Last month’s WEEN dates in Troutdale, Oregon were ones for the books.  The band tossed a couple of highly sought after deep cuts like “The Rift” (first time ever played live) and “Kim Smoltz” (only the 8th time played) into a pair of incredibly solid setlists, over their two night run at McMenamins unique 74-acre Edgefield property — the brewery/restaurant chain’s hotel on the premises is a former poor house and nursing home.  But beyond how it looked on paper, or even how tremendous it may sound on the recordings, it was the energy of those shows that truly stood out.  WEEN has a fairly divisive fan base, with many of the fans themselves even being split on their views about the scene and how it has evolved over the band’s 30-plus year career, which took them from a pair of friends — Mickey “Dean Ween” Melchiondo and Aaron “Gene Ween” Freeman — meeting in a Jr High typing class in the town of New Hope, PA; recording on 4-tracks; and performing wherever possible, as a duo backed by a DAT machine; to becoming a 5-piece major touring act playing mind-blowing 3-hour concerts in sold out venues across the globe.  That growth and evolution hasn’t only manifested itself by sheer numbers and a broadening demographic pouring in to make fans feel as if their little world may have over expanded and distanced them from their heroes, but also in a way that has demonstrated somewhat of a division within the group itself.  Since reuniting in 2016, after a 4-year hiatus, wherein Freeman searched within himself to successfully/courageously address his substance abuse issues, there has often felt as if there were two separate factions within WEEN: one with Gener, who comes out on stage and handles his business admirably each night, before retreating to his own separate quarters, and one with everyone else, who continues to work together on side projects and hang out together.  At The Edgefield, they finally felt like a genuinely cohesive unit again, for the first time since the reunion.  It was tangible and capped off with an encore that found the brothers WEEN performing alone together on stage as a duo again. They took it back to the roots and it was beautiful.

Based on comments heard throughout the weekend, as well as those which have followed online, since, this is the general feeling that permeated throughout much of the hardcore fanbase that was in attendance, but it turns out that not everyone’s experience centers around the magic of that unity emanating from the stage.  I recently read a review of the second night show that was written by a friend of mine who has a more limited experience with the group.  He praised their live show, but was taken aback by a crowd that overwhelmed him with attendees that he interpreted as drunk, douchie bros.  Do I doubt that there were some that accurately met that description around him?  Nope.  In fact, I’m convinced of it.  But that’s definitely not the scene that I experienced this time around, and I’m one of the most cynical motherfuckers around.  What I saw was a tightly knit community of fans built around their love of the group and their music.  One woman handed me a WEEN pin, while I was in the photo pit, which I later gave to my son.  Her and the other people on the rail formed one of the most welcoming and considerate front sections of any crowd that I’ve ever experienced at a rock show.  But what stood out the most was seeing fans collect donations to help support suicide prevention and awareness in the name of a recently passed member of the WEEN community named Grant Rozmarin, who lost his own battle with depression back on June 9th, shortly after the band’s performances at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado.

Grant was an invaluable member of the community as the man behind the Boognish Monster YouTube channel dedicated to the group’s music, as well as co-administrating the incredibly popular WEEN Appreciation Society Facebook group, which was thriving even during the 4 years that the project was inactive, reinforcing the incredible resilience of their work and signaling to the band the extent of the thriving support of those who have continued to be affected by it.  WAS gained enough momentum that Melchiondo actually stepped in to become an administrator himself, and he frequently pops in to communicate with fans and provide inside scoops.  It’s that genuine connection to the fans that has always been at the core of what they do and, just like with MIckey‘s short-lived “Warm Wet Stream” UStream channel, his actions through the group have demonstrated how much he truly enjoys sharing behind the scenes details and inside information with those who truly appreciate his life’s work.  One of the most rewarding things that he’s offered up are excerpts from his hilarious tour diaries.  No matter what your stance is on it, the band’s evolution is embedded in their identity and, while many of us might believe that, in a just world, WEEN should be one of the most widely recognized and generously compensated acts currently operating in the world today, all signs point to the fact that this is rarely a “just world.”  Deaner‘s tour diaries provide a murky dark brown view of what the experience was like for the men on a mission from Boognish and it’s something that only endears them further with those that love them.

Today, Mickey threw up a post in the WAS group that features a condensed, yet healthy, chunk of diary entries.  Although he didn’t specify, it seems pretty clear that these offerings reference the band’s summer tour from 2000, while promoting the White Pepper album.  I especially like seeing the 2 Seattle Showbox dates referenced, as those were my first ever WEEN shows.  After being a fan for years, it was seeing them live that really brought my appreciation of their musicianship to a brand new height.  One security guard who worked those concerts recently referenced them by telling me “Night one we kicked out 45 people, night two, 35.”

If you are a WEEN fan — and even if you aren’t — these are fucking gold.  As for the fact that the European tour wasn’t listed chronologically after the one in the states… I’m not sure why that was done, but I’ve chosen not to adjust that and simply left it as Deaner originally posted them.  In the super early days of his youth, MIckey used to make a zine, and this is just further evidence of his writing skills being on point and compelling.  But… you’ll see what I mean.  You can peep all of this out for yourself below.  I hope you enjoy getting close 2 the fantasy.  I know that we do.

Old condensed tour diaries:

Japan/Europe Tour Synopsis

8/5 Osaka/Summersonic Festival: Osaka Japan (Stage 2)
A whole day of traveling to get to Japan, only to play for 50 minutes in front of a crowd of about 900. the rest split to watch WEEZER on the main stage. After the show we had to drive all night to get to Mt. Fuji to play for another 45 minutes.

8/6 Fuji/Summersonic Festival: Osaka Japan (Stage 2)
This festival was at the base of Mt. Fuji, maybe one of the prettiest venues in the world. Of course the second stage was in a gymnasium, with about 900 people there. The other 30,000 people were watching WEEZER on the main stage. I guess we’ll have to wait to conquer Japan. Our attempts to find some Geisha girls to shave our nuts never panned out either
.
8/18 Bizarre Festival: Dutch Border-Germany (Main Stage)
A pretty good festival featuring Beck, Foo Fighters, and others. It was professionally filmed for German t.v. and we actually played really well.

8/19 Highfields Festival: Erfurt-East Germany (Main Stage)
This show was in the former East Germany alongside a lake. Got to see the new Rollins Band who were one of the best bands I’ve seen all year. These festival setlists were about 50 minutes, not enough time for us to suck or kick ass…we played pretty well tho, i hope.

8/20 Hamburg Trabrennbahn Festival: Germany (Stage 2)
I think this was the one at a racetrack, they all sorta blend together. The festival experience kinda blows, and after 3 days we had seen enough. Little porta-johns, lousy food, muddy fields, no soundcheck, shitty music on 4 or 5 stages simultaneously, nothin to do but drink yourself into a coma. I wouldn’t care if we ever played these shits again. Unfortunately, this night marked the birth of a really brown situation. While driving from this festival to Berlin, the 12 cd changer in our tourbus broke while loaded with our discs. Our bus was a British made piece of crap, which deserved to be burned to the ground. Claude, in a an alcohol induced moment of clarity, decided that he was getting the discs back at any cost. so with the help of his swiss army knife, he dismantled the stereo, leaving a pile of broken plastic and simulated walnut grain vinyl on the floor of the bus. Our bus driver (who shall remain nameless) took this a little too personally. This kinda thing happens a lot on tour and is usually resolved by the band paying for whatever damage they’ve done. Not this time though, as you will see by reading on.

8/22 Berlin Arena (with Foo Fighters) The “Berlin Arena”
sounds really nice doesn’t it? It was an empty hangar, (or warehouse) with big puddles of water on the floor. Probably could hold 12,000 people. As you can imagine, it sounded like shit, the Foo Fighters fans hated us, and we really didn’t give a flying fuck. Someone smashed out the tail light lenses on our bus, and despite our denials, our bus driver seemed absolutely positive that it had to be one of us who did this. All communication between band and driver ceased after Berlin, except when Aaron would address him….. in a poor British accent. On top of all this, Paul Monahan dislocated his knee while loading out. All the doctors gave him were muscle relaxers, much to my disapointment…I ate them anyway, but they didn’t do shit.

8/23 Malmo, Sweden/KB Club
This is such a beautiful place. All the women are blonde and perfect, and all the men were strong healthy aryan specimens. After 7 months of touring, our ragged, sorry ass collection of jews, negroes, and white trash, alcoholic, drug addicts came limping into this place on our broken-ass bus. 70 people showed up for the gig and we kicked their ass all over the place for 3 hours. Next up was a 24 hour drive back to England to play the esteemed Reading Festival, which would be headlined by OASIS. Here’s where it gets really chocolatey.

8/25 Reading Festival: UK (Stage 2 Marquee)
24 hours on a bus sucks, no matter what your final destination. When you’re going to England, on a bus with no music, with a driver who hates you, to a festival packed to the gills with shitty bands, with diesel fumes blowing out of the vents into your bunk,it can have a devastating effect on the morale of a tour. We had just taken the ferry from Belgium back over to Dover, England and we had about 3 and a half hours to get to our hotel in Redhill where we would rest before the Reading Festival. I had eaten a bunch of some girl’s menstrual cramp medicine with a lot of vodka and passed out in the upstairs lounge in front of the tv watching “Men in Black” when the bus suddenly stopped on the side of the road. Our driver had seen enough of Ween apparently, and called the police on his cell phone to meet him at a pre-determined location. He came into the back of the bus and the dialogue went something like this. “The police are here,get your shit and get the fuck off me bus…..” The cocksucker had called the police and left us on the side of the road. In retrospect, this was probably a smart move on his part for 2 reasons. 1) where I come from, this is justifiable cause for a complete beatdown, and the police probably saved his life…and 2) we were seriously considering setting the bus on fire at the end of the “tour.” Fortunately, the hotel was only a short distance away, and it was agreed between the police, driver, and Paulie (our tour manager) that the driver would drive our equipment to a rest area and wait for a new bus company to come get our shit. Dave Dreiwitz took pictures of this whole fiasco, I’ll try and post them soon. Our new bus driver was named Uncle Mattie and he was about 7 feet tall. We got along great, altho this bus wasn’t allowed to pull a trailer, which forced us to finish the tour with the equipment on the bus…in the aisles. Oh yeah, the Reading Festival sucked balls, and our new bus broke down 10 miles outside the festival on the first day. The poopship was now in full effect, with it’s coordinates firmly locked on any unfortunate motherfucker who would cross our path.

8/26 Pukklepop: Belgium (Stage 2)
Nice festival, too bad we sucked. I’’m into the word Puklepop though. 8/27 Lowlands: Amsterdam (Golf Stage) Sometime in the night, the bus arrived at our hotel in the middle of nowhere in Holland. Unbeknownst to me, there weren’t enough rooms for all of us, and I was passed out in my bunk. Not wanting to wake me up (because there wasn’t a room for me anyhow) Paulie decided to let me stay asleep on the bus. I woke up at like 4:30 am and decided to check into my room. The front desk receptionist didn’t have a key for me, didn’t speak English, and all I wanted at this point was a bed and a shower. I found an open door to a room where someone had checked out and passed out there. Well, Paulie never checked my bunk the next day and left without me for the festival. I woke up in Dunkelmoidel, Holland (or some such shit) and the bus was gone. I had no money, no clothes, and no information about where I was supposed to be. So I sat in the lobby until those bastards got to the gig and realized they had left me somewhere. Eventually someone came back for me and we played probably the best festival set we’ve ever done for about 15,000 appreciative fans. It was totally fueled by frustration and hatred. You can listen to some of this gig by clicking here.

8/28 Leeds Festival: UK (Stage 2)
The Leeds festival is basically the same as the Reading Festival, just in a different muddy field in the North of England. Saw the awesome American punk band AMEN, who kicked everyone’s ass on this day. Their singer, who was a really sweet guy, had a broken ankle and was kind enough to give me some Percocet which made me feel a lot better for a couple of hours.

8/30 Amsterdam: Paradiso
Our triumphant return to Amsterdam, this show was sold out in advance and really went off well. Great, rowdy audience, which is uncommon in Holland, although I felt like at least half the crowd were Americans. I finally went to the Van Gogh museum, after 15 visits to this city. Did all the usual misbehaving which is expected on a visit to this town.

8/31 Wiesen Festival, Austria
It’s a long fucking drive from Amsterdam to Austria with no days off. We were 6 hrs.late and arrived just in time to set up our shit and play… between the Deftones and Blink 182. Needless to say, the crowd hated us…and it took about 2 minutes into our set for me to get hit with the first beer can. This trend continued for the duration of our performance and climaxed with me getting hit in the face with a full cup of liquid during “The Blarney Stone.” At first I thought it was human piss, but it was cold enough where I realized that it was probably just beer. You assholes can suck my New Jersey dick.

9/1 Winterthur City Festival, Switzerland
A storybook little town in Switzerland, this festival was in the street. it was pretty enough to be on a postcard. There were only 3 bands, us, Boss Hog, and a local band. This was a lot of fun, and reminded me a lot of what I used to like about touring Europe.

9/2 Munich: Elserhalle
A really nice, new club that provided us with some of the best food we had on this tour. I asked the promoter if he could get me any painkillers and he went out and bought me a bottle of Aspirin. Other than that, it was a great gig.

9/5 Stuttgart: Longhorn
We had 2 days off in Stuttgart. Not Paris, not Switzerland, Stuttgart. Mick Preston and I wanted to take the train into town to shoot some pool, but the bitch at the front desk gave us bullshit instructions, so instead we took the train North into the middle of Germany. The cab ride back cost us 90 marks. As an experiment, (and out of laziness) I recycled our setlist from Pomona, California for this show and it ruled a second time.

9/6 Paris: La Bulle Noir
For some reason, we have only played in Paris one other time, opening for NoMeansNo back in 1990. This small club was sold out and we played one of our best gigs of the year. Hopefully it won’t take 10 years for us to come back to France. Met Emanuel, the dude who publishes “Weenbeat” fanzine, a magazine dedicated to us. We missed the fuel strike by 10 hours, enough time for us to get the hell out of France. Back to jolly old England to finish this hellish tour.

9/7 London: Astoria
The British press have never had a kind word to say about Ween. For some reason tho, White Pepper has been different. Our gig was sold out in advance, like 2,250 people who gave it up 100 percent for us. I got hit in the face with ice on the first tune, and beer cans rained down on us throughout the whole show. Apparently, this has replaced “gobbing” as an act of appreciation by the British audience. Hopefully next time we come to England we’ll have our shit cannons in working order so we can return your gratitude. Catch the vapors, I’m going home.

American Tour Synopsis pt. 2

6/16 City Fair: Kansas City, MO
Flew from Los Angeles to K.C. after doing our video and I got on the plane with a godammn throat infection. Well my ears never popped on the descent into Kansas City and I couldn’t hear too much for a couple weeks. had to go to a doctor, who told me that my hearing is that of your average 65 year old person…. said i should start wearing ear plugs onstage but i set him straight and told him that was for fags. standing onstage playing, felt like I was listening to the band from the bottom of a swimming pool. great gig tho and a cool venue outside in the middle of an open air market.

6/17 The Ranch Bowl: Omaha NE
This gig was in a bowling alley bar…not the nicest place we ever played but for some reason it was one of the better gigs we’ve played. I don’t remember too much more other than it kicked ass.

6/18 Ogden Theater: Denver CO
Probably the rowdiest crowd we’ve ever played to, and that’s the truth. this shit was out of control. ‘N Sync were staying at our hotel and there were little girls camped out in front of the place for the whole 3 days we were there. I think our lighting guy fucked one of them in the ass.

6/19 Ogden Theater: Denver CO
I think this was a good gig too, but I’m pretty sure the first night was better. We played different tunes both nights anyway. Played golf with Jkeats and took his money.

6/22 Vogue Theater: Vancouver BC, CAN
A pretty big show for us…sold out way in advance. I think we played pretty well…can’t be sure though. Drank too much, etc.

6/23 and 6/24 Showbox: Seattle
We played Seattle on the night that Experience Music Project thing that that computer guy opened, or something. These shows ruled….2 sold out nights…..we got very dark in this town. There were great shows happening all over this city to celebrate the opening of the museum. i enjoyed the hell out of both of these shows.

6/25 Crystal Ballroom: Portland OR
This was a really interesting venue and a great show. i guess they finally closed down La Luna, but we should’ve played 2 nights. i love the northwest.

6/27 Warfield Theatre: San Francisco CA
Had a great stay in san francisco, got to jam with my friend jon weiss and bill, the old bass player from faith no more on our night off. mick preston, our roadie, saved a little girl’s life at our hotel when she fell into the pool and sunk to the bottom while her mom was drunk -not paying attention. it was like 50 degrees outside and he saw this kid wander over the side into the pool, jumped in with all his clothes and boots on. the hotel replaced his cell phone and all his shit…pretty heroic stuff for a dirty douchebag like mick. as far as the show goes, the warfield is a great venue and they treat us well every time. that being said, this show never really seemed to click. maybe our expectations were really high or something but i came away from this one pretty frustrated. what i’m really trying to say is that i thought we sucked.

6/29 the Palace: Los Angeles CA
Got to go see a dodgers game, what a beautiful stadium…makes veterans stadium look like the toilet that it really is. jim leyritz hit a pinch hit 2 out double in the bottom of the ninth to win the game, pretty exciting. the south park guys opened this show for us with their band DVDA and they ruled. “Everybody Loves Crack” was my personal favorite. Also, the Queens of the Stone Age guys were all there so we had a nice reunion with our old touring buddies. The gig was good but short because of a dance night curfew, a problem that we seem to encounter a little too often.

6/30 the Glass House, Pomona, CA
Earlier in this day we played a drunken punk rock set at Benway Records in Venice….lotta weird tunes we haven’t played in a long time but it was a total blast. amazingly enough, we recovered in time to have an awesome show out in Pomona. The venue was really strange, no alcohol or smoking on the premises, very un-rock and roll. I have no idea why the best gigs occur in these strange places, but that’s the way it seems to work. overall, one of the best days of music on the whole tour.

7/1 House of Blues, Las Vegas NV
This was a really fun show, altho i’d like to play somewhere a little scummier next time. the best sounding stage monitors i’ve ever heard in my life. after this gig i lost 400 bucks playing blackjack before i managed to win it all back plus an additional 200 bucks at around 4 am…took the whole damn night though. Saw Hoover Dam while driving to the next gig….i was all kinds of fucked up at the time though.

7/2 Alice Cooperstown, Phoenix AZ
Asweltering hot gig….i thought i was gonna melt….i’m ready to play somewhere else next time….this is basically a sports bar with Alice Cooper’s name on it; you play outside in the courtyard. All the employees wear Alice Cooper eye makeup….gay. don’t get me wrong, they were nice to us and all…but whatever.

7/3 Sunshine Theater, Albuquerque NM
Got to hang out with my close friend and partner Dickie Moist (Guy Heller) who’s band “The Voodoo Junkies” opened up the show with a great set. Last year when we played here we had the famous lactating girl incident…that didn’t happen this time but it was still a really rowdy show. Everything went smoothly.

7/5 Will Rogers Center, Oklahoma City, OK
Had 2 days off here, for the 4th of July. someone gave me a bunch of quaaludes…not exactly the most social drug. 3 of us ate them….one of us woke up in the garden in front of the hotel surrounded by security…..i peed on the air conditioner in the hotel room thinking it was the toilet….and the other guy smartly passed out in private. watched the fireworks from the roofside pool at the hotel under the close eye of some hotel security dick who kinda sensed something bad about to happen. i wanted to write “Used Ass Towels” on the hamper that said “Used Towels” by the pool…spent way too much time trying to figure out how to do it without this guy seeing it. At the time it seemed hillarious. the show the next day was a lot of fun……went back with some kids to a house party and deejayed for a while with our tour buddy johnny.

7/6 Gypsy Tea Room: Dallas TX
Texas usually means trouble…and this was no exception. had a great sold out sweltering gig…i like this venue more than the places we usually play. got horribly, heinously drunk (yawn) and followed our dallas friends to a small after hours “club.” the rest is a haze…..i think we had fun….austin was hanging overhead though.

7/7 and 7/8 Stubbs: Austin TX
What can you say, this is the coolest venue in the world, with the coolest staff, in one of the best music towns in the world. we played to almost 5,000 people over 2 nights, pretty much double the amount of people we can draw in any other city. the shows were a blast, there were girls all over the stage, and people were overly generous in giving us their drugs. if we ever make another live record it will almost definitely be recorded at stubb’s. these few days were capped off by us getting to meet and hang out with curt kirkwood of the meat puppets, one of my all time favorite guitarists.

7/10 House of Blues: New Orleans LA
Sin city…….i always love to go to this town, although if i were smart i’d probably never go back……we’ve made a lot of friends in new orleans…..i think that’s part of the problem. 

there’s something magical about this city, if you’ve ever been there then you know what i’m talking about. the gig was great…..i think.

7/12 5 Pts South Music Hall, Birmingham AL
Blame new orleans, blame me, i don’t know, we got pretty drunk on tequilla before ever playing a note…..i think we probably sucked but i’m not sure.

7/14 Cow Haus, Tallahassee, FL
Shit haus

7/15 Jannus Landing: St. Petersburg FL
I love this place…it’s a cool outdoor venue in a weird sorta courtyard. last year it rained buckets during our gig, but this time the weather held on for us. went swimming in the gulf at like 5am with a bunch of friends while a bunch of freaks partied in my hotel room. the gig was one of my faves, helped by the beautiful girls
dancing onstage. this was one of the better shows for sure.

7/16 Hard Rock Live: Orlando FL
Ifigured that his show was either gonna rule or totally blow after seeing the venue and where it was. it’s shaped like the roman colloseum and it’s inside universal city in orlando, which is exactly like playing in disneyworld. the stage was a half mile long and they gave aaron a wireless microphone, which ended up being a key part of this show’s success. this was a blast….one of the illest shows in one of the most conservative environments. we played a really long “lmlyp” and most of the audience was onstage for the duration. afterwards, they took us up to the special “john lennon room” and “beatles” room and showed us their private collection of beatles shit, including one of john’s white pianos. pretty godammn cool.

7/17 the Chili Pepper: Ft. Lauderdale FL
Aaron got too drunk to…..walk…but somehow managed to channel it all into something gloriously horrible for our “concert”. i’d apologize for the 50 minute “poopship destroyer” but somehow i think you deserve it for living in ft. lauderdale.

7/19 40 Watt Club: Athens GA
We’ve been playing this club for years and always have a good time. hotter than a motherfucker in this place…..can’t think of much more….a good show.

7/20 Moose’s: Knoxville, TN
Ate a lot of chicken wings before and after this show ….jay dubbya came onstage and sang “war pigs” which kinda dwarfed everything else we played this night.

7/21 Metropol: Pittsburgh, PA
After months of hard touring we thought we’d reward ourselves by finishing the tour in knoxville and pittsburgh…jesus. show got cut short because of gay dance night or something. next time we go to pittsburgh we should book the gig into a urinal at the bus station, which would be a step up.

7/23 Wellfleet Beachcomber, Cape Cod MA
Igot us this gig through an e-mail from the guy who books the club…so i guess the internet is good for something after all. this was basically our “end of tour party” and we had a blast playing this small beach bar out on the cape. i went to take a leak behind the club during our set and 3 skunks started running circles around my feet…in all the excitement i stepped in a puddle of dave dreiwitz’s piss in my bare feet. i was too drunk to care anyway. a good time for sure, i’d play there again anyday.