great band. i have the toronto thingy on white brown stain vinyl. chocolate & cheese was the first thing i heard of their's. i think the mollusk or quebec are their best albums for songs. the free-man album is great too. will be interested to see if this reunion comes off.
I saw them live in the spring of 1988 at City Gardens in Trenton. They opened up for Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper. I didn't know who Ween was at the time. I remember thinking that they were probably due for the morning bell in high school the next morning. They appeared to me to be *THAT* young. I remember asking myself if it was legal to work in a bar if you were below 21 (or possibly even 18). City Gardens was a dive. Slummiest place I'd ever been in. Looked to me like it was once a supermarket in a prior lifetime... not a large one... but the kind that used to exist before supermarkets started competing for customers by trying to out-size and out-deluxe each other. I know Jon Stewart was once a bar tender at the place - but I think he was gone by the time I visited. I only went that once. Most of the acts that weren't hardcore punk usually played at venues closer to me (like the Green Parrot in Neptune) or in Philly - where I could double up a visit to see a band with a night at my parents. The Chestnut Cabaret was more my speed.... The first time I ever heard ABOUT Ween was when I heard Ben Vaughn talking about them before he covered "El Camino". That was in August of 1991 at the Fastlane in Asbury Park, NJ. Vaughn referred to them as a band from New Hope (PA) that he was certain would become big. Ben was playing solo using a machine similar to the one used by Ween. But back in 1988, I swear they just played along with prerecorded backing on a cassette tape. It was very low tech... but they had tremendous attitude - and weren't easy to ignore. In 1993, I noticed them on MTV... and I was kind of surprised they were making some noise on the tv channel (courtesy of Beavis and Butthead) with "Push the Little Daisies". I went and bought the corresponding CD and still didn't make the connection that these were the young kids I saw five years previous. But when I bought "God Ween Satan" (for "El Camino") and I heard "You F-ed Up" I immediately said "Hey, that's those two guys from City Gardens !!!!" I still love "LMLYP" on that cd. Never found anything exactly identical on a Prince album. Yes, it's supposed to be Shockadelica but I've never found a version so deliriously raunchy as the one by Ween. When the country album arrived, I wasn't surprised at all.... just bemused that Ben helped hire Nashville's best session men to play behind some youngsters singing "blue" songs
Looks like Deaner and Gener have settled the score. Announced a run of shows in April 2016 at Terminal 5. http://www.ween.com/
Anyone manage to score tickets to any of these shows? There's a lot of disgruntled fans on Ween's Facebook page. I just hope this is a reunion proper with a new album and more touring, and not just a quick cash grab.
Going to Denver tomorrow and looking forward to the promised 94 different songs (not counting requests) over the weekend!
Ween Returns To The Stage At 1st Bank Center In Colorado » gener's fat, dener's going bald, and they sound tremendous.
I saw them in 2002 at the first Bonnaroo. It was first exposure to them but ended up delving into they're catalog. I hav Chocolate and Cheese on vinyl from Schnitzel Records. I forget how it sounds. Really glad they are back together but if they're backstage was the **** show I heard it was there is no way they last or he stays sober.
First saw them in 2005 and Gener's voice was shot that night (sick). Dean stepped up to the plate and it was a guitar-fest (e.g., Tear for Eddie and whatnot). Saw them again in 2010 and they killed it. Fortunately, that night... Gene was in perfect form.
I checked out the setlist from the first show. It had a disappointing amount of White Pepper material, only 2 songs. Also only 2 songs from The Mollusk and none from Quebec. As someone who prefers their later material, I hope they balance it out more as the tour rolls on.
The three night stand in Colorado is supposed to include about 100 songs, including fan requests, with no repeats over the three shows. I've got a pretty strong feeling that they'll break out a lot more songs from The Mollusk and White Pepper over the next couple of shows. The setlist from last night included at least one live debut of an older never-played-live tune, and some relative live rarities, along with the "hits." I think that going forward, we'll see more of that, along with the established warhorses (warponies?). These shows are definitely geared toward the faithful, who have waited years for this to happen. We may get to hear some songs from Quebec also, although many of those songs date from a relatively dark time for the band and its members. Those songs may be less favored now as a result. Who knows? I'm enjoying just reading the setlist from last night! They sound great, based on the online videos so far. Hope that Gene can stay happy & healthy and this can continue. I'd love the chance to see them again. Love all of their records, some more than others. For my money, The Mollusk and Quebec are the best two, on a song-by-song basis, with White Pepper and Chocolate And Cheese just (slightly) behind. Depends on the day.
They have promised no repeats over three nights. We will get more from those albums tomorrow and Sunday. Future shows likely will have fewer rarities and more from those albums like they did in the past, they wanted to do lots of rarities in Denver. Last night was epic. They sounded terrific and were clearly having fun.
I heard night 1&2 recordings. Gener sounds a little bit off at times, but this is Ween we're talking after all. No big deal. They played about 93 songs which all of them are great. They have the best catalog of songs of any band I know. This reunion is as big as a Beatles reunion for me!
Heads up that Plain have recently put out coloured editions of most of their catalogue including a 'cocoa and cheddar' Chocolate & Cheese, and a pink/blue GodWeenSatan. I have the C&C reissue, and it's just as sonically good as the black pressing.
