Ween @ Bill Graham Civic 10/14 - 10/15

[El Dingo]

For those uninitiated, Ween is sort of the Punk/Heavy Metal/Artsy 'Grateful Dead'. They take pop music genres and turn them on their ear. Rush, Queen, ragtime, lounge, folk, psychedelic, Motorhead, Simon and Garfunkel - all influences on their music.

Ween broke up 5 years ago.

But IMHO bands cannot break up until at least one member is dead.

Fast forward to 2016 and they are back in San Francisco.

I bought the 2-night ticket and ventured to S.F. on my own (Dee Dee is not a fan).

The Bill Graham Civic auditorium may well be my favorite venue (The Greek in Berkeley and The Fox in Oakland are close seconds). It's a block away from BART, has good (relatively) cheap snacks and a spacious GA area.

Night one was filled with hard, fast and loud performances of deep catalog songs from the first two albums, "God, Ween, Satan" and "The Pod". These songs were hardcore, experimental and contained lots of screaming. Not my favorite material. They even said "Tomorrow night we're playing the good stuff, tonight is the shitters".

I realized later they were playing crazy songs to defuse a fanbase who were starved for a Ween concert.

Complete setlist here

Night 2

Completely different show.

They opened the show by performing an acoustic set on stools.

The crowd was mellower, most having their Ween withdrwal fix from the previous night. I was offered multiple joints, handshakes, conversation and high-fives.

They played "The Grobe", "Buckingham Green", "Voodoo Lady" and other, more 'mainstream' songs.

Lots of folks in costumes - not sure if Halloween or just Ween craziness.

If you have not seen them live, you are missing out.

complete setlist here

[Drunk Monk]

Had I known you were going to go, I would've worked RM on Friday. RM is so low on cops this weekend that our director was begging for more, and the temptation to ride in as cavalry was strongest for that show. But I got lazy and bailed. I'm only fair weather cavalry nowadays.

RM is totally overbooked and the lions share of our vols are students who've gone back to school, so this is always the worst time of year.

I pity the RM vols who did Treasure Island this weekend.

[El Dingo]

Friday night's poster:




And Saturday night's poster:



$40 each