[ATTENDED: July 20, 2015] Gene Ween
I knew and liked Ween back in college. I stopped following them once they released their country album, so I was surprised to see just how many records they had released and just how respected they had gotten (relatively of course).
Dean and Gene Ween are from New Hope and they released dozens of records as Ween. Gene Ween (real name Aaron Freeman) quit the band in 2012, which basically dissolved the band.
Freeman released a few records under the name Freeman and some under Aaron Freeman and one or two under Gene Ween (not to be confusing or anything). It seemed like he wanted to dissociate himself from Ween a bit, although since hardly anyone knew his real name, it seemed like a hard thing to do, which explains why he is touring as Gene Ween now. And given that much of this show was made up of Ween songs, he’s clearly not ashamed of it or anything.
I genuinely didn’t know what to expect from him for this show. I was also surprised to see that he’s a gray-haired dude now (of course, why wouldn’t he be, but it was still surprising). Also surprising is that he was just as childish and silly as he was all those years ago.
I wouldn’t say this was a greatest hits show exactly (he didn’t play “Push Tha Little Daisies” after all), but he did play a bunch of Ween songs (mostly from Chocolate and Cheese) as well as a few solo songs.
Gene seemed to be having a really good time. He was smiling a lot (well, who wouldn’t singing this nonsense). And he enjoyed chatting with us “children.” And his voice sounded great–strong and powerful as he belted out those notes.
But the really impressive thing about the set was how good his backing band was. I’m basing who they are from the Gene Ween website, and I apologize if I’ve gotten a name wrong.
Joe Young on bass always kept the song moving along even when Gene and the lead guitarist (see below) were playing with effects and generally making nonsense or really rocking out. Matthew Byason on drums was amazing. He could change from one style to another, always keeping the beat and supplying some extra sounds when the songs needed it.
Lead guitars were supplied either by Elijah Austin or Sean Brierty or possibly someone else entirely. He’s on the right in this photo to the right. And he was fantastic. He did some wailing solos, he made some crazy effects (he even played keyboards) and he played the amazingly lengthy end solo of “(For A While) I Couldn’t Play My Guitar Like A Man.” The only problem was that his speaker got really quiet for that last solo. So he stood up there wailing away, but you could barely hear him. There’s nothing worse than that–you know he’s doing some amazing stuff, you just cant hear it. He even did the great rock star cliche of playing behind his head.
For anyone keeping track, that means that within a week I saw a guitarist play with his teeth, another one play his guitar with a bow and a third play behind his head (and if we go a bit further back, I got to see two double necked guitars in play as well).
I recognized the first song “Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down),” “Spirit of ’76” (he can still hit those notes) and “Voodoo Lady” (all from Chocolate and Cheese). I didn’t recognize “I Can’t Put My Finger On it” but that may be because the live version was about a thousand times better than the album–they really jammed the song and made it loose an a lot of fun.
It’s hard to believe that anyone wrote, much less continues to sing “The H.I.V. Song” although the music for that is pretty awesome–especially in this live version, when they ratcheted up the middle section to breakneck speed. I also enjoyed “The Golden Eel” which I didn’t know. I just listened to it on Spotify and have to say it was better live, too.
I enjoyed the show. I know a few people who love Gene Ween, and while I’m not quite here yet, I did enjoy his set.
This is my best recollection of the setlist
- Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down) (Ween song)
- The Golden Eel (Ween song)
- Black Bush
- Golden Monkey
- Voodoo Lady (Ween song)
- The H.I.V. Song (Ween song)
- Freedom of ’76
- I Can’t Put My Finger on It (Ween song)
- (For A While) I Couldn’t Play My Guitar Like A Man
I loved getting this photo with the upcoming headliner looming behind him.
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