it is the '90s and we are ween

ween: my fav band:)

it's 1990, i haven't been conceived yet, smoking pot is way cooler than it is now, and hair metal is breathing its death rattle. it will be reincarnated, the same but different. long haired dudes playing guitar. except they don't really sing about partying and rocking your girlfriends body, its more like stoner guys who wear jeans with a passing interest in punk (but they're mostly into other shit). rock and roll baby! 

our story today takes us to new hope pennsylvania, the home of my favorite band: ween! the group was formed by brothers dean and gene ween in a middle school typing class in 1984. the two of them cranked out tape after tape, hit after hit for about 6 years, playing shows in silly costumes with backing drum and bass tracks running off a tape machine. 

emmie, ween have been around for like 35 or 40 years, why are you only talking about the first few years they were a band? well, let me let you in on some ween wisdom, some of the best ween live recordings were taped in 1990, a few months before they put out their first record, god ween satan. today i wanna talk about one of the more infamous of these 1990 shows, in trenton, new jersey. 

the trenton gig happened on february 2nd 1990, and is probably best known for the last five or so minutes which features henry rollins (ugh) defending ween from numerous hecklers in the audience. it actually took me a sec to find the full recording of the show cuz those damn five minutes have been uploaded so many times! its okay, he's talking about how all these other bands are like weak pussies and suck (i think there's a dig at einsturzende neubauten lol) and ween is actually way more awesome than all of those poseurss. 

i couldnt find a pic from february 2nd 1990 at trenton city gardens,
but this pic of ween smoking cigs is pretty hard don't ya think??

i agree with all that BUT the set preceding that rant is a way more interesting listen. it has the same dramatic structure as a movie or a classic novel. the exposition; ween arrives and introduces themselves and they play a few songs that are met with a slightly-warmer-than-lukewarm audience reaction. as the plot develops you get some rising action where people start yelling GET OFF THE STAGE and GET A DRUMMER and i'm pretty sure throwing coins at the band (this is tough to verify but you do hear gene at one point saying ahhh yes pennies pennies!). another fav moment occurs when someone in the crowd is screaming something along the lines of who the f**k even are you guys?? and dean yells back HEY THATS PAPA GENE WEEN YOU FUCKA!! which is hilarious and pretty sick. 

some would argue that henry getting up and doing spoken word is actually the climax of the set, but the true pinnacle of it all is probably the song "housequake." after some epic back and forth with da crowd including a lot of expletives i won't repeat here, and a fakeout "we dont have any more songs" gene goes "disco! wanna hear a disco beat?" and they go crazyyy on this prince-inspired banger. the bass track is unfinished and they indulge in some white guy type rapping, but its really funny to hear the amount of sass these guys were capable of before sasscore was even invented. i apologize if im getting some of these details wrong, i usually listen to this set on a bootleg tape i made. from there we get a really awesomely chill "puffy cloud" performance which kinda puts the audience in their place, and they take some crowd requests and *yawn* henry comes onstage. trenton new jersey really used to have some assholes at the city gardens huh?? but yeah i would say, if you wanna dip your toes into some non-studio ween this set is a great place to start!! they also play a great version of the song nan, one of my fav god ween satan era bangers. 

ween is super inspiring to me because they never let themselves be limited by the gear they had, or let themselves be boxed into some genre they didn't wanna play. you can do whatever you want with whatever you got! further listening: ween live in basel switzerland the same year, in which the band plays extremely drunk to an audience of roughly five people. fun fact, dean ween cites the basel show as one of his fav shows ween ever played! anyways, thanks for reading. music rules.