Ween play live in Toronto Canada (Koolhaus)

Forget whatever you know or supposedly know, this straight off the tip of the dome is really most if not all of what you 'need to know' about Ween. Otherwise you just have to bathe yourself in the brownness that is Ween (today, Thursday, July 29, Kool Haus, Toronto, Ontario, Canada).

Ween are honourary brothers - the blessing bestowed upon them by their godhead the Boognish who likely first appeared to them during the mid to late eighties when they self-released a series of cassettes including the Crucial Squeegie LP, The Live Brain Wedgie and Axis: Bold as Boognish.

It should be said that Aaron Freeman (The Golden Jew) and Micky Melchiondo (clearly a Wop) are from New Hope, Pennslyvania which is outside Philadelphia. Not unlike the most famous duo - in fact the progenitors of Bright Eyed Blue Eyed Philly Soul- Mr. Darryl Hall and Mr. John Oates (to whom Freeman admits a non-ironic debt to the 'ridiculous amount of soul on their early records' - like for instance Abandoned Luncheonette). On one of their better known ballads Freedom of '76, a fan favourite (Spike Jonze video directed) is as much an homage to the black and white Soul of Philly, PA is it is to the 'liberty bell cracked in half'.



Think of it this way- Deaner's mom is Quebecois so the records she had around the house (explaining perhaps their baffling title Quebec for one of their more recent prominent achievements) included Leonard Cohen whereas Gener clearly introduced Deaner to for instance Prince and Parliament Funkadelic. Therein, with alot of scotchguard in between lies the core of their early bond. Now at what may be the penultimate moment - of which there are so many at a Ween concert- their concerts sometimes culminate in the performance of Poopship Destroyer (which I believe contains elements of both Prince's Alphabet City and Shockadelica). Likewise Mickey Melchiondo's elegaic guitar solo/song Tear For Eddie is an homage to the blindingly brilliant guitarist Eddie Hayes who was with PFunk for it's most important stretch.

In 1989 they released GodWeenSatan: The Oneness. The full malice that is the Boognish was made incarnate on The Pod recorded on 4 track in Solebury Township, Pennsylvania reportedly under the influence of Scotchguard. The problem with inhaling Scotchguard is as Micky once pointed out 'it makes you see everything in grids'. The cover of The Pod is a direct and obvious homage to Leonard Cohen's Greatest Hits except in place of the debonair Canadian Cohen we get Mean Ween with an inhaler mask that is known to fans as simply The Cribbler.

There will be more time to talk about their back catalogue when intensive pre-show rituals and routines don't need to be followed to the strictest measure.

Know though that Gene and Dean are not alone on that stage they have brothers in arms for long standing including badass bassist Dave Dreiwetz, the superchunky Claude Coleman on drums and very invigorating in recent years is the addition of elder statesmen Glenn McClelland (formerly also notably of David Clayton Thomas` Blood Sweat and Tears) who responded to an open audition (to play an organ solo on Pandy Fackler) and won the role clearly meant for him.

“There are some people you can tell have a good sense of humour and they would be a lot of fun to hang with. To me, The Beatles are really funny,” Melchiondo says. “And Prince is probably the funniest fucking guy in the whole world. He changes his name to unpronounceable symbols and people get all caught up in it -- he’s probably laughing his ass off about it! … But I’m not so sure that Robert Fripp has any humour at all. That would be the last person I’d ever wanna fucking hang with.” - Mickey Melchiondo, National Post, July 29