I hold in my supple yet manly hands two ducats to go see the world’s greatest duo of non-related brothers.
Yes, friends… Ween is coming to Champaign in October, and I am going to meet them there. They’re playing at the Canopy Club in support of their upcoming album “La Cucaracha,” which is due in about a month. Ween puts on a fantastic live show, which usually are 3+ hours in length and include a few offbeat covers.
It’ll be my third time seeing Gene and Dean. The first time was back in 2000 at Mississippi Nights when they were supporting “White Pepper.” Their second encore included a smoking, note-perfect version of “Hot for Teacher.” Unfortunately, we had to leave after that, missing the third encore, because by then it was pushing midnight and two members of our party had to work in the morning. Geeks.
The second time was in 2002 at Shryock Auditorium on the SIUC campus. There was no way I was going to miss Ween playing at my alma mater. They were touring smaller venues before they began recording “Quebec,” their most recent regular studio album, and they played one of the songs to close the show. During the encore, they covered “Ohio” by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, and earlier they’d played the Ween version of the Guess Who’s “These Eyes,” called “Deez Nuts.” To close the encore, they announced that this was the last time they’d ever play the song live and then launched into an incredible 15-minute-long version of “Buenos Tardes, Amigo.” Driving home after the show, we first drove through an intense spring thunderstorm then had to deal with some yahoo ahead of us throwing firecrackers out of the car.
I’m not familiar with Champaign, so if anyone has any thoughts about the Canopy Club, feel free to leave them.
