Ween

House of Blues, Orlando, FL • August 22, 1999

Isaac Airbourne

In the beginning there was lots of smoke. My party of three stood around sipping mixed drinks. The rest of the audience (including those up front, who probably couldn’t see the band because the stage was “so fucking high”) stood around not sipping mixed drinks and bored out of their minds; meanwhile, the lead singer was “so fucking high” that he just sort of floated around the stage and snapped his fingers and said, “Yeah…alright” between songs. There wasn’t any, “this is ‘Dr. Rock,’ by Ween” or “thank you, we’re Ween,” or even the plain and simple truncated version that they traditionally insert in every break between songs, “We’re Ween.”

OK, so maybe there WAS, but the band seemed so disconnected from the audience that it was just hard to even notice they were playing. This show had absolutely no energy – many attributed this to the fact that Ween shouldn’t be playing in venues this large. Don’t get me wrong; Ween are brilliant songwriters and one of the most entertaining bands I have seen in the past. But for some reason, it didn’t work this time. I kept praying for a huge spaceship to come down from the ceiling and kill everyone; no such luck. No encore, no big explosions, no band members pulling girls out of the crowd and making out with them, no rendition of “Hot For Teacher.” But in the end, I didn’t come away hating them; this legendary band that wrote “Poop Ship Destroyer” deserves a few more chances, and I highly recommend that everyone in a band attend a Ween show or two in their lifetime. They’ll hopefully show you what it means to rock. ◼