The Mollusk Tour, July 24th - Lawrence, KS Ok...2 words- Fuckin' Incredible. I'll elaborate, but let's just get this down first. The boy's were in great spirits and said that Lawrence was their first show of the Mollusk tour. Dean said they'd be playing 36 songs, and at one point said even 39. I didn't believe it at first, but I think they did end up playing that many songs. They played for 3 beautiful hours. These are the songs that I remember and know the titles to ( in no particular order) : Piss Up a Rope I Can't Put My Finger On It Aids Baby Bitch Pork Roll, Egg and Cheese Spinal Meningitus Little Birdy Now I'm Freakin' Out Booze Me Up and Get Me High The Stallion Pt. 3 Push the Lil' Daisies You Fucked Up Pumpin' 4 the Man Dr. Rock I'm Dancing in the Show Tonight The Mollusk The Blarney Stone The Golden Eel Waving my Dick in the Wind Buckingham Green She Wanted to Leave A Tear for Eddie Freedom of '76 Mister, Would You Please Help My Pony Buenos Tardes Amigos Paradise City Hot For Teacher Captain Fantasy There's definitely more that I had never heard before or don't know the titles to. Ok, here's the story: The band that opened for them was a honky tonk band from Kansas City called Rex Hobart and The Misery Boys. There's not much to say about them....they pretty much sucked, although the audience was good to them, and they expressed many times that they thought for sure they'd get booed off the stage. I mean, there's honky tonk and then there's sucky honkey tonk. They played from 7:45 to 8:30 - a very long 45 minutes. Ween got up there about 10 minutes till 8. They brought with them a fifth of JD which all the boys hit on throughout the night in between drinking their Bud. Towards the end of the show Dean said, "Well, I'm pretty wasted but we'll keep playin'". The boys did have a few hitches during the show, but it didn't seem to phase them. Dean mentioned that the keyboardist ate some bad seafood in St. Louis the night before and had food poisoning. He did great the whole show, but I'm sure he was pretty miserable. After about 5 or 6 songs Claude's kick drum broke. The opening band's drummer had some miniature kick drum that wouldn't work with his set. Dean and Gene played by themselves for a half hour until the drummer from a local punk band called Danger Bob had gone and gotten his kick drum. After that it was smooth sailing. The whole show was incredible, but these songs really stood out- Dr. Rock was a wall of sound. It was very loud and right on target. The Mollusk sounded excellent live, very ocean-like. Everyone got into the Blarney Stone- it felt like a fuckin Irish pub with everyone singing, "Aye, aye, aye" and waving their arms side to side. Dean really sang that one well and the keyboardist did a cool accordian solo. One of the best songs of all was "Mister would you please help my pony", which Dean said they'd hardly ever played live. Dean cut into 5 minute lead and totally blew everyone away on that song. Excellent. Dean ripped through A Tear for Eddie. That song was at least 10 minutes of pure Dean Ween leads. The Golden Eel was another "wall of sound" song that was very impressive. Claude was awe-inspiring, even though he had the problem with his drums. It was cool to see "Jimmy Wilson dance" on Waving My Dick in the Wind. Claude had some excellent rim shots on that song. They did 2 encores, the first of which they were screwing around with G n' R's Paradise City and VH's Hot for Teacher and some ZZ top song that I forget the title of... that was pretty funny. The second encore was the best song of the night. Buenos Tardes Amigos. The song went on for at least 15 minutes. Dean did the most incredible lead of the whole night on that song. Then, Gene came in and did a killer acoustic solo right after Dean. The crowd was so into it that they started doing the rhythmic clapping that you can barely hear in the song on the cd. Dean really got a kick out of that and started doing it along with the crowd. By that time it was right before midnight, and unfortunately it had to come to an end. I stayed after the show and gave Gene and Dean a bottle of some well-aged scotch and told them how great the show was. Dean said, "This is for us? You know we're gonna drink this tonight, dontcha?". I felt proud to contribute even more to their drunken state. I asked Dean if either of the 2 Strats he was playing was the one he was gonna sell to Kwanzaa, and he said that he had that guitar packed away. I got a picture taken with Dean and they said thanks for the scotch. I told them to come back to Lawrence soon, and walked away a happy man having experienced Ween in all it's glory. Fuckin' Incredible. lemm From: Josh Meyer Subject: WEEN Rocked Lawrence... Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 06:21:45 GMT Whew! I just returned home from WEEN's first stop on the brand new Mollusk tour. The anticipation was worthwhile--- ween put on one hell of a show! I cannot understand how anyone doubts ween's fan interaction... throughout the night, the interaction was non stop... non stop handshaking, request taking, talking back and forth...the crowd loved the music and the music kept coming... for nearly 2 hrs and 45 minutes... an unfortunate beginning actually led to some magic... about 3 songs into the set, Claude's drum set basically fell apart and rendered itself useless. Gene and Dean filled the searching-for-new-drums void by taking requests and playing some favorites... They jammed solo on Little Birdy, Birthday Boy, and Squelch the Weasel before being rejoined by Claude and the rest of the band. Alot of songs were jammed on in a fashion that made them all the more powerful... the most extended instrumental jam occured on "A tear for Eddie." The mellow tune slowly became more and more drenched in beautifully raucous feedback... it went from mellow to wonderfully noise drenched and back to mellow. After playing a ton of songs, (I'll list as many as i can remember at the end...)ween left the stage. When they returned, they ripped into a pretty true rendition of GNR's "Paradise City"...and even started a 2nd 80's rock anthem (I think it was "HOt for Teacher"... but i may be mistaken). the music continued...After another rocking batch of songs, ween left again... but returned a final time to woo the crowd with a drawn out rendition of "Buenos Tardes Amigos." The songs that were played during the evening really covered the bases... no album was left unrepresented. I truly can't imagine anyone leaving dissapointed. Here are some of the songs played- Dr. Rock Frank Awesome Sound Sketches of Winkle Pork Roll Egg and Cheese Spinal Meningitis Freedom of 76 I can't put my finger on it A tear for eddie Roses are free Baby Bitch Mister, would you please help my pony Buenos Tardes, amigos the hiv song What Deaner was talking about Piss up a Rope Little Birdy The Stallion pt.3 Push the little Daisies Pumpin for the man Sarah Booze me up and get me high now i'm freaking out YOu fucked up tick Birthday boy squelch the weasel Dancing in the show the mollusk the golden eel Buckingham green She wanted to leave the Blarney Stone I might be missing a few... but you get the basic idea. Dean said they were going to play 39 songs. It was a very good night. Shite... it was a fantasticfuckingfabulous night... I mean, who could ask for anything more??? Josh Meyer From: "G-man" Subject: You should've seen ol' Jimmy Wilson in Lawrence! Date: 25 Jul 1997 08:54:21 GMT Just got back from Lawrence, Kansas where Ween rocked the fucking town down with the start of the Mollusk tour. For those of you who made it, all I can say is DAMN! For those who have dates coming up, make sure you get a good seat! Awesome Sound was incredible as always...they played a little Gun's and Roses (Paradise City)....but Deaner stopped playing and said Gener was being a pussy!!!! Claude got all crazy on the drums and busted the set, so deaner and gener had to play requests until claude could scrape up a new set! They played Sarah and Marble Tulip Juicy Tree Claude went crazy on Wavin' my dick in the wind (anyone who sees this live will love it!) Deaner played and incredible Tear for Eddie, and they finished up with Buenos Tardis! You guys are gonna' love this shit!!! All Hail the boognish! g-man