Search This Blog

Saturday, September 18, 2010

"An Evening with Ween!" Central Park Summer Stage 9/17/10



Stop what you're doing right now and Google “Ween”. Then check and see when they're coming to your town, or contact them and beg them to come to your town, because if you don't see Ween live in concert, then you just don't know what living is about. What goes on... Lets get into the 35th edition of the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series and the completion of our “Three Nights of Weirdness” tour, which brings us back to the Central Park Summerstage, only tonight to see the immortal Ween.. And it's not raining! It's actually pretty nice out- sun is shining and everything. I'm going to try and show up as early as I can, as I have no idea what kind of turnout we're looking at and I'd love to get a better spot than last night.. 'Doors' are at 7, and my ticket is at will call.. Will this be the same set up as last night where there is no opening acts and we get two hours of Ween? That would be awesome, but let's not get our hopes up..



Stepped out of the cab at 6:30, I'm here way earlier than last night and there are tons of Ween fans everywhere-it was so different then last night, like it was in an entirely different place..I know Ween has a following, but you would've thought Phish was playing or something the way everyone came out tonight. The crowd was one of the best I've ever experienced.


As I was on a line to get Pizza I turned and noticed the smoke machines starting to get going. Got my slice, pounded two beers and headed towards the stage to try and get a good spot. I stationed myself on the same side as last night, but substantially closer.. I almost was along the railing, I was this close to offering the girl who was there $20 bucks for her spot.. The smoke is everywhere, I look at my phone and it's 7:30, and the a huge roar from the crowd as Ween hits the stage, at seven freaking thirty! So another night of no openers as “An Evening with Ween” begins at 7:30

“Buckingham Green” was what they kicked it off with... The stage is electric from the first chorus break with the lights going crazy. Ween has a much more extravagant light show then Cake last night-not comparing the two bands but differentiating the two nights at the same venue.. . Times of continuous strobe lights bouncing off smoke during in-song jam sessions made you just look up to the stage and take it all in- there are no inhibitions at that time.

There's probably twice as many people as there were for last nights evening with Cake- That sort of surprised me as I waited on one of the longest lines I've ever seen to get in. So many people were pumped for this in the hour before they went on, and we are definitely getting more than our money's worth."She Wanted to Leave", “Bananas and Blow" followed, and I am amazed that I was able to get any sort of set list going here. I was scribbling down the lyrics to songs and just spent the last hour googling them to get the titles. Again, so worth it though, as Ween is relentless up there getting into "Learnin' to Love" and then the epic “Transdermal Celebration”... some others were(in this order) “Take me Away”, Don't Get 2 Close","Even if you Don't", “Push Th' Little Daises" which I was able to tape unlike the following “Sorry Charlie"or an amazing version of “Voodoo Lady” which I was so pissed I didn't get... That was the song in my head all freaking day! I didn't recognize it until it was too late, still great though and they were at that song for like what seemed like 15 minutes-in the middle they got into a jam of some sort, one involving the Deaner and his amazing riffs .. dude could really shred.. . Later “Happy Colored Marbles, “The Stallion Pt. 3","Your Party", The awesome Bowie cover “Let's Dance”.. these guys are so cool!.. my new favorite song came next-" You Fucked up" followed by "Hey There Fancy Pants"," The Goin Gets Tough From The Getgo”", “I'll be your Johnny on The Spot”, “The Mollusk", “Spinal Meningitis","Mister Will You Please Help My Pony," Roses are Free".. and then they ducked off stage at 9:48.. I'll now assume that Central Park Summer Stage has a 10pm end time for all shows.. .

Returned to the stage at 9:50, and Dean gets on the mic to say " we only got ten minutes to do our thing here".. With everyone in uncontrollable screams- they jumped into "Fiesta".. Then, another song I picked up on during my week and a half of doing Ween research- "Mr. Richard Smoker" as I smoked my last cig. Then it was nearing 10, and they played the only song they could play after 2 and a half hours of straight rocking- "Dr Rock".. a song that makes you just wanna scream, and we did! Well, I didn't because I was recording, but amazing... I am completely blown away-Blown! I knew Ween rocked, but I wasn't aware of the magnitude of their rockin'. That was one for the record
books.

Fucking Ween- kicking ass every song of the entire set.. I was getting into songs that I didn't even know yet halfway through I'm singing along with everyone.. And the Deaner- can't say enough about the Deaner.
Now I can see how the Meat Puppets and Ween are apples from trees located on similar farms in far away towns. Completely tearing it apart on every song. They played non-stop for two and a half hours. What more could you ask for.. the professionalism that comes with putting on a show rides a thin line between being cool and being pretentious- Ween sums up what the “Being cool” side of that line is all about... Amazing, can't say enough about it. And to top it off, on the way out there were dudes selling balloons filled with Nitrous Oxide (Whip-Its) three for $20... I could not resist and it was awesome.. I sat myself on a rather large rock and while finishing off the balloon I notice there was a field of people who just enjoyed Ween, sitting on the grass, benches and floor doing Whip-its... What a night... On the way out I grabbed myself a Ween 2010 tour tee shirt.. awesome


It was without a doubt “Three nights of Wierdness”, and it was worth every penny I spent this week and the 3 hours of sleep I've gotten since Wednesday.... but now I have a full week to rest up and I'm going to need it because the next stop on the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series is the BLACKDIAMONDSKYE tour @ Madison Square Garden Featuring Alice in Chains, Deftones and Mastodon … I'm going with Pam. My Father will be along for the ride too, as these tickets are his birthday gift this year. Come on now am I the greatest son ever or what? Anyway, thanks if you made it this far... LATE.


Ween setlist
Buckingham Green
She Wanted To Leave
Bananas & Blow
Learnin' to Love
Transdermal Celebration
Up On The Hill
Take Me Away
Dont' Get 2 Close (2 My Fantasy)
Even If You Don't
Push The Little Daisies
Sorry Charlie
Voodoo Lady
Happy Colored Marbles
Stallion pt. 3, Ice Castles
Final Alarm, With My Own Bare Hands
Your Party, Let's Dance
Touch My Tooter, You Fucked Up
Stroker Ace
Wavin' My Dick In the Wind
Fancy Pants, Going Gets Tough
Waynes Pet Youngin'
Jonny On th' spot
The Mollusk
Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down)
Roses Are Free
Encore:
Fiesta
Mr. Richard Smoker
Dr. Rock

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great and timely review! Sorry Charlie blew me away. How did your recording turn out?

Jay Porks said...

There's a link to my YouTube page on the right side of this site.. or you could just search YouTUbe for jay Porks, since I put myself in the tags the vids will come up.. I got Buckingham Green, Let's Dance, Push Th' Little Daises, Transdermal Celebration and Dr. Rock all posted on YouTube right now..

As for the timeliness, that's just how I do things. When I get home at night no matter what time, I write the review as I monitor the videos uploading. So whatever's on my concert calender you know you'll see something from me just hours after the show. You could 'Like' the Jay Porks Experience on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1742073344&ref=ts#!/pages/The-Jay-Porks-Experience/262440259741?ref=ts