Bernie Worrell & The WOO Warriors
At the North Star Bar - Philly (1/11/02)
The Wizard of WOO, Mr. Bernie Worrell!!!!!
At
10:45am, the WOO-FUNK MOB started their funk-filled set in a nearly sold-out
venue.....the people were there to experience the 8th wonder of the world,
BERNIE WORRELL & THE WOO WARRIORS!!!!!! The intro song was a smokin' funk
jam with the second funky keyboardist Gregg Fitz, thumpasorus bassist Donna
McPherson, lethal axe-slayer (guitarist supreme) The Flash, and the
"drumsticks of fire" expert Gary Sullivan!! Bernie Worrell came out
and added his heavy dose of funky spice on his magical synthesizer & B-3 Hammond!!!
The jam segued into the funky "Gamin' on Ya", complete with mo' of
Bernie jamming on keyboards and Gregg's inclusion of synthesized horns!
Sonic Voce (the artist formerly known as Jen
Durkin, originally of Deep Banana Blackout) came out and wooed the fans into
her world of the "Red Hot Momma". Sonic SANG (not sang, but SANG) her
ass off, especially during the chorus.......just so funky!!! All of this energy
that Sonic Voce gave off was matched by the tight synthesized grooves of Bernie
& Gregg and the wild guitarisms of The Flash!!
"You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks"
featured a hot lead guitar solo in the intro, some extra-funky keyboardisms
& vocalizations by Gregg, and a heavy-duty, super-powerful, lethal, Dennis
Chambers-style drumming solo by the super-bad drummer, Gary Sullivan!!!
The WOO Warriors then
performed a new song where Bernie and Sonic Voce were talking about the WOO and
what WOO means........."We all got WOO!!" The new song featured
Bernie doing some outlandish, hardcore nasty funk keyboardisms!!
The Flash (WOO guitarist) with guest guitarist,
John!!
"Super Stupid" (the heavy-duty,
high-powered funk-rock blast) featured The Flash doing some super-stupid guitar
antics & vocals!!!
Donna melted the massive audience with her
supergroovalistic bassisms
during...."Supergroovalisticprosifunkstication", which segued into
the funky sing-a-long, "Comin' Round the Mountain"!! "Standing
on the Verge of Gettin' It On" featured a guest guitarist named John, who
did a hardcore rock solo! "Up for the Down Stroke" sounded so damn
good with Donna providing enormous bottom (bass) during the intro!!! The band
did a funkified, nasty synthesizer-driven version of the Talking Heads's
"Burnin' Down the House"!! "Cosmic Slop" was, of course, da
bomb with Gregg on sanctified, funky lead vocals & Sonic Voce on second
lead vocals!! Unfortunately, the guitar solo wasn't that great....the
problem was that the guitar was too low in the mix! The guitar solo was done by
John, the guest guitarist. The Flash stepped in and added some flavor to the
mix.....still the volume was relatively low!
THE ENCORE: "Night of the Thumpasorus Peoples"......this song set the
audience into a frenzy with "Ga ga goo ga"'s!! Before
"Thumpasorus", Sonic Voce came out and riled up the audience with
"Take Your Dead Ass Home", "Get Off Your Ass and Jam", and
the chant "We be funkin' over here, up there ain't shit!" (from the
Prince/G. Clinton collaboration "We Can Funk")
"Thumpasorus" was da bomb with Bernie's signature sub-bass
synthesized grooves (sounding like some wet farts.....filling the North Star
Bar with a nasty, funky stench)!!!! After eons of hearing the Wizard of WOO play
his keyboards, the show was over at 1:10am.
Click here for pictures of Bernie Worrell & the WOO Warriors
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