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Ween
September 2, 2001
Commodore Ballroom
Vancouver, Canada
Oh, Ween. What would we do without
them?
On the first of a two-day Ween-stravaganza,
these indie faves had competition down the block from the
all-ages Cake show which was happening at the Vogue.
Line-ups for both shows reached down their respective blocks
and around the corner. The crowd outside the Vogue seemed
a much more 'pop' crowd than the stoner kids and hippies that
piled up outside the Commodore. After realizing that the band
had absolutely zero photo restrictions that night for anyone,
off I went to take in the pure Ween-ness of the evening.
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I suppose after a certain time, a band's
show doesn't evolve significantly, but remains solidly fantastic
despite its lack of change. Ween has an impressive live history,
and while every show of theirs you go to might seem incredibly
familiar, this may well be a big part of their charm. This
is a band that's as comfortable to be around as the family
dinner table on a cold winter's evening. They don't drag an
opening band around with them, as their shows generally take
up three or four hours. The room filled quickly, and the beloved
Dean and Gene Ween toodled out on stage to a
swell of cheers. Hardly anyone remained in the seats around
the outer edges of the club. The dance floor was packed with
singing bodies, and the bouncing Commodore floor was put to
the test instantly. This was a night of 'Love Thy Neighbor',
and who cares whether or not you've ever met them before.
All around the room, people latched onto those next to them,
drinks hoisted in the air, and danced away like nothing I've
ever seen before--except at the Ween show last year. Even
the fellow I went to the show with abandoned me when a couple
other people started gesturing to him to join them on the
dance floor. And the room did fill with the swirling haze
of smoldering BC bud. The flustered security guards soon gave
up all attempts to get people to put out their spliffs and
let the love-in continue on its own passive, merry, drunk-and-stoned
path.
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The band itself is always putting on a massive
show. The boys are looking a bit weathered these days, but
when they get onstage, they become a mass of joyous energy.
Dean is always either laughing or sticking his tongue out,
and Gene was more mobile this time around than I remember
him. It really gets me when he starts bugging his eyes out
at the crowd. Ha ha. The backing band is amazing. That's one
thing I remember from the last gigs as well--especially the
drummer. I wish I knew the guy's name, but he's just out of
this world. Amazingly quick, and doing all these fancy little
tricks with his drumsticks while he plays. Very entertaining.
On this night, after a quick hop across the border, the guys
were without one of their road techs, and so had a local guy
helping them out. They made a point of introducing the guy
and thanking him for coming in on such short notice. As usual,
there was much consumption of whiskey, and much fooling around.
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They meandered through a much more casually-arranged
set of songs than they did the last time through town. Where
before, they seemed to go through themes (country, jigs, island…),
this one was scattered all over the place. "El Camino",
"Flutes Of Chi", "Piss Up A Rope", "Dr.
Rock" (during which some braindead individual thought
it would be a good idea to chuck a heavy pint glass at the
stage which just about took Gene's head off)…the cavalcade
of classic tunes spanned their catalogue of albums. They ended
the night with "You Fucked Up", but just before
that…
In what was to many the big highlight of
the evening, the Ween boys suddenly came up with "Hot
For Teacher". I've gotten indications that they cover
this song fairly frequently (these days at least), but I certainly
had no prior knowledge of it, and I suppose anyone who is
not the sort of diehard fan who tracks the band's tours and
such, probably wouldn't know about it either. It surprised
many people and really emptied out the wings of the building.
A huge pulsing mass of people descended on the dance floor
and screamed along to the song while bopping away like the
'80's never ended. I hear the previous show at the Bumbershoot
festival, the band got word that David Lee Roth
might be making a special appearance for that show (he was
playing the venue the next night or something like that),
and had the Weeners on edge most of the night. Davie never
showed.
This time around, they played for a mere
two and a half hours, but even that long with Ween gets physically
exhausting. They apparently spent the evening post-show hanging
out with some of the locals, which is a fairly common practice
for them. Reading through their bittersweet tour stories is
quite amusing in regards to all the tales of rock debauchery
and fan associations. As Dean mentioned last year (when I
had the chance to hang out with them after the show for a
couple hours), "Everyone wants to party with Ween."
— Andy Scheffler
Talk Back
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