WEEN “Steps Away From The Stage For The Foreseeable Future”

When Aaron Freeman announced that WEEN was disbanding in 2012, the news was just as much of a surprise to the rest of the band as anyone. Better known as Gene Ween, Freeman had been battling with a severe substance abuse problem and it had become become increasingly clear that touring as part of the band was counterproductive to him remaining alive. The fact that Gener was struggling should have been obvious to anyone who had witnessed his dramatic weight shifts over the years and, most notably, his infamous “meltdown” at the 2011 Queen Elizabeth Theatre show in Vancouver, British Columbia. Aaron formed the group with his partner Mickey “Dean Ween” Melchiondo way back in 1984, after the pair met in their 8th grade typing class in New Hope, Pennsylvania. After nearly 30 years of embodying Gene Ween, it had to be next to impossible to separate the character of rockstar in one of the most left-field and irreverent musical projects of their generation from the family life he had established outside of it.

Some may view this time as a dark period, or even a stain on WEEN‘s legacy, but I’ve always interpreted it differently. To me, Aaron not only saved himself, but he saved the band. This was an era of triumph for Freeman that not only saw him releasing an impressive solo album and performing select shows of Billie Joel covers, but if he hadn’t taken that time to distance himself and get his shit together, the band likely would have burned out forever, if not killed him. Alternately, they reformed in 2016 and have had an arguably solid run filled with some amazing performances, since then. That is… until now.

2024 was slated to be a major year for WEEN. They haven’t released a new studio album since La Cucaracha in 2007, but the 30th anniversary celebration of their Chocolate & Cheese record involved an impressive deluxe reissue expanded with numerous unreleased tracks. It was all set to culminate with the band performing the entire album on the original release date of September 27th at Mann Center For Performing Arts in Philadelphia. The year started off promising with a pair of February shows in Phoenix followed immediately by 2 more in Del Mar, California, which I heard great things about. Unfortunately, a string of dates scheduled for April were canceled with a message from Deaner addressing fans and crediting it to his need to prioritize his mental health. The one upside to this was that, since they weren’t playing Nashville on 4/20, anymore, the local Seattle shop, Royal Records, managed to book Gene Ween for a secret in-store solo performance on Record Store Day. We were in attendance for that gig and witnessed how healthy and optimistic Freeman looked from up close. In speaking with the store owner, Tyler, he relayed to me how Gener expressed excitement for the upcoming fall tour dates. At that point, there was still very good reason to believe they would continue as planned.

At the beginning of this month, Ween played a trio of incredibly well-received shows, which we missed due to attending the Pickathon Music Festival in Oregon. The first two took place at Kettlehouse Amphitheater in Missoula, Montana on August 2-3, followed on the 4th with a show in Spokane. Everyone that I spoke with who attended them felt that they were on a roll and crushed those shows. Driving back to town on the 5th, I stopped in Olympia, Wa to grab some pizza and pickup my ticket from a friend. I was expecting to see them in Seattle the very next night. When I opened my phone to text her, however, the following announcement popped up on Instagram.

Gener lives in Seattle, these days, which is why he was willing to come out for the in-store. That means that he needed to be in the city either way. The details of the cancelation were a bit vague, which quickly generated a ton of speculation, along with complaints and anger from the more entitled contingent of the fanbase. But while there always seems to be a number of demanding assholes yelling at the band, I was pleasantly surprised at how many genuine fans offered well wishes and expressed their support, prioritizing the band’s well-being over their desires to be entertained.

No cancelation announcement had come in for the sold out Chocolate & Cheese show, so fans were trying to remain optimistic. As copies of the reissue began to hit shops and arrive in the mail from preorders, the excitement only continued to build. Unfortunately, the moment so many have feared, has just arrived. Not only is the big anniversary show canceled — an event that they announced a full year ago — but the band has announced that they are taking a break from live performances, indefinitely.

There are different ways to interpret this, but the one thing that seems clear, at this point, is that they aren’t willing to make any plans for the future. What they didn’t say is that the band is broken up permanently. As Melchiondo put it when Gener left the group, “I can only speak for myself, but as far as I’m concerned, as long as Aaron and I are both alive on this planet, Ween is still together. We’ve never broken up. The idea of quitting is just laughable. This isn’t something you can quit. This is a life sentence.“

WEEN specifies that they won’t be hitting the stage and, since they’ve essentially only existed as a live band for over a decade, that effectively places the project into hibernation. That said, if you want to get really rose-colored with the whole thing, that technically leaves the door open for them to start writing together again (a boy can dream). More realistic is the idea that they could get together in a similar way as they did for the recent reissue and assemble some already existing material. Deaner promised a sequel to Shinola, Vol. 1 at least 8 years ago, after all. Maybe it could still happen.

Word on the street has been that Aaron‘s dedication to sobriety has long isolated him from his bandmates, as he stayed in separate hotel rooms and distanced himself from any partying the others may potentially partake in. Are Melchiondo‘s current “mental health” issues related in any way to his own substance use? It’s hard to say, but whatever the case, he obviously needs the break. If the members never work together again, I can live with that. They don’t owe any of us anything and I’d much rather know they are healthy than have them perform for us. But if there is any hope of them moving forward, then a climate needs to be created where these deeper personal issues are able to be addressed without any additional responsibilities looming over head. I’m of the belief that, if/when that occurs, WEEN has the potential to be stronger than they have been in a long time. And if this is, indeed, the end of WEEN as an active recording and performing musical project in the traditional sense, then we want to say thank you for everything.

Get well, Deaner.