Ween Plays Tulsa
I’m experiencing an unexplained burst of energy today, so I have to take advantage of that and get my concert post out there!
A week ago Saturday I went to see Ween in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This was the closest they were coming to Dallas on this tour, so I decided to make the trip even though gas is so expensive nowadays. This was the second time that I had seen them at Cain’s Ballroom, so I pretty much knew what to expect as far as what the place would be like.
Since I was also visiting Holli and Faith that weekend, I drove to Tulsa from Oklahoma City on Saturday evening for the show. It wasn’t a bad drive, about 100 miles, but I thought it was lame that the whole trip was on a toll road. I think tollroads are bullshit. If you need money just tax me, OK. And what’s up with tollroads that are still tollroads after the road is paid off? Just call it what it is – a road tax. This is how politicians get away with cutting taxes. They make up for it somewhere else, like raising tolls on tollroads. It’s a tax! Anyway, the trip to Tulsa was $9 roundtrip. What a ripoff!
Whew, got a little sidetracked there! I wanted to get there about an hour before the doors opened so I could get a spot right up front for photos. Punctuality, however, is not one of my strong points. I ended up getting there about 5 minutes before doors, and there was a huge line of people. I thought fer sure I was screwed on getting a rail spot, but luckily once I got inside I was able to get a spot on the left side of the stage. Right next to me was a 7 year old boy and his mother. Man, how cool does a mom have to be to take her son to Ween? It was his first Ween show, but not his first concert.
There was an hour and half wait before Ween hit the stage, but it went pretty quickly. The first thing I noticed when Ween came out is that Gener is looking pretty large these days. Especially if you compare him to how skinny he is in the Chicago DVD. But if he’s healthy then more power to him! Deaner just got out of a leg cast a few weeks ago. He seemed none the worse for wear.
The show was great! Gener seemed to be having a good time throughout the night. He was smiling a lot. There were quite a few equipment problems, but they fought through things pretty well. Dave blew out an amp, and there was something wrong with Glen’s keyboards for the first few songs, but you couldn’t tell from the sound. This was my fifth Ween show. The setlist was pretty standard for the most part. I heard some of the La Cucaracha songs live for the first time, including my favorite “serial killer who sings like Al Green song”, “Object”. “Albino Sunburned Girl” was a nice treat. This was my first Ween show at which “Ocean Man” and “Jonny On The Spot” didn’t make an appearance, but that’s OK because it allows them to work in stuff I haven’t heard live before. They played “Flutes of the Chi”, which was pretty rare until this tour. For some reason Deaner wanted to play drums on “The Mollusk”, so he did. Claude came out with Deaner’s guitar shortly thereafter. They were pretty jammy and stretched out quite a bit during the show.
During the encore I got to hear one of the songs that I’ve been waiting to hear for a long time. I don’t know which part is weirdest: (a) that Ween has a song called “Poop Ship Destroyer”, (b) that I requested it a few times loud enough for them to hear it, or (c) that they actually played it! The live version differs greatly from the album version. They usually stretch it out live and make it kind of an occasion for all sorts of solos and other weirdness. There was a guy with a video camera in front of me between the barricade and the stage, and at the end of the song I could see on his screen that it clocked in at almost exactly 20 minutes. A couple of times Claude (the drummer) tried to end things and started to get up, but Deaner kept playing and made Claude keep going. It was really cool! They ended with a great cover of Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades” sung by Dave. Kind of makes me wonder why they never play “It’s Gonna Be a Long Night” live since it’s such a similar-sounding song.
I didn’t find the crowd as annoying this time as I did last time at Cain’s. But I think that’s mostly because I was right up front. I didn’t have to worry about people trying to elbow their way past me. It also helped big time that Cain’s is now smoke free. Even though the guy next to me eventually was able to sneakily smoke a cig, the overall air environment was much more pleasant this time. A couple of assholes did throw stuff onstage, including a beer which got Glen’s keyboards wet (as well as my head). I hope someone beat the crap out of that jerk. I also got hit in the head with a water bottle that was mostly full. Thankfully it didn’t hurt. I’m telling you, if I coulda found whoever threw that thing right at that moment there woulda been a ruckus. As it was I turned around and gave everyone a double-barrelled one-finger salute. Nobody copped to it.
I didn’t get a setlist, but after the show I was skulking around the merch table to see if they took plastic (unfortunately they didn’t), and I saw a girl with a setlist. I asked if she would mind if I took a photo of it, and she let me. Since “Poop Ship” wasn’t on there, I’ll just have to take credit for that one!
Setlist:
Piss Up A Rope
The HIV Song
Bananas & Blow
Learnin' To Love
Take Me Away
Transdermal Celebration
The Grobe
Object
Voodoo Lady
Albino Sunburned Girl
Buckingham Green
My Own Bare Hands
Happy Colored Marbles
Flutes Of Chi
Your Party
Exactly Where I'm At
Roses Are Free
She's Your Baby
Stroker Ace
Touch My Tooter
Gabrielle
Woman & Man
I Can't Put My Finger On It
Slow Down Boy
Frank
The Mollusk (Deaner on drums/Claude on guitar)
Encore:
Fiesta
Never Squeal On The Pusher
Poopship Destroyer
Ace Of Spades
Classic Deaner face
Deaner ignores the smoking ban
Gener ignores the smoking ban
Rare shot of Claude on guitar
The girl next to me was pointing at Claude all night. You can see her pointing in the corner of the frame. Here's Claude's response.
Curtain call
A week ago Saturday I went to see Ween in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This was the closest they were coming to Dallas on this tour, so I decided to make the trip even though gas is so expensive nowadays. This was the second time that I had seen them at Cain’s Ballroom, so I pretty much knew what to expect as far as what the place would be like.
Since I was also visiting Holli and Faith that weekend, I drove to Tulsa from Oklahoma City on Saturday evening for the show. It wasn’t a bad drive, about 100 miles, but I thought it was lame that the whole trip was on a toll road. I think tollroads are bullshit. If you need money just tax me, OK. And what’s up with tollroads that are still tollroads after the road is paid off? Just call it what it is – a road tax. This is how politicians get away with cutting taxes. They make up for it somewhere else, like raising tolls on tollroads. It’s a tax! Anyway, the trip to Tulsa was $9 roundtrip. What a ripoff!
Whew, got a little sidetracked there! I wanted to get there about an hour before the doors opened so I could get a spot right up front for photos. Punctuality, however, is not one of my strong points. I ended up getting there about 5 minutes before doors, and there was a huge line of people. I thought fer sure I was screwed on getting a rail spot, but luckily once I got inside I was able to get a spot on the left side of the stage. Right next to me was a 7 year old boy and his mother. Man, how cool does a mom have to be to take her son to Ween? It was his first Ween show, but not his first concert.
There was an hour and half wait before Ween hit the stage, but it went pretty quickly. The first thing I noticed when Ween came out is that Gener is looking pretty large these days. Especially if you compare him to how skinny he is in the Chicago DVD. But if he’s healthy then more power to him! Deaner just got out of a leg cast a few weeks ago. He seemed none the worse for wear.
The show was great! Gener seemed to be having a good time throughout the night. He was smiling a lot. There were quite a few equipment problems, but they fought through things pretty well. Dave blew out an amp, and there was something wrong with Glen’s keyboards for the first few songs, but you couldn’t tell from the sound. This was my fifth Ween show. The setlist was pretty standard for the most part. I heard some of the La Cucaracha songs live for the first time, including my favorite “serial killer who sings like Al Green song”, “Object”. “Albino Sunburned Girl” was a nice treat. This was my first Ween show at which “Ocean Man” and “Jonny On The Spot” didn’t make an appearance, but that’s OK because it allows them to work in stuff I haven’t heard live before. They played “Flutes of the Chi”, which was pretty rare until this tour. For some reason Deaner wanted to play drums on “The Mollusk”, so he did. Claude came out with Deaner’s guitar shortly thereafter. They were pretty jammy and stretched out quite a bit during the show.
During the encore I got to hear one of the songs that I’ve been waiting to hear for a long time. I don’t know which part is weirdest: (a) that Ween has a song called “Poop Ship Destroyer”, (b) that I requested it a few times loud enough for them to hear it, or (c) that they actually played it! The live version differs greatly from the album version. They usually stretch it out live and make it kind of an occasion for all sorts of solos and other weirdness. There was a guy with a video camera in front of me between the barricade and the stage, and at the end of the song I could see on his screen that it clocked in at almost exactly 20 minutes. A couple of times Claude (the drummer) tried to end things and started to get up, but Deaner kept playing and made Claude keep going. It was really cool! They ended with a great cover of Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades” sung by Dave. Kind of makes me wonder why they never play “It’s Gonna Be a Long Night” live since it’s such a similar-sounding song.
I didn’t find the crowd as annoying this time as I did last time at Cain’s. But I think that’s mostly because I was right up front. I didn’t have to worry about people trying to elbow their way past me. It also helped big time that Cain’s is now smoke free. Even though the guy next to me eventually was able to sneakily smoke a cig, the overall air environment was much more pleasant this time. A couple of assholes did throw stuff onstage, including a beer which got Glen’s keyboards wet (as well as my head). I hope someone beat the crap out of that jerk. I also got hit in the head with a water bottle that was mostly full. Thankfully it didn’t hurt. I’m telling you, if I coulda found whoever threw that thing right at that moment there woulda been a ruckus. As it was I turned around and gave everyone a double-barrelled one-finger salute. Nobody copped to it.
I didn’t get a setlist, but after the show I was skulking around the merch table to see if they took plastic (unfortunately they didn’t), and I saw a girl with a setlist. I asked if she would mind if I took a photo of it, and she let me. Since “Poop Ship” wasn’t on there, I’ll just have to take credit for that one!
Setlist:
Piss Up A Rope
The HIV Song
Bananas & Blow
Learnin' To Love
Take Me Away
Transdermal Celebration
The Grobe
Object
Voodoo Lady
Albino Sunburned Girl
Buckingham Green
My Own Bare Hands
Happy Colored Marbles
Flutes Of Chi
Your Party
Exactly Where I'm At
Roses Are Free
She's Your Baby
Stroker Ace
Touch My Tooter
Gabrielle
Woman & Man
I Can't Put My Finger On It
Slow Down Boy
Frank
The Mollusk (Deaner on drums/Claude on guitar)
Encore:
Fiesta
Never Squeal On The Pusher
Poopship Destroyer
Ace Of Spades
Classic Deaner face 
Deaner ignores the smoking ban 
Gener ignores the smoking ban 
Rare shot of Claude on guitar 
The girl next to me was pointing at Claude all night. You can see her pointing in the corner of the frame. Here's Claude's response.
Curtain call
Labels: Concerts
posted by JC at 5:25 PM
3 Comments:
You take great concert photos. I think they played the song because you yelled it and they probably don't get that requested as much. Good for you. And what the hey about people throwing crap. Don't they realize the aries folk are always ready for a fight?
I think I need to find me some Motorhead to listen to tonight. Didn't MH sing ace o spades on The Young Ones?
so glad you got to hear that rare song and glad you enjoyed ween.
pg - thanks! And they did sing that on The Young Ones! In fact, that's probably where I first heard that song. I love The Young Ones, I even have the DVD set.
r - thanks! I would have actually been thrilled to hear the final song shown on the setlist too - "Fluffy". That's another one that they play only about 10% of the time, and it's now number one on my "must hear" list.
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