Neglected British fans of Ween will have to bide their time until May 2008’s ATP to see the dynamic duo live. Music Towers got a sneak preview of their current live show in St Louis, Missouri on the eve of their first album release in 4 years. Tonight, St Louis’ Pageant is the smokiest venue you’d ever want to go with an oxygen mask in tow; without it, breathing is difficult indeed. Ween bring no support act and start the gig promptly at eight o’ clock precisely. Through the fug of 2000 smokers, they take to the stage. Joining the still lean Dean (guitar & vox) and the paunchier Gene Ween (vox & guitar), on stage are the cool Claude Coleman Jr. on drums, the increasingly Kris Kristofferson-like Glenn McClelland on keyboards, and Dave Dreiwitz on bass. The band, uniformly wearing jeans and old T-shirts, stand in front of the huge toothsome Ween emblem; the Boognish which glows different colours with the lights. That’s about as technical as the show gets; there’s no place for visuals or artiness here.
With next to no audience interaction between songs, Ween start to plough their way through a 2 hour 10 minute set - excluding encores. Although Dean (Michael Melchiondo) and Gene Ween (Aaron Freeman) have been entertaining American college kids and fans of their genre-hopping quirkiness for 23 years now, they still look like they’re having a ball up there. After a couple of their more pedestrian numbers, Ween treat the St. Louis audience to a taster off their brand new album, 'La Cucaracha'. ‘Learning To Love’ is a particularly tongue-in-cheek and non-sensical country ditty. It’s not long before they pick up the pace and settle into some more driving rock; the most successful being their classic ‘Voodoo Lady’. Both Gene and Dean play guitar on this one allowing some serious guitar dueling while Coleman pounds out a military beat. It climaxes in a ten minute wig-out with Dean strutting his rock god stuff. The track pulls back before building up again like a freight train pulling out of a station and picking up speed. It earns them a standing ovation.
