Sep 21

Sep 21 Concert review: Ween at Rabbit Rabbit

It was in the early ’90s when I learned it was cool to be a little weird. Alternative rock was beginning to dominate MTV — which had yet to make its turn towards being a reality television network — and as an impressionable pre-teen with older brothers, I was tuned in to absorb it all.

Along with Primus and Mr. Bungle, Ween helped me realize that music could be wildly adventurous and oddly humorous. A video for the 1992 hit “Push Th’ Little Daisies” was so befuddling to my malleable mind that I can still vaguely remember seeing it for the first time in my friend’s living room. It was around the same time that my brother became a fan and played Pure Guava regularly on the stereo of his adjoining bedroom. A couple years later, Ween’s followup, Chocolate and Cheese, came out and further cemented me as a lifelong fan.

Performing in Asheville for the first time since 2017, Ween played a nearly three-hour-long marathon set at a jam-packed Rabbit Rabbit on Sept. 15. The crowd, an overwhelming combination of Gen-Xers and older Millennials like myself, was unquestionably the biggest turnout that I’ve seen at the outdoor venue all summer, and also maybe the most devoted. Beyond a merch line that appeared to snake around the full expanse of the converted parking lot, fans throughout Rabbit Rabbit were sporting a wide array of Ween T-shirts — my personal favorite being the one displaying the words “Ween Is Not a Jam Band.”

Taking the stage shortly before sunset, the longtime combo of Gene Ween, Dean Ween, Dave Dreiwitz, Gleen McClelland, and beloved local resident Claude Coleman Jr. quickly set the foundation for a crowd-pleasing performance with opening number “Birthday Boy” from their classic eponymous 1990 debut. The 35-song set that followed left no stone unturned, with the band playing a bit of everything from its extensive discography, including non-album cult favorites “Final Alarm” and “Suckin the Blood From the Devil's Dick.”

Unrelentlessly genre-hopping from song to song, Ween shifted effortlessly between uncanny country jams, ripping hard rockers, and spacey psychedelia. If you’re not into a Ween song, don’t worry: the next will likely sound nothing like it. Three-hour sets can be rather exhausting, especially if an artist doesn’t really have a diverse range of material. Fortunately, the iconic alt-rock quintet kept things thoroughly interesting until the final note of its encore.

Even as the ensemble approached the end of its set, the funky groove of “Voodoo Lady” had the enduring crowd moving more than any prior moment. Arguably saving the best for last — an encore consisting of heavy rockers “You Fucked Up” and “Stroker Ace,” as well as the concluding bizarro psychedelic funk jam “I Can’t Put My Finger On It” — Ween gave fans everything they could have hoped for.