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Bernie Worrell & the WOO Warriors
Review 05/29/99 From: Dr.Brookenstein
At The Knitting Factory - NYC [Cosmic Core Festival, $12] [Opening act: Project Logic] I AM SO, SO GLAD THAT I CAME TO THIS WOO SHOW FOR SEVERAL REASONS: 1. I WAS ABLE TO SEE JUDIE WORRELL AGAIN......AND SHE LOOKS MORE BEAUTIFUL AND RADIANT THAN EVER!! 2. I WITNESSED A SHOW THAT'LL GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS THE BEST WOO SHOW EVER!!! 3. I GOT A CHANCE TO COMPLIMENT CATHERINE RUSSELL ON HER EXCELLENT CONTRIBUTION TO THE WOO!! 4. I SAW MRS. SHEILA BRODY AGAIN.....THE SEXY GODDESS FROM THE BRIDES OF FUNKENSTEIN!! HEY SHEILA, "SOMEBODY SAID THERE'S A PARTY GOIN' ON, UP IN HERE!" HA HA!! YOU GOT ME SENDING UP SMOKE SIGNALS FOR YA!! 5. GABE GONZALEZ (THE CREATOR/INNOVATOR FOR E-SQUADELIC FUNK--ENEMY SQUAD-- AND WOO DRUMMER) AUTOGRAPHED MY SOUVENIR DRUMSTICK...MORE ON THAT LATER!! 6. WOO WARRIORS PERFORMED "SEVEN LAWS OF WOO" --- YES!!! A NASTY, FIERCE CONCOCTION OF FIERY HARDCORE ROCK MUSIC, LACED WITH HEAVY ORGAN RIFFS, DRIVING BASS CHORDS AND INTENSE GUITAR RIFFS!!!! The WOO show started at 12:00 midnight, with a funky intro called "P.Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up)", featuring the narrator voice of Gabe "Undisco Kidd" Gonzalez! Gabe played some funky-ass, heavy bass drums and Mike Reuben did a crazed guitar solo! Atmospheric, spacy keyboard-synthesized sounds pour from the one and only Joseph "Amp" Fiddler, while Ms. Donna McPherson provided lots of noxious bottom (from her bass, of course!)! Ten minutes past before Bernie Worrell showed up and played the circus theme on WOO-keys. A few minutes past before Bernie started playing BY HIMSELF, and he played some insane, freaked-out shit and ended it with a welcomed fucked-up version of "The Entertainer"!! All from the truly psychotic mind of B. Worrell, the craziest member of Funkadelic!!! A few funky bars from the WOO Wizard preceded Parliament's "Gamin' on Ya". "Thank You For Letting Me Be Myself Again" (a Sly Stone track) was followed with the appearance of the beautiful, talented Ms. Catherine Russell, who performed excellent vocals of "Red Hot Momma". "Y-Spy" was good, but "If You Don't Like The Effects, Don't Produce The Cause" was much better, with Catherine on melodica. Amp provided a WOO-esque, freakish keyboard solo and Mike set the Knitting Factory afire with his frenzied guitar riffs!! "Straight Ahead" followed, along with "Re-Enter Black Light (Entersection)"....featuring a funky-as-nine-cans-of-wet- Magic-Shave, tight drumming by Gabe. Bernie and Amp left the stage, leaving the trio (Donna, Gabe and Mike) doing their thing. A few minutes later, Mike left the stage, leaving the funky backbone (Donna & Gabe) in effect!! "Supergroovalisticprosifunkstication" was grooving, but "Comin' Round The Mountain" was ultra-funky with the smelly keyboard work of Mr. Worrell.....however, I miss the low-pitched "Lowdown, can you do the lowdown!" by original WOO drummer, Van Romaine!! There were some problems with the sound equipment, so Catherine could not play her mandolin for the intro to "Baby I Owe You Something Good"! Mike played her part on guitar. Cathy & Bernie sang the opening lines to the song in a manner that mocked all of these opera singers!! Mike played his ass off, while Cathy provided some powerhouse vocals. "Can You Get To That?" was next and it featured the freakish keyboard solo of "Amp" Fiddler.....actually, I definitely prefer Amp's solo over the artsy, classical sounds of Greg Fitz. What followed was the definite highlight of the show: "SEVEN LAWS OF WOO"!! Bernie started it off with a majestic organ solo (as only the Wizard could) that ends hauntingly (as to summon the satanic spirits), before Gabe played a couple of rimshots and the band joined it in this horrific-sounding, high-intensity metal frenzy!! Mike did his heavy guitar jamming, but he is no match to the sounds of Buckethead!! Donna provided some heavy, driving bass riffs to stir up this angry stew of hardcore rock! (By the way, you can find this song on the Praxis CD "Transmutation"!) The WOO Warriors settled down the heavy madness with a danceable P-Funk tune "Flashlight", which segued into "WOO-Lite"!! The WOO-funk is your funk, the motherlode of y'all funk!" The show ended at 1:55am. There was an encore at 2:00am. The WOO Warriors played a funky version of "Smokey", with Amp on lead vocals......personally, I like Greg Fitz's lead vocals on this song better. The band also did an off-key version of "If You Got Funk, You Got Style", with Amp providing a funkified, choppy keyboard riff! Personally, this version of "If You Got Funk.." was not all that. The encore performance ended at 2:15am. To recap, the song set listing was: P-Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up) Bernie solo (w/ "The Entertainer") Gamin' on Ya Thank You (For Letting Me Be Myself Again) Red Hot Momma Y-Spy If You Don't Like The Effects, Don't Produce The Cause Straight Ahead Re-Enter Black Light (Entersection) Supergroovalistic Comin' Round The Mountain Baby I Owe You Something Can You Get To That? Seven Laws of WOO Flashlight/WOO-Lite ENCORE: Smokey If You Got Funk, You Got Style