Detroit Rock City was the place to be this past weekend. We already told you about the Dead Weather show on Saturday night, the night before it was Ween at the Royal Oak Music Theatre, which is another excellent venue. I love Detroit, have I mentioned that? First time I went there was for Kiss’ first reunion show at Tiger stadium, that kicked ass. Plus, they gave us Ted Nugent, who just blessed our town with a great show (review here!)
OK so, Ween. Loved them since my old buddy introduced me to the Mollusk while driving around Arizona heading to a Wu-Tang Clan show. I won the bet as to which two members wouldn’t show up – Method Man and ODB. At one point we were driving by this big mountain and a storm cloud that looked like a fist swallowed up the mountain just as the climax of “Buckingham Green” came up, and I was hooked for life.
So now I drag everyone I can to see them every chance I get. 1 of the 3, at Red Rocks with the Flaming Lips opening for them – was transcendent, the other two just OK but that happens when you wing it as much as they do. Anyway now we’re 2 for 4 cause this show was fucking awesome. Everyone and everything was clicking, and when Gene nailed all the high notes on “Freedom of ’76″ about six songs in the crowd lost their mind collectively cause everyone knew it was gonna be a great night. And it was. Anyone who doesn’t recognize Dean as one of our modern day guitar heroes is a moron, it’s hard to find a band that steps into and blends so many genres and makes them their own so forcefully, and the songwriting is uniformly great, even when they dig out some old thing they wrote as teenagers.
They’ve also got great taste in covers, check out this video from near the end of the main set, an excellent version of David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance:”
As Uncle Ted would say, “No Shit!” Also, “What kind of music is this? SOUL MUSIC!”
(photo taken by, and from, “ninefongs” on the Ween Forum. Hope that’s OK!)