Ween Cast

Rory and Shane are very pleased to welcome their first guest to the podcast, their good friend and longtime Ween fan, Mike!

Mike is an old buddy of ours who has been to countless Ween shows with us, and so we knew we had to get him on here one time or another.  It turns out, he was in attendance for one of the shows at The Vic Theatre, to be used in the “Live in Chicago” DVD.  It was a gas to jog his memory and get his recollections from that evening. Grab some deep dish and enjoy this conversation and recollections of November 8th, 2003.

Well, here we are.  This is the mother of all shows...April 20th (420) 2000!  The 1st annual "Cook College Earth Day Festival" with headliner... Ween!  Join Rory and Shane as they discuss the second part of this huge 2 part discussion about April 20th 2000, Rutgers University!

It was an evening like no other.  Free show.  Open air outdoor venue. 420.  Ween. Prepare to be blasted into another dimension! It was mere weeks before the release of White Pepper, and Ween was en fuego! They played the panoply: a dose of the old with the likes of “Nan,” “Laura,” and a beautiful “Sorry Charlie,” and also the new with a song like “Even if You Don’t” having been played for only the fifteenth time at that point.  The jams were bounteous: “Springtheme” was orgasmic, “Voodoo Lady” (with “Kiss” by Prince interlude!!!!!) was legendary, and “Poopship Destroyer” was brown AF. We’re just scratching the surface here: I am telling you, legends walked among us that evening!

For part two we spread the love around and also include fan stories from that night.  Tune in and check it out!

Well, here we are.  This is the mother of all shows...April 20th (420) 2000!  The 1st annual "Cook College Earth Day Festival" with headliner... Ween!  Join Rory and Shane as they discuss the first part of this huge 2 part discussion about April 20th 2000, Rutgers University!

It was an evening like no other.  Free show.  Open air outdoor venue. 420.  Ween. Prepare to be blasted into another dimension! It was mere weeks before the release of White Pepper, and Ween was en fuego! They played the panoply: a dose of the old with the likes of “Nan,” “Laura,” and a beautiful “Sorry Charlie,” and also the new with a song like “Even if You Don’t” having been played for only the fifteenth time at that point.  The jams were bounteous: “Springtheme” was orgasmic, “Voodoo Lady” (with “Kiss” by Prince interlude!!!!!) was legendary, and “Poopship Destroyer” was brown AF. We’re just scratching the surface here: I am telling you, legends walked among us that evening!

Join Rory and Shane as they recap their night at the newly renovated and reopened Metropolitan Opera House in Philadelphia on December 14th 2018! This venue is one of the newest in Philly, and this show was part of their “grand reopening” series alongside such badass acts as Bob Dylan and Weezer.  And what night it was!  Jams  Filled to the brim with rarities, songs such as “Fluffy,” “Boy’s Club,” and “The Argus” echoed through the great hall of this classic Hammerstein theater.  Not to mention for only the fourth time ever, “Loop de Loop,” done in tribute to Stephen Hillenberg, creator of Spongebob Squarepants, who had recently passed away. A fitting memorial and a reminder of Ween’s cultural influences beyond even music.  An epic and monumental evening by all accounts; won’t you stay awhile?

In this special 10th episode Rory and Shane break down Ween's studio albums to determine their top 3 favorites!  Wow, what a tough decision. As every fan knows, each album is different from the next, and a unique expression of Weenness.  Each album is it’s own facet in the evolution of the band.  From the loud and obnoxious God Ween Satan, the melancholy weirdness of The Pod, the twang of Twelve Golden Country Greats, to the clean, high fidelity White Pepper, or the darker and more somber Quebec, we clearly had a lot to think about! (not to mention all the other damn albums like Chocolate and Cheese, The Mollusk, Pure Guava, and La Cucaracha) We give a quick summary of the relative merits of each album, and then lay out our top three.  Do you agree? Tune in to find out.

To celebrate our move to Anchor.fm, we’ve gone back and taken another look at our earlier episodes.  Man, it’s been a while, and we’ve learned a lot.  Although our earlier lo-fi era certainly had it’s brown charm, we thought it couldn’t hurt to remaster these sons a’ bitches.  We ran noise reduction and took a fine tooth comb to the .wav file, adjusting amplification to improve listenability.  While we didn’t include any deleted scenes, or give you an extended peek at the Wampa, we hope that these improvements make this episode better to listen to.

Episode 9: 11/05/1999, The Tralfalmadore Cafe, Buffalo, NY.

Head North young men....again!  Break out your chicken wings and turn on the juice because Shane and Rory head to Buffalo for the November 5th, 1999, show at the Tralfalmadore Cafe! Driving over the mountains and through the Pennsylvania Wild’s in naught but Shane’s old Horizon, it was a miracle we even made it. The venue was basically in a mall, and the floor was memorably a squishy wet swamp, but make no mistake, this was a 3-hour long monster of a show.  This show was part of a short, eight city tour, and sometimes, in this situation, Ween really brings the brown. This was one of those nights.  They were laying down rarities like “Little Bird,” and “Old Queen Cole.” They also, amazingly, played all three jam songs, “Buenos Tardes Amigo,” “Reggae Junkie Jew,” and “LMLYP.” Huzzah! This is a show not to be missed!

To celebrate our move to Anchor.fm, we’ve gone back and taken another look at our earlier episodes.  Man, it’s been a while, and we’ve learned a lot.  Although our earlier lo-fi era certainly had it’s brown charm, we thought it couldn’t hurt to remaster these sons a’ bitches.  We ran noise reduction and took a fine tooth comb to the .wav file, adjusting amplification to improve listenability.  While we didn’t include any deleted scenes, or give you an extended peek at the Wampa, we hope that these improvements make this episode better to listen to.

Episode 8: 08/28/1999, The Electric Factory, Philadelphia, PA.

In this episode we go back to the city of brotherly love for the final show of the Paintin the Town Brown tour!  We get down with the get down on August 28th 1999 at the Electric Factory! This was our second show in Philadelphia that year, only the venue had changed, and Ween had been touring hard in support of the recently released Paintin’ The Town Brown Live Album, a seminal live retrospective of the band’s live history to that point. This was the kind of a night, at the end of a tour, in home territory, where Ween just burned the place down. Reverend B’ill was in the house and he sat in on a few tunes, and Jon Fishman of Phish was also there, and well, you’ll have to check out the podcast if you want to see what we say about that!

To celebrate our move to Anchor.fm, we’ve gone back and taken another look at our earlier episodes.  Man, it’s been a while, and we’ve learned a lot.  Although our earlier lo-fi era certainly had it’s brown charm, we thought it couldn’t hurt to remaster these sons a’ bitches.  We ran noise reduction and took a fine tooth comb to the .wav file, adjusting amplification to improve listenability.  While we didn’t include any deleted scenes, or give you an extended peek at the Wampa, we hope that these improvements make this episode better to listen to.

Episode 7: 07/27/2018, Stage AE, Pittsburgh, PA.

Shane and Rory discuss the show at Stage AE on July 27, 2018!  Though Shane couldn’t make this one, Rory was full on representing. A car ride through storms turned into clear skies, a full moon, and a beautiful evening.  With the moon rising over the city skyline, Ween came to rock.  The show featured hard rock blocks mixed with some exceptionally rare tunes like “Rights to Ways and the Rules of the World.” and “Demon Sweat.” Join us as we take you back to the ‘Burgh in true River City style!

To celebrate our move to Anchor.fm, we’ve gone back and taken another look at our earlier episodes.  Man, it’s been a while, and we’ve learned a lot.  Although our earlier lo-fi era certainly had it’s brown charm, we thought it couldn’t hurt to remaster these sons a’ bitches.  We ran noise reduction and took a fine tooth comb to the .wav file, adjusting amplification to improve listenability.  While we didn’t include any deleted scenes, or give you an extended peek at the Wampa, we hope that these improvements make this episode better to listen to.

Weencast Episode 6: 07/25/1999, The Warehouse, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Take off you hoser!  In this episode Rory and Shane head to the Great White North for the Paintin' the Town Brown tour of Summer 1999! This was our first true road trip to see Ween and man was it worth it! This was a throw back show: a hot and sweaty, thrashing, mosh pit kind of a jam. The band didn’t hold anything back and neither did the fans! A lot of brown to go around, including some incredibly whack Kareem Adbul Jabbar into North Pappy Flappy into an epic LMLYP jam finale. Admit it, you had to look some of that up! Enjoy!

To celebrate our move to Anchor.fm, we’ve gone back and taken another look at our earlier episodes.  Man, it’s been a while, and we’ve learned a lot.  Although our earlier lo-fi era certainly had it’s brown charm, we thought it couldn’t hurt to remaster these sons a’ bitches.  We ran noise reduction and took a fine tooth comb to the audio files, adjusting amplification to improve listenability.  While we didn’t include any deleted scenes, or give you an extended peek at a Wampa, we hope that these improvements make this episode better to listen to.

Episode 5: 01/01/1999, The Trocadero, Philadelphia, PA.

In this episode Rory and Shane ring in the new year at the Trocadero show in Philly on January 1st, 1999! What a show is all we can say about this one! This show featured a Prince sandwich, opening with “1999” and wrapping up with “LMLYP.”  Ween also rocked out a few early renditions of some White Pepper tunes, as well as reached back into the vault with songs like “Frank” and “Tender Situation.” This was a monumental show by any definition, and was the perfect way to celebrate New Years!