Beloved D.C. house band Granny and the Boys put on an impromptu stoop concert in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood last night.

Fronted by 87-year-old Alice Donahue, the band played for about two hours (with a few breaks in between) right off of Kilbourne Place and 17th Street NW. Granny and the Boys played every Sunday night at Bloomingdale dive bar Showtime up until D.C. ordered all restaurants and bars to close to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

https://twitter.com/tontitontisakis/status/1253103703302844417

“It was such a good feeling to be out there playing,” Donahue tells DCist from her Greenbelt, MD home. “And we needed the practice.”

Donahue says the decision to play last night was half-planned, half-impromptu: Drummer Richard Lynch had been wanting to get the band back together and was thinking about planning an outdoor show. “He called and said ‘well, it’s sunny today. Let’s do it,'” says Donahue.

They played on the steps of Franco Agbro’s house. Agbro is a jazz musician and DJ on WPFW 89.3. In all, about 100 people watched them play, Lynch tells DCist. The plan is to do this again, performing on the same stoop sometime over the next month.

Showtime set up a GoFundMe to support the band earlier this month. The bar posted a handwritten note from Donahue expressing her thanks for the help this week. “That’s the full meaning of this moment in time: giving and sharing even the pain,” she wrote.

For Donahue, the Mount Pleasant show was a chance to do what she loves: play her keyboard and make music. She understands the restrictions but is hoping life can get back to normal soon. “I’m 87 years old and I want to live my life.”

Watching others enjoying, listening, and dancing along, she knew that Granny and the Boys were helping during a hard time.

“Music helps people,” says Donahue. “It’s a healer.”