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Photos: Bonnaroo 2009

Live Reviews

Wu where?

Wu-Tang Clan

I’ve always enjoyed Whip ’Em Out Wednesdays because classy chicks flash skin at the sight of my “W.O.W.” bumper sticker. Wonton Wednesdays at my local Chinese digs also rock. But lately the hump-day event I most look forward to is Wu-Tang Wednesdays at Tommy Doyle’s, where I’m guaranteed to have more rebel fun than I did on my first stadium-church-service mushroom trip.

Last week, I showed early to meet Jamie, who’s been throwing the event in Harvard Square for more than a year, and who’s known as Kiwi to those who frequent his proverbial 36 Chambers. “It’s a labor of love,” he told me — the only real payoff for him and DJs Permeus Flex and Gibbs is the opportunity to floss eager minds with RZA strings and Ghostface philosophy. When Harvard hosted Wu-Tang at Yardfest last month, you needed school ID. At Kiwi’s parties, it’s recommended that you know the words to “Triumph.”

Once the Celtics had left the court after their Pistons fifth-game squeaker, the swollen basement crowd erupted with Clan howls and hand salutes. Gibbs and Flex spun us through classics (“Liquid Swords,” “Ice Cream”), contemporary heaters (“Dashing,” “Gun Will Go”), and collabos (“Black Trump” with Smif N Wessun, “The What” with Biggie) and down the family tree through Capadonna, Gravediggaz, and even Afu-Ra. This would be impossible with any other hip-hop catalogue; I and the three other hopeless Wu fiends I went with were all put onto new tracks.

For a Wu-Tang fan who’s suffering through the bling era, it’s refreshing enough to find someone else who even knows that Ghostface jumped on Mos Def’s “Ms. Fat Booty” remix for the Lyricist Lounge sequel back in 2000. So to be among 100-plus heads who rhyme along when the song asks “Remember when we licked the cream out of Suzy Qs?” induces straight-up euphoria. If that sentence was the most confusing thing you’ve read since Hegel’s Science of Logic, then you’d better stick with Tone Loc Tuesdays and Sanjaya Saturdays.

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