Entertainment
CONCERT REVIEW: Ween @ Terminal 5, NYC
Tue, Dec 11, 2007 5:29 pm
By Zac Bardou
In 2002, Henry Rollins warned, “You will get down on your filthy knees and crawl to the altar that is Ween.” On Saturday night December 1st, when the satire rockers took the stage at Terminal 5 in New York City to play their final show of 2007, 3000 fans’ ardent genuflection proved Rollins prophetic.
Bowery Presents opened their newest and largest venue in October and have already hosted national acts such as M.I.A., The Shins, and The Decemberists. The company touts the newly renovated space, formerly occupied by Club Exit, as the largest midtown venue to open in more than a decade.
Forty-foot ceilings, two balcony levels complete with their own bars, a decidedly industrial ambience and state of the art lighting made the new venue a great place for Ween to close out a year that has seen the release of their latest album, La Cucaracha, and national touring that has rarely relented over the last 11 months.
Guitarists Aaron Freeman (“Gene Ween”), and Mickey Melchiondo (“Dean Ween”) began the Ween story in the 1980s, with a handful of self-released cassettes and eventually two groundbreaking indie albums, entitled God Ween Satan: The Oneness and The Pod, that seethed with psychedelic energy and musical innovation. In 1992, the duo signed with Electra, releasing Pure Guava, the first of five studio albums they released on that label.
With each studio effort, Freeman and Melchiondo explored and deconstructed new genres, developing an appreciable mastery of each while finding ways to lovingly tweak and satirize them, rendering a final product that is always irreverently and undeniably Ween.
For their live shows, Freeman and Melchiondo enlist the services of keyboardist Glenn McClelland, bass player Dave Dreiwitz and drummer Claude Coleman to interpret the digitally layered two-man constructions from their albums. Together, the five musicians eschew many of the vocal effects and strange studio sounds that pervade the original material and, with live instruments, seek to inject a raw and rollicking energy that leaves fans tantalized and salivating for more. At Terminal 5, they accomplished just that.
Around 8:20 PM, much to the delight of the expectant crowd, the on-stage smoke machines suddenly cut on and a billowing fog soon obscured much of the stage. After ten anxious minutes, the house lights finally fell to black and the host in attendance released its pent excitement with a clamorous ovation as Ween took the stage.
The band kicked things off with a reprise of Friday night’s “Fiesta,” a lushly Latin signature track off of the band’s new album that suggested the party would be picking up right where it left off the previous evening. They followed with the swarthy rebellion of “Take Me Away” and Gene abandoned his guitar, freeing his hands to reverently brandish an invisible imaginary orb as he belted a triumphant rendition of “Transdermal Celebration” that set the stage for the psychedelic fray soon to ensue.
Ween plucked songs from all of their albums, at times following poppy prog with country rock and breezy coconut calypso with forays into their own bizarre twists on pop. The light racks responded to every whim, whether setting the stage ablaze as guitar riffs reverberated in the cavernous space, or bathing it in ghostly, shadowy hues as the band coaxed otherworldly, percussive soundscapes from their instruments.
Highlights of the two and a half hour barrage included Quebec’s “Happy Colored Marbles,” the dark and sinister mini epic “Buckingham Green,” a four-song acoustic set that provided the almost moshing masses with a bit of a breather midway through the show and a blistering rendition of “Woman and Man,” perhaps the most incendiary track off of the new album. But it was the final five songs, culled mostly from Ween’s oldest material, that really set the new midtown venue to smoldering.
“Papa Zit” gave way to “Gabrielle,” “Big Jilm” followed, The Pod’s “Frank” and “Fat Lenny” provided a furious finale before the band returned for a two-song encore that stretched on for nearly a half hour, bloated by a Coleman drum solo that shook the foundations and rattled the minds of the slack-jawed 3000. Before closing the book on 2007, the band reprised “Fiesta” one last time, bringing their two-night stand full circle and inciting a wild and celebratory response from the sated crowd.
The lights came up and many lingered, happily recounting with friends all that they had seen and heard. As people poured out into the streets, many could be heard humming and singing the key-spawned trumpet track of “Fiesta” as they danced in the streets and frolicked drunkenly with their companions, and it was clear that Ween’s work here in New York was done – at least for 2007.
In 2002, Henry Rollins warned, “You will get down on your filthy knees and crawl to the altar that is Ween.” On Saturday night December 1st, when the satire rockers took the stage at Terminal 5 in New York City to play their final show of 2007, 3000 fans’ ardent genuflection proved Rollins prophetic.
Bowery Presents opened their newest and largest venue in October and have already hosted national acts such as M.I.A., The Shins, and The Decemberists. The company touts the newly renovated space, formerly occupied by Club Exit, as the largest midtown venue to open in more than a decade.
Forty-foot ceilings, two balcony levels complete with their own bars, a decidedly industrial ambience and state of the art lighting made the new venue a great place for Ween to close out a year that has seen the release of their latest album, La Cucaracha, and national touring that has rarely relented over the last 11 months.
Guitarists Aaron Freeman (“Gene Ween”), and Mickey Melchiondo (“Dean Ween”) began the Ween story in the 1980s, with a handful of self-released cassettes and eventually two groundbreaking indie albums, entitled God Ween Satan: The Oneness and The Pod, that seethed with psychedelic energy and musical innovation. In 1992, the duo signed with Electra, releasing Pure Guava, the first of five studio albums they released on that label.
With each studio effort, Freeman and Melchiondo explored and deconstructed new genres, developing an appreciable mastery of each while finding ways to lovingly tweak and satirize them, rendering a final product that is always irreverently and undeniably Ween.
For their live shows, Freeman and Melchiondo enlist the services of keyboardist Glenn McClelland, bass player Dave Dreiwitz and drummer Claude Coleman to interpret the digitally layered two-man constructions from their albums. Together, the five musicians eschew many of the vocal effects and strange studio sounds that pervade the original material and, with live instruments, seek to inject a raw and rollicking energy that leaves fans tantalized and salivating for more. At Terminal 5, they accomplished just that.
Around 8:20 PM, much to the delight of the expectant crowd, the on-stage smoke machines suddenly cut on and a billowing fog soon obscured much of the stage. After ten anxious minutes, the house lights finally fell to black and the host in attendance released its pent excitement with a clamorous ovation as Ween took the stage.
The band kicked things off with a reprise of Friday night’s “Fiesta,” a lushly Latin signature track off of the band’s new album that suggested the party would be picking up right where it left off the previous evening. They followed with the swarthy rebellion of “Take Me Away” and Gene abandoned his guitar, freeing his hands to reverently brandish an invisible imaginary orb as he belted a triumphant rendition of “Transdermal Celebration” that set the stage for the psychedelic fray soon to ensue.
Ween plucked songs from all of their albums, at times following poppy prog with country rock and breezy coconut calypso with forays into their own bizarre twists on pop. The light racks responded to every whim, whether setting the stage ablaze as guitar riffs reverberated in the cavernous space, or bathing it in ghostly, shadowy hues as the band coaxed otherworldly, percussive soundscapes from their instruments.
Highlights of the two and a half hour barrage included Quebec’s “Happy Colored Marbles,” the dark and sinister mini epic “Buckingham Green,” a four-song acoustic set that provided the almost moshing masses with a bit of a breather midway through the show and a blistering rendition of “Woman and Man,” perhaps the most incendiary track off of the new album. But it was the final five songs, culled mostly from Ween’s oldest material, that really set the new midtown venue to smoldering.
“Papa Zit” gave way to “Gabrielle,” “Big Jilm” followed, The Pod’s “Frank” and “Fat Lenny” provided a furious finale before the band returned for a two-song encore that stretched on for nearly a half hour, bloated by a Coleman drum solo that shook the foundations and rattled the minds of the slack-jawed 3000. Before closing the book on 2007, the band reprised “Fiesta” one last time, bringing their two-night stand full circle and inciting a wild and celebratory response from the sated crowd.
The lights came up and many lingered, happily recounting with friends all that they had seen and heard. As people poured out into the streets, many could be heard humming and singing the key-spawned trumpet track of “Fiesta” as they danced in the streets and frolicked drunkenly with their companions, and it was clear that Ween’s work here in New York was done – at least for 2007.
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