The night before Gene Ween played Philly last month, I made two important decisions:
One, I would get my ass out of bed before noon on a Saturday and make it to the show, two states over.
Two, a cheesesteak would be absolutely imperative.
The latter ended up being perhaps the most regretable decision of the entire spring of 2011, but in what is around #13 or so on my tally of Ween-related show, last month’s set at the World Cafe Live in Philadelphia is among the best ever.
Gene Ween did two hours alongside Dave Drewitz and Claude Coleman, Jr, allowing essentially most of Ween (3/5, to be exact) to play a full set of Ween material. Gene opened up the show on solo acoustic with “Squelch the Little Weasel,” which was then followed up with Dave joining him on bass and Claude sitting in on an abbreviated drumset (kick, snare, hi-hat and crash).
Lots of trademark Ween-crowd revelry. Lots of big beards and hippie stench. Lots of fun times. Lots of stuff that made the show a great time (exclusing hippie stench, of course). Everything was in abundance (including rare Ween tunes that usually don’t make it to the full electric shows). The only thing that was in large quantity that I came to regret was the mysterios red sauce on my cheesesteak at Pat’s. When it comes to gigantic sammiches, however, there are lessons to be learned that I will never quite understand. Tis my shortcoming.
Anyway, here are some photos. It should be made note of (Thanks, John!) that the door on the battery compartment of my camera fell off before the show. As a result, I had half a pack of cherry lifesavers lodged ontop of my battery, which was then secured down to keep the unit it place thanks to four layers of tape. I only had to re-do it every ten minutes. Real McGyver stuff.
One of these days my legit site will be up and running and I can actually make these look non-dumb. If you know the girl in the “Big Jilm” shirt, please send her my way so I can make-do with a marriage proposal. Thank you.
The setlist (as eloquently typed from my cell phone at the show, like a real winner):
solo:
squelch
with Dave and Claude
ooh VA la
flutes chi
stallion three
stallion four
leave you on the farm
she’s yr baby
mtns and bflo
grobe
framers talking bout
that fucking Hawaiian one (dd on uke bass)
stay forever
spirit walker
object
freedom
rights to the ways
cptn fantasy
don’t get too close
pork roll egg chz
set break
ARGUS
choco town
yr party
baby bitch
daisies
tried and true
