my arm was grabbed - the three girls who had sat in my booth last Friday were back and they said hello. After the first set, they asked me if this (the happy hour set) was how it was going to be all night - I assured them that they switched to GoGo for the rest of the night after the first set.

During the break a number of the members of FF danced along with audience members, the DJ, Super Dan, kept pointing out D-Floyd's dancing. At one point there was a line dance and a girl with shoulder-length brown hair, wearing a black sleeveless shirt, with a yellow fishnet shawl? over it and blue jeans went around getting both men and women to come on the dance floor. She grabbed my hand to pull me out, but I begged off - she frowned at that. Later in that break, the DJ played Terror Squad's Lean Back (from the album True Story due to be released on July 27th) - that same girl danced back-to-back with another girl (obviously a friend) and she leaned back on her friend incredibly far!

During the second set, Samantha? (it's hard to hear during the music - she is the girl who sat next to me from the three last week) asked me to sit in their booth and save it while they went outside for a while. I obliged - they missed some crankin' music. They came back later, and the other two sat on the other bench of the booth, and Samantha sat at an adjacent table.

The second set was briefly interrupted due to technical problems, DJ music played during that time, but not until after the DJ called out to Nephew asking what was up with D-Floyd (I guess razzing him about his dancing), Nephew just raised his arms in a shrug. Tara arrived late in the second set. The three girls really started to dance with each other starting the break between the second and third sets - they clearly had fun and did not take themselves seriously with the way they danced together. A girl in the booth next to mine (adjacent seats) chided me for not dancing, but I told her the truth - that my left knee was bothering me (the last couple of days it hurts especially when I walk downstairs, so I was dancing in my seat). She said "That's just an excuse; you'd better dance next week." Also, one of the DJ songs had the verse "Shake it like a picture" - a girl (I later learned her name is Allison) from the other adjacent booth (the one my bench faced) with long curly brown hair and a light green sleeveless shirt with a butterfly pattern in front and blue jeans (who danced by herself for periods the entire break right next to her booth) shook her behind, during this, one of her friends, a voluptuous brunette girl with a black shirt felt her behind playfully while she shook it. That same girl in the green shirt leaned back quite far when Terror Squad's Lean Back played again during that break. She and the above mentioned girl with the yellow fishnet shawl could definitely do well in playing limbo.

Tara came by and sat in the adjacent booth (right next to me) and said how tired she was, coming from working. I said, I understand, last Friday, in that very same bench, there was a guy who kept sleeping (or more likely passing out) - the waiter kept bugging him, threatening to throw him out.

During the third set, Tara got up and together with Jay Gotti, the guest rapper from last Saturday, rapped during some songs. The three girls danced directly by me during the third set. As usual, this set cranked the most. The lights came on around 2:40 AM. Donnell said "Jauhar is furious, they don't want to pay extra for security, they don't like me to play so long. Jauhar is furious!" Most of the people walked out during this time, but a number stayed and FF peformed on. The girl in green was one of the few people still dancing, Donnell called her out as Allison and told her "To stop leaning back so far, BJ will fall out." He also said, "Turn around, my man Jordan's head is bobbing up and down." (referring to me of course). They continued to perform for a while then finally stopped.

Samantha asked me why I didn't dance and I told her about my knee. Mama Chelle came over and said hello, and told me how she read my article (this blog). This was the second most crankin' performance, after Club Levels (even better than the Market Lounge on Saturday). After they finished, the girl in green, Allison, and her friend in black walked by my booth to theirs - the girl in black felt my forehead and said, "You were partying, you're sweating." I sweated profusely.

Donnell did their usually performance announcements, in particular talking about next Friday's Denim & Lace Affair, the Allen Iverson Celebrity Summer Classic Official Kick-Off Party. He went over the line up of celebrities appearing, including Tracy McGrady, Magic Johnson (my favorite non-Terp NBA player of all time, the reason I'm a Lakers fan), DaBrat, and Trina (some guy said something to her being mentioned, to which Donnell said, "you'd better get her last name first"). Finally, there's going to be "the 'Bama of the Year", Roy Jones, Jr. He said, "We're going to present him with a pillow, since he's still asleep from getting knocked out. He's doing Tylenol commercials 'cause he has a headache from getting knocked out. He lost to a guy who has a name like a guy working at Boston Market, Anthony Carver, Tarver..." A guy in the audience was obviously a Roy Jones fan and kept responding to what Donnell said. Donnell continued, "I knew something was wrong with him when he had that shag in the back of his head, 'Bama! People in DC don't do that. He's going to fight again against a guy who knocked him the f*ck out. I heard he's going to fight Tyson, I'm a Mike Tyson fan (incidentally, there is a PA Tape I'm aware of of EU doing Tyson's Release Party on March 25th, 1995). Roy Jones is looking for competition in the yellow pages." The Jones fan said something about Tyson being gay, to which Donnell responded, "Roy Jones' shag in the back, that's not DC-style, more San Francisco-style". Finally they turned off Donnell's microphone a little before 3 AM. Quite an evening! The moon was white (as normal) on my drive home.

Sunday UCA Cookout
Back parking lot behind Mad Chef Cafe, 7929 Central Ave, Capitol Heights, MD 20743

I arrived early so that I could take pictures - this was the first outdoor daytime performance of Familiar Faces I've been to. I arrived early and took pictures of the front of the Mad Chef Cafe. That brought their attention, as someone came out to talk to me, asked why I was taking pictures and if I had a business card - I told him it was just for my website. Then Ron "Moe" Moten, from the UCA, came out to talk to me and I explained my thesis research in detail, he told me to go around back.


Bojack, Charlie, Adia, Mike Muse, Pooh, BJ, Donnell, Dwayne Lee, Doc


Kiddie Cabaret!


Three members of Familiar Faces' support staff: Jazz, Nephew, Googie
Not visible in the photo, but Nephew is supporting the UCA sponsorship of the event by wearing a Hipnosis shirt (the label is on the back)
All three pictures taken by and Copyright - Jordan Rich

The UCA (United Clothing Association), a united organization of DC-area black clothing companies, organized the cook out. The cookout was a family affair, with a moon bounce for kids and free t-shirts given away to kids and adults both. The food started being dispensed at 5:30 PM. Despite the event being outdoors, I could hear during the set up that you could hear the sound bouncing off the building behind the adjacent parking lot, more than 100 feet from the speakers!

Familiar Faces
Familiar Faces came on at around 6:30. The line up was: Mike Muse, Adia, Donnell, Doc, BJ, Pooh, Bojack, and the same guitarist (Dwayne Lee) and second percussionist (Charlie) as the night before. I noticed that Doc wore a brace on his playing hand. Many regular FF attendees were there, but really there were hundreds of attendees of all ages. Lisa of the World, Michelle, and my friend Tywon Harzeez of Continuous Music were there. I didn't see Tywon, but he emailed me later, saying that he saw me. When FF opened up, it gave new definition to the term Kiddie Cabaret! A circle of kids formed in front of Adia as she sang the first song. Their first set was their usual jazz set.

After the first set was over, Donnell called up Moe, the organizer of the event. He talked about how despite being competitors, the black owned clothiers have banded together. He also warned the audience to stay away from Visionz, which he said is marketed towards blacks but is Asian owned, that it is important for Blacks to hold on to the businesses they still control, including GoGo. He also said that it was important to get involved in neighborhood beefs, that unity and love will cool beefs. There was a long break before the second set. During the break, a number of kids played on the drums (including the congas, timbales and roto-toms). Their second set was their dance set - it cranked as usual - people of all ages danced.

TCB
Donnell called on Polo of TCB to introduce himself. TCB came on and performed two songs - there were more people gathered in front of the stage than during FF's performance. This is the first time I have seen TCB perform and admittedly with only two songs performed it was only a small sample, but to my ears, not using congas noticeably took away from the sound. I have to check them out later to make a more informed judgment on their sound. The event ended around 8:30 - it was still daylight.

Other fans' description.

Saturday at the Market Lounge
Market Lounge, 1309 5th Street NE, Washington, DC 20002

Tonight was a special engagement at the Market Lounge, to celebrate the birthday of Big Darryl, the owner of the Market Lounge. I arrived at 10:30. The drums were set up, but the band wasn't there yet. I talked with Imani, the bartender I had seen dancing at Takoma Station a couple of weeks ago - she's a nice girl.

Pooh and BJ were the first to arrive. Jazz asked me if I had been to the cook out earlier in the day with Chuck Brown, but I woke up at 4 PM. Apparently I missed a good show. When Donnell arrived, he handed Doc's bass in its case to Doc, back from his vacation - he smiled and hugged it! Donnell came over and pointed out Iceberg Slim to me. I had noticed him as he is hard to miss, but I didn't know what he looked like: he is bald and has the physique and size of an NBA big man, he is around 7' in height (he wore a jersey for Negro League Baseball, with matching shorts and athletic shoes). Iceberg Slim (whose nickname was the pseudonym of the late Robert Beck, a pimp-turned-novelist) is a local rapper who provided the lead vocals for Trouble Funk's Don't Touch That Stereo and Pump Me Up, two of their best songs. I went over and talked with him briefly and told him that I was a fan. I also told him how I knew a friend of his, Dr. Blynd, who wrote "The Funktionary", a dictionary of Funk and philosophy.

Familiar Faces
The line up tonight was: Mike, Adia, Donnell, Doc, Godfather, BJ (on keyboards), Pooh, Bojack, and a new guitar player (Dwayne Lee in his first appearance as a permanent member of the band) and another percussionist, Charlie Allen. There was a free buffet tonight, and it was really good, including Alaskan King Crab legs. They started off with just a few songs of what they call their "happy hour" music, before segwaying into dance music directly in the first set. Donnell did multiple shout outs to Iceberg Slim and a birthday girl named Australia in addition to Darrell. The set (and the following one) was longer than normal for FF. At one point during the set, Donnell thanked Imani to her back; I am guessing it was his way of showing his admiration for her backside.

I saw Tara and said hello. After the break, Donnell called the other band members up to get started on the second set. Right after that, a guy in the audience kept yelling "Get started now" - he was obviously drunk. FF started up while the bouncers peacefully escorted out - he danced to FF as he walked out. The second (and final) set cranked really hard - I would say after the Club Levels performance, this was the second best performance I've seen of them this summer. Late in the set, Tara went up and danced on stage, then rapped. Shortly afterwards, there was another male rapper who sat in (from the dance floor), then another male guest vocalist on stage, named Jay Gotti.

After they finished performing, Donnell talked more about Darryl's birthday and called up Mike Muse (who was signing the email guest list and talking to some girls) to sing Happy Birthday - he said, "You don't want me singing, the girl will still be there when you're done." Mike went up saying "I was just signing the list, he sees what he wants to see" and sang Happy Birthday to Darryl, then Donnell said, "Watch what he does" to the girls. Mike sang more elaborately for Australia, and had her come up on stage and hugged her: Donnell said, "See Darryl, you don't get a hug from him." There was a birthday cake and Donnell teased Iceberg Slim: "Iceberg Slim, no napkin, no knife, no fork, just getting to business, licking off his fingers..." The drive home was fine, I'm getting used to the circles.

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

Tonight was an enjoyable evening. There was a light rain, not like 2 weeks ago.

Familiar Faces
The line up was: Mike Muse, Adia, Donnell, Godfather, BJ (on bass), Duane Face, Pooh, Packy, and Bojack. Donnell said, "During the happy hour set, that's when you get your drinks." There were apparently several birthday girls in attendance, and there was a birthday party group at a long table by me, with a three layer tiered round cake. I was feeling really tired during the break after the first set (lack of sleep on my part). However, things brightened when three ladies asked to sit with me at my booth. The girl who sat next to me asked my name and "if I had come to eat dinner here?" I said no, that I was here for the music. She was surprised - she and her friends didn't know that Familiar Faces was the band performing nor did they expect me to be a GoGo fan. They talked about ridiculous it was that as they walked in, a guy handed them a flyer (Passion Sundays - After Hours Band) and said the band on the flyer was much better than this band. DeeDee from The Positive Black Men Coalition came by and handed out flyers for the July 9th event and said hi to me. The girl next to me said, "You know Jordan, he's my buddy." DeeDee said "Yes, he know more about GoGo than a lot of people." (I'm not sure how true that is, but I'm working on it). For some reason, they kept looking outside through the blinds (possibly to see if the rain stopped, but it seemed strange to me). The girl sitting next to me was nice enough to ask before she smoked and pointed her cigarette away from me. Nephew came over and said to me, "I want to be like you when I grow up" (obviously because I had three girls sitting with me). The one girl called Nephew over and he handed her a business card, which she marveled at because it has a picture of five members of Familiar Faces on it.

The three girls left the table after the second set was over.

The third set as usual cranked the most. I believe I heard a guest male rapper, but I can't be sure as there were too many people in the crowd for me to see the stage. The three girls came back and sat at the booth next to me - two of them did the most dancing, the one who had sat next to me and one other, who fell down a few times (maybe drunk). The girl who had sat next to me grinded with me in my lap as I sat sideways in the booth. Late in the third set, I saw GoGo Mickey walk in. They were initially going to finish the set, but Michael Smith of Rare Essence prodded them into doing an extra song. Then they were done - Donnell said, "Fellas, if you haven't got her phone number by now, everything dead." Donnell said, "Keta was having a good time for the first time in a while, Jauhar, I guess she isn't mad at you anymore." Donnell then said, "Michelle, don't talk to her (I believe referring to DeeDee who sat right next to her) "You know you're the other woman. Michelle and I have been having a secret affair for years, that's my confession." The DJ, Supa Dan, kept playing a verse from some tune (I didn't recognize it) referring to Michelle in some way, Donnell said, "Don't bother, with Michelle, everything dead." He then went further, "She hasn't had a real date in years, unless you count this morning, but I just wanted Steak & Eggs". She went to hit him with her shoe. Then he said, "Being with Michelle is like Rayful Edmonds (Rayful Edmonds III was the biggest drug lord in DC in the 80s and is currently serving a life sentence in prison), a lifetime sentence. A man can't be with her for less than four years, she'll lock him in. He'll never see his kids. It will be like Finding Nemo, locked in a fish bowl." During this time, she went after him with one of her shoes, later a microphone stand and then later pushed him, causing him to stumble slightly into a toolbox. Packy laughed hysterically.

As I walked out, the same girl stood right by the exit, she said "You're cute too!" I don't know why I didn't get her name (I did the following week - Samantha?)

Thursday at the Xcalibur
Xcalibur Restaurant & Lounge, 2519 Pennsylvania Av NW, Washington, DC 20500

This is Familiar Faces' new Thursday (weekly) spot. An unusual aspect of their performances at this venue is that men have to be on the guest list: in Donnell's words tonight "to keep out the Riff Raff". This was the first performance where on my way there, I got to see people outside in DC - it was still daylight until shortly before I parked. I ended up getting lost, but once I got my bearings, I parked not too far away. This venue is right over by George Washington University. The restauarant part is on the ground floor, both outside and inside. The performance area is on the second floor. The stage was cramped - the stage and dance floor are about 14 feet wide, with the stage also not being very long.

Familiar Faces
The line up was scaled down: Mike, Adia, Donnell, Pooh, Bojack, Godfather and BJ (on Bass). The dance floor has two plush yellow chairs and a red couch on the opposite side with a number of plush ottomans. During the performance there were spinning multicolored lights. Behind the dance floor was the bar, which was three steps above the dance floor (about 1.5') - there were some dark brown wooden chairs. I arrived shortly before the performance started - Godfather told me "The pasta is really good", but I ended up not eating. The frontline - Mike, Adia and Donnell only had one microphone between them. After starting off with an instrumental, Donnell called up Mike saying "Adia and Mike are getting too comfortable in those recliners." After that song, Godfather started playing the opening to Grover Washington Jr.'s Mr. Magic, so Bojack walked up with his plate of food and started playing along. The performance was sort of a hybrid - they performed the songs from what they call their jazz set, but with Bojack playing, making it have more of a GoGo beat. Also, do to the one front line mic, Adia got more opportunities to sing solo. Also, Donnell's sax lost a little of its aural punch by not being amplified.

I spoke with Jazz during the second set. I also said hello during the performance to DeeDee, Tara (in the audience only, not performing, I noticed she wore black spiked high-heels, so it would have been hard for her to dance), and Ebony. A number of members of their usual crowd were at this performance. After the first set, Donnell said, "They (the neighborhood I guess) don't really want us here, so be quiet when you leave." Late in the second half, someone from the restaurant came up to let them know it was almost time to finish. Donnell called up Adia to sing "Secrets" (actually Alicia Keys' Diary), for this song Godfather and BJ switched instruments - it wasn't until this song that I could tell BJ was playing bass as all but his head and legs were hidden by the congas. They switched back after this song and Donnell told everyone not to drink and drive, of one guy he said, "Don't drive, it's too late for you to not drink." Donnell called Mike back up to the mic, to "End as they began, on a high note." After the song, Mike also went over their schedule and told everyone "Not to drink and drive." No joning tonight! On my way to my car, I ran into a woman who said she had locked her keys in her car - unfortunately, I couldn't be of any use to her. It was a kind of a damper on the way back.

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

Tonight I brought my Dad's digital camera and my copy of Donald Passman's excellent music industry how-to-guide, All You Need to Know About the Music Business. When I first walked in, the cover-taker (actually Familiar Faces' manager and co-owner Baba Tutu) saw me with the book and said, "You're not going to read that here are you?" I told him "No, I'm just bringing it to give to someone." After I sat down, I saw Duane Face, so I went over and game him the book. Not long after, the (police) Lieutenant (I discovered Clark was his last name tonight) arrived and Donnell teased him by mocking his posture. The Lieutenant immediately went over to Adia and began hitting on her - he makes no secret of his interest in her.

Familiar Faces
The highlight of the first set was intense drumming by Pooh - he even sent a drum stick flying. Donnell did several birthday announcements for Michelle. Donnell mentioned how BJ is sitting in for Doc at bass. I had talked with Donnell last night about FF's members having side projects, so I assumed that's what Doc is doing now, but he was actually on vacation. There was a smaller than usual crowd tonight, not sure why. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the flash to work on the digital camera - I'll need to practice later. The Lieutenant came over and said hello to me, "You're becoming a regular."

The second set's intensity increased over time. Tara not only danced this time, but rapped a little as well. As usual, they closed the set with Prince's Purple Rain, with a really intense solo by Boolah - this was in effect his swan song, as it turned out to be his last show with Familiar Faces.

A woman came over and introduced herself to me as Mama 'Chelle, she told me she was here for her birthday and that she had been reading my online write-ups. I didn't think that hardly anyone including FF had been reading my posts until this week. At the rehearsal, some of the band members did talk about my postings. Donnell's joning was all aimed at the Lieutenant- he said the Lieutenant "Went to the Bahamas and came with 'Stacy Jones' (meaning his loafers) without socks, Crockett & Tubbs, Miami Vice." He also said the Lieutenant got his shirt from "The Land of Lilliput." The Lieutenant said, "Haterade!" The Lieutenant added his name to Familiar Faces' email list and Donnell said to Nephew, "Do we want to the Lieutenant coming to all of our shows?" He also started to talk about an incident when the Lieutenant was drunk, to which the Lieutenant said, "Don't talk about that!" Donnell talked about how Adia would be driving to the next show, and that clearly excited the Lieutenant. Adia didn't know what Donnell was talking about, but she was upset, and the Lieutenant echoed all of her responses to Donnell. After Donnell finished joning, Packy started to perform and played with one of the mics (which was not on).

DeeDee from the Positive Black Men Coalition came out and spoke with me briefly right after I walked out.

Rehearsal in Hyattsville
Private location

Familiar Faces
Present at the rehearsal were Donnell, Duane Face, Pooh, DP, Mike, Adia, Bojack, BJ, Godfather, and Tara. I thought Tara & Duane were now members of Familiar Faces, but Tara is a guest rapper and Duane, who has been practicing with the band since November, was filling in while Doc was in Florida. Tara was learning the Roll Call dance from DP. Since I had seen her dance with the group on Wednesday, but having been in the audience, I asked her if she was now a member of the group. She said, "I guess so" (I have been further informed that she is a guest rapper/dancer for the group).

The practice area has a lot of comforts, including couches, a fridge and bathrooms. Besides working on rehearsing cover tunes, they worked on deciding strategy for performances including costume and song selection. One of the most important things I picked up was how and what Donnell directs within the musical performances.

I also got a chance to speak with them together about what I would like to do (this is first time I could speak with almost all of them without music playing while trying to talk to them).

After the rehearsal was over, I went outside and talked with Duane Face for a while, about GoGo and the music industry in particular. He talked about how weird it was that people mostly hand out flyers at GoGo performances or in cars parked at them - "Basically that you have to go to a GoGo to find out where other GoGos are happening." He told me his favorite group was Northeast Groovers, that "They had a great dynamic, every show was different, they could play the same setlist two nights (in a row) and it would be different - they would be inspired by some little thing and react to it." Unfortunately, they broke up earlier this year, but Duane said that they really broke up in 1998; the reunion had only two or three original members. I told him I would bring a music industry book I had since I have no plans for returning to the cutthroat music industry.

Duane Face told me he didn't know the stories of most of the members of the group, except Donnell, "King of the GoGo Beat, everyone knows his story." A number of the members of FF were still hanging out in the parking lot when I left.

Friday at Club Levels
Club Levels, 1960 Montana Av NE, Washington, DC 20500

Club Levels is named for the fact that the club is actually divided into levels. In fact, the front actually says "Boom Boom Room". They showed me the area that Familiar Faces would perform in. I made the fortunate mistake of arriving rather early, even before Familiar Faces! I say fortunate, because it allowed me to watch all of the instruments be set up, which I hadn't seen before. From the moment I first arrived until FF started performing, the DJ played pre-recorded music - mostly GoGo, which of course I liked, but while the pre-recorded music played, the speaker volume was louder than at any other performance I've been to. This performance/dance area is rather narrow; I would say around 12' wide. The couches were black with matching tables and red ashtrays - the table across from the couch I sat at had a checkerboard, with checker pieces that were shot glasses with red or black circles on them. There also were gray plush backless benches. The drums were the first instruments to be set up, by Packy and a support guy (I believe Jermaine). In the process, Packy lip-synched on the mic to the pre-recorded music, included a Rare Essence song with Donnell on vocals.

As the band members arrived, they encouraged me to check out the free buffet, which was good. Donnell let me know that they would be playing at 12:30 AM. DJ Rico, a large man (over 6' and over 300 pounds), DJed - he wore shorts and a short-sleeved shirt that were black with a green grid pattern, as well as white socks and black sneakers. I got to see him set up as well.

Familiar Faces
They had an altered line up for this performance: there were two keyboards as usual, but besides Godfather, the other keyboard player was Duane "Duane Face" Henderson, playing a Yamaha Motif6 (when I spoke with him on June 22nd, he said this was his first time playing with FF). There was also a third percussionist, and Boolah and Doc weren't present (Doc was on vacation). BJ played the electric bass instead of keyboards: Duane Face was basically filling in for Doc. Since it was 70s night, the front four (Mike, Adia, Donnell, and DP) were more dressed up and all of them wore hats. A number of people in the audience (both male and female) wore afro wigs.

Unlike most of their performances I have been to, they started off using the entire percussion instead of drum kit, while still performing much of their usual neo-soul set - this of course made it funkier! During their performance of Rare Essence's Take Me Out to the GoGo, Donnell spotted Go-Go Mickey in the audience. It turns out this was a pre-arranged, paid appearance, see here. He wore a white basketball jersey with "Rare Essence" and the number 23 printed on the front and "Mickey" and the number 23 on the back. Donnell sent his friend "Fats" to go get Mickey to come up and play with him - "a reunion" in Donnell's words. Go-Go Mickey came in during the song and played with FF for the rest of the night.

After the first set ended, Donnell encouraged people to go to the buffet and also to the back where the 70s costume contest was being conducted ($250 each to the best male and female costumes), but said, "Fats" has already won the male costume. Fats wore a black wide-brimmed hat, a red shirt, and a black full-length coat.

As usual, the last set was the best. This was without a doubt, the crankiest performance I've been to this summer. After they turned the lights on (an obvious sign it was almost time to leave) came the highlight of the night - a furious percussion trio of Pooh, Bojack and Mickey. A girl came up and got me to dance during this trio (she was rather thin, I could feel her ribs when we danced), but we stopped when they started playing at a pace too fast to dance to - eventually BJ and Godfather comped their trio, which finally ended when Bojack walked away with a smile. Then Donnell encouraged them to start a new groove, "One that you had to be 35 to know" - it was what is known as 2001 - actually the opening to Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra, which was in the opening to the movie 2001 - together with guitar and keyboards. Then the whole band started to perform again and the lights went out again: they performed one full song, then a fragment and the lights went on again and management said - that's it. The ending was also unusual - other than Donnell kidding Bojack about "David Green and Jungle Boogie" (two prior Rare Essence percussionists), Bojack did the after-performance joning, mostly picking on various people for their unfashionable clothing. I left after he finished. I drove home, but got lost on the way back, missing the transition from NY Av to Mass Av as I did coming home from the Market Lounge.

Rest in Peace to Len Bias, who died on this day eighteen years ago.