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AUGUST 16,
WEEN
July 19, 2000
40 Won Club
This show was billed as “An
Evening With Ween," and it certainly
was From the ticketless people outside
with “I Need Ween’ signs on then lore-
heads to the bouncers telling everyone
not to get naked to the odd yet won-
dertul music inside, this was an evening
no or.c else could host
Gene, Dean, Mean and the rest ot
Ween made sure that all the Ians
enioyed then evening by playing a very
eclectic set that included 33 songs.
Weens musical range is unparalleled,
and it ran through the whole spectrum
lor its Athens Ians. The band played
songs with a country twang (“Piss Up A
Rope’), mellow, trance-like tunes
(“What Gina Was Talking About,"
“Driller In The Dark’) and even some
guitar-crunching metal ("Dr. Rock’).
Ween also played a couple ol clever
covers, including Paul McCartney &
Wings' “Band On The Run."
The subjects o! Dean's and Gene's
songs were an even stranger mix they
sang ot terminal diseases in “H I V" and
“Spinal Meningitis Got You Down"
within the first 20 minutes ol the perfor
mance. then went on to pontiticale on
masturbation (“Stroker Ace"), the con
nection between “Bananas And blow,'
and people urder the sea ("Ocean
Man").
The eclectic song choice made it
easy lor Ween to reach everyone in the
40 Watt. From the couple hugging
during “Stay Forever" to the guys
lumping two leet oil the lloor during
"Waving My Dick In The Wind," all the
Ians (except the ones who only came to
hear the unplayed tavorite “Baby Bitch")
left satisfied
On-slage. Ween seemed completely
at home Gene and Dea n have nol lost
their floppy. '80s garage-band haircuts,
and all the members brought out extra
instruments like triangles and a man
dolin to make the show something spe
cial Aii the members got a chance to
iam out, with Gene taking a live-minute
solo on an instrumental song from the
album ChocolaleAnd Cheese, Dean
making his guitar talk a la Peter
Frampton on “Voodoo Lady’ or the key
boardist going nutty on “The Mollusk “
Excessive use ol the log machine took
away Irom the band's presence a bit, but
the 40 Watt made up lor it with its usual
outstanding lighting ettort
The band ended the set with a
mind-blowing, 20-minule version ol
“Canl Put My Finger On It," but the
crowd would nol let il end
there as a earsplitting,
seven-minute ovation
brought the band out lor an
encore that almost blew the
first set away They came
back to the stage and
demolished it with
“Buckingham Green." a
Pink Floyd-sounding
anthem that went over
well After a lew more
songs like “The Stallion’
and “Homo Rainbow."
Ween ended the show
with a rocked-oul rendi
tion ol “The
Blarne/stone." The
drunken Irish song
really connected with
the inebriated Athens
crowd as the entire
song became a smg-
along until Gene began
Ireestylmo extra verses
The band left the stage
lust under three hours
after it had begun, and
everyone tiled out with
smiles on their faces,
still singing "The
Blarneystone." only to see the same
unfortunate ticketless people silting out
side It's really too bad that more people
could not have enioyed this wonderful
“Evening With Ween “
Jeremy Owens
CAT POWER,
MALCOLM HOLCOMB
July 24,2000
40 Won Club
The attendance at this show, on a
Monday night in the summei-lime in
Athens, was a testimony to the ever-
mcreasmg popularity o! Cat Power,
which is the voice and guitar ot Chan
Marshall Opening act Malcolm
Holcomb was a tight, honest three-piece
making
I'm sorry I can't make this thing
work nghl Hold on Okay, alright
Does this sound okay 9 .. Making a tra
ditional kind ol folk-country music. The
band featured a woman who played
stand-up bass and sang, a guy who
played a slide acoustic guitar on his lap
likeadobro.
and a smger-gui-
tarist who looked and sounded like The
Wallflowers' Jakob Dylan with some sort
of bizarre drooling problem (big old
strings of drool were flowing Irom his
moulh a couple ot times during the
show) The gravely voice was great and
these guys obviously knew
Sorry Am I doing this right 9 1 know
this isn't any good uon't think I think
that it is Here goes .1.2.3...
Chan Marshall took the stage all by
her lonesome wearing ner current theme
outfit (black sleeveless shirt anq silver-
ish white pants. '80s Joan left haircut
plus six inches). She played her o:ua!
cheap Siivertone guitar and opened me
show, without introduction, with an
attempt at a song she covers Irequently
called The Werewolf" I w r as really
proud to be part ol the Athens audience
that night There was absolutely no con
versation when she started It was so
quiet you could hear change jingle as
people shifted Irom one fool to another,
a stark contrast to the Echo Lounge at
the July 22 show
Marshall struggled with her first
song After two attempts at “Werewolf *
she gave up and moved on to a song
I've never heard At
least I donT think I
have, she changes the
songs so much, some
times it’s hard to tell. It
could've been the “Star
Spangled Banner' for
all the reverb and
weirdness and iust
plain voodoo that she
works on cover songs
Okay, hold on...
Then she played ..
Then ..
I'm sorry Lalaiala..
she played
“Sweedeedee." a Michael
Hurley song born the
recent The Covers
Record, followed by a
one-chord rendition ol
Robert Johnson's “Come
On In My Kitchen.’ which
she would reprise later in
these!
She tried to play
"Troubled Waters.’ but
melted down and moved
on. This pattern repeated
itself as Marshall made her
way through several
obscure cover songs one-chord per
song, some from the record and some
not. and a couple of originals (maybe
just one) Cool surprises included an
attempt at "Knockin' On Heaven's Door."
wherein she threw up the sign of the
devil rather than singing the chorus, tne
first four or five lines of “Wonderwall."
and the first bit of "Freebird." all with an
almost unbearable, almost absurd level
ol pathos.
Let's see how many words I know
Ten or 12 13. right 9 1 m runnin' out The
show was good It was scary and com
pelling and Marshall had the au^enui
wrapped around her finger 1 have to
wonder: wtiai if it's all a gag and we re
the punchline, clapping along as she
walks off-stage midway through the
song 9 It was great
Brandon Butler
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