In May, I went for the first time to the historic Howard Theater in the heart of DC, not too far from Howard University. Admittedly, though I’d heard the name Howard Theater as a place in the area, I didn’t know too much about it. A brief look at the website afforded me a quick history lesson. According to the Howard Theatre Restoration Incorporated, the theater was originally built in 1910 as part of DC’s Black Broadway and “featured vaudeville, live theater, talent shows and two performing companies, the Lafayette Players and the Howard University Players.” It fell victim to the race riots in 1968, and though it was placed on the US National Register of Historic Places in 1974, the theater closed in 1980. Thanks to HTR, the theater reopened in 2012 and in the midst of the new diversified DC, has flourished as a full-scale restaurant featuring entertainment and artists.
On the May excursion, I happened to find a Goldstar (similar to Living Social and Groupon) offer for a jazz brunch at the Howard Theater, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to treat both my mother-in-law and my husband. I was expecting decent entertainment and average food. Let me be the first to tell you that the culinary experience blew my mind! It’s now September and I can recall with perfect acuity that I ordered French toast with candied pecans, my husband ordered chicken and sweet potato waffles, my mother-in-law, a primavera loaded with veggies, and my younger niece ordered the shrimp and polenta. In addition, my mother-in-law ordered a peach cobbler and my husband and I enjoyed the bottomless mimosas. The jazz trio was terrific as well; though I’d never heard of the groups, they did excellent covers of popular songs, including Brian McKnight and Prince (and if you don’t know by now, I am a huge Prince fan)!
While eating the food and waiting for the show to begin, we were entertained by music wafting from the theater’s speakers and watched the television screens display upcoming performances. I was pleasantly surprised to see future headliners from Shante Moore, Bell Biv Devoe, and none other than Dru Hill. I expressed out loud that I would LOVE to see them, and before we left the theater, my husband had procured them.
Fast forward to last night. Doors opened at 6. We had seats in the VIP section, which was just right in front of the stage. while we were waiting, we went ahead and ordered a couple of small bites--crab artichoke dip and pineapple jerk wings. Each of us had a salad--the classic Caesar for me and the spring mix for my hubby. The salads were HUGE! one quarter was the size of a normal side salad. and we each had a couple of cocktails--named for jazz legends--mine was the Ella Fizz and his the Duke Ellington. As usual, the food was wonderful. The crowning part of the meal? The fresh, in-house-made by the pastry chef, sparkly birthday cake with my name on it!
The show started at 8:30 and they bounced out and bounced around the stage. SisQo came out, trademark blond hair peaking through his black “Blow” baseball cap; Nokio came out vested with a baseball cap, shades, and some of THE baddest silver glittered Nikes I have ever seen, and would systematically strip out of these items during the performance (including the shoes); Jazz, towel in hand, ready to work up a sweat as he crooned; and the “baby” of the group, Tao, who I will admit I’d never heard vocalize. I even had to do some research on the group to find out exactly when he’d joined.
In my research I found out some things I actually didn’t know about the group, like how they’d started off with two other members that left the group before the recruitment of Jazz and that they’d been under a couple of other names before Dru Hill came along. I have always been a huge fan, but not what you would call a steady superfan. I knew the Nokio was the mastermind behind their formation and that they’d done a lot of their singing in a Baltimore Fudge Factory before making it big (the site still boasts about them in its history). I definitely knew all the facts listed in their Howard Theater bio. Sure, I’d purchased their first three albums, SisQo’s solo project and even other albums where they’d been featured, Rush Hour, Soul Food and Soul Food the series, but their second breakup stole my momentum of fandom and I lost track of their new stuff. I didn’t even realize they had a new album.
But you would have never known it from my performance last night. Today I am slightly hoarse from not only singing EVERY song they performed, but from the constant screaming in between. Yes, I am a concert screamer. I am happy and simultaneously disturbed enough to say that we were close enough to have sweat from the performers drip on us, and as hot as those stage lights were and as much as they jumped around, there was a LOT of sweat flying! I sang so many of the songs that one lady actually came up to me and made note that she noticed I knew almost every word to every song. In truth, I was sitting at a table with member of the Dru Love Crew, a heavy fan site that often meets with the members. Already in the presence of minor celebrity, I was happy they’d chosen to sit at our table because that meant that more than half of the night, Dru Hill was standing directly in front of us.
But the ultimate fan highlight had to be when we were allowed to come on stage. The moment came when the group asked if there were any couples in the house. Naturally, there we were and the fan club egged us onto the stage. Next came the challenge from Dru Hill: show the crowd that you love it like you mean it! The reward: $100 to the winning couple. The result: let’s just say, we were the crowd favorite, as the loud cheers dictated and the affirmations of several people even after the show. And oh yeah, got the Benjamin! During our stage dance/performance, Tao even pilfered my phone to take a picture and recording for us! This, plus the fact that he spent his birthday singing for us (did I mention he was a fellow Virgo?), may have put him in my fan favorite file. Not to mention his cover of CeeLo’s “Crazy.”
The entire group did covers as individuals. SisQo did what he said was a song from their influence: Jodeci and throughout the performance had peppered in some songs from his solo album. Nokio went the crazy route and did an outrageous cover of “Darling Nikki” by Prince. Jazz went old school with Marvin Gaye while sitting on the speakers. Toward the end of the show, they rounded out with “5 Steps,” a song I’ve mentioned in my old blog, and took their four-part harmony out into the crowd. Tao stepped down right in front of us (secutity detail keeping a close eye). Nokio had stepped off stage earlier to enjoy the show from the crowd with a drink in his hand.
They have brought me back into their fold. I’ll probably be purchasing InDRUpendence Day soon, especially since I’ve been singing their songs all day and will likely start playing some of their videos as a stroll down memory lane.
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