Bernie Worrell & The WOO Warriors

At Tobacco Road, NYC (8/25/01)

 


 

The personnel for the Bernie Worrell & the WOO Warriors:

1.   Bernie Worrell (the inventor of WOO-funk!!)

2.   Jen Durkin aka "Sonic Voce" (funky vocalist from Deep Banana Blackout!)

3.   Flash (fiery guitarist supreme!)

4.   Donna McPherson (thumpasorus bassist!)

5.   Gary Sullivan (lethal drummer on "speed"!)

6.   Gregg "Daffy Duck" Fitz (the second wizard of keyboards!)

7.   Gabe Gonzalez aka "Undisco Kidd" (guest drummer....E-Squadelic funky drummer)

 

At 12:05am, the WOO Warriors started with a funky interlude, which featured Gabe Gonzalez on some tight-ass drumbeats (Detroit must have been smiling that night), some funky bass riffs by the fabulous Donna McPherson, dope-ass keyboard riffs by Mr. Gregg "Daffy Duck" Fitz, and some off-the-wall guitar riffs by Flash!! Bernie Worrell came out and the ensemble went into "Gamin' on Ya"......Bernie was in rare form on his funky synthesizers...... well, disregarding all of the technical problems. I could not understand what the hell was goin' on......the sound had to be adjusted CONSTANTLY throughout the show! "Me and My Folks" followed, with Sonic Voce playing the cowbell. "Super Stupid" was super-hot, with Flash once again gettin' off on some nasty, hard-rock guitar riffing!!! "Supergroovalisticprosifunkstication" was followed, by a snippet of "One Nation Under a Groove". Gabe Gonzalez went into a very brief, heavy drum breakdown after the last verse of "Baby, I Owe You Something Good"! I didn't know at the time (or I wasn't 100% sure) that I was standing next to rapper extraordinaire Mos Def.....until, Bernie called him onstage!! Mos Def did Jimi Hendrix's song "Who Knows?"......this brother was singing and rapping.....just throwing his own raps into the song!! That wonderful performance was followed by "Standing on the Verge of Gettin' It On" and "Up For the Down Stroke".

The band started doing another funky jam that featured Donna doing some SUPER-HEAVY bass riffs that shook the entire building! (Easy, Donna, easy!!) Gary Sullivan took over on the drums and ripped those damn things up!!!! Even, Bernie got into the spirit with some heavy, deep bass synth riffs that'll remind you of an old man taking a real long fart........it's just that strong and overcoming!!!!

The band closed with the Talking Heads's song, "Burnin' Down the House" with some excellent keyboards by Bernie and Gregg! The show ended at 2:20am.



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