"Open my ears and open my nose."
Feb. 27th, 2024 05:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
personnamedrosetoday i'm gonna talk about another ween bootleg! well, actually, this one isn't a bootleg. in fact, it's the first side of their 1988 release "The Live Brain Wedgie/WAD Excerpts", which as the name suggests consists of live material on Side A and fragments from their WAD era (which were the first writing sessions for the album that became GodWeenSatan) on Side B. specifically, the live material is from a live show they did in May of 1988 at the always wonderful City Gardens in Trenton.
song-wise, we actually have the full setlist for this! for a while i think it was believed that only what was recorded for the vinyl was played since it's a round-ish 10 minutes, but at some point the entire setlist wound up in circulation. and it rocks!! i haven't heard the songs not on Live Brain Wedgie and I don't really espect to, but judging from their live renditions at Maxwell's c. 1987 + Pranzatelli's c. 1989 in the case of Red as Satan it was probably pretty rockin'. as far as I know, the only song with missing live footage from their pre-GWS years is Boobs, since they've only done it the once on record.
recording-wise? it's a damn good soundboard! crackle permeates the copy that I have, and some of the louder tracks (ESPECIALLY You Fucked Up) get a bit distorted, but it's nothing that fully breaks my immersion, i imagine the crackle is probably cause it's a pretty old record anyways.
performance-wise? at least to my ears, this is a huge step up from Maxwell's about half a year earlier. dean goes pretty crazy on the pedals in Nippy Wiffle and the yelly-noisy outro of I Drink A Lot, and gene sounds waaay more into songs like Refrigerator and Jelly. hell, i think this show has THE best recording of Jelly period, though I guess that comes from the other two (that I know of) being a sloppy version from 1985 and the other being the Maxwell's show where the first verse starts a few bars too early. oh yeah, the version of I Like You rocks too, and the solo in the middle of Nippy Wiffle this time rocks - I'm not sure if it's a quote from something as it is in Maxwell's (with the bit of Third Stone), but if it's not it's one hell of a cool lead.
oh yeah, also there's some funny banter where Gene introduces I Drink A Lot as Nippy Wiffle and dean goes "no it's not, this song's called I Drink A Lot". i dunno why that got a lol out of me, but it did.
anyways! as a show, this is probably THE best representation of their early stuff. part of me wishes they reheated some of these in studio versions, but i dunno how well stuff like I Drink A Lot would fare amongst, like, Wayne's Pet Youngin' or Never Squeal or the duo of Licking The Palm and Mushroom Festival. if you can track down a copy, i highly recommend it - it's one of my fave things from the period where they were still kinda figuring stuff out and were leaning more into the punk side of stuff.
aside from the ween show review though, i got my friend tenille to do dreamwidth-y stuff there! she's one of my coolest friends and i enjoy talking to her a lot, if you dig my posts you'll probably enjoy her writings. i'm gonna go for a walk now, up to a local liquor store and back. not for liquor though, i have a few winning scratchoffs (a whole four dollars!!!) and also i just kinda enjoy the air y'know?
hope you're well. be bold with your love. never let the bad team tell you what you're living for.
song-wise, we actually have the full setlist for this! for a while i think it was believed that only what was recorded for the vinyl was played since it's a round-ish 10 minutes, but at some point the entire setlist wound up in circulation. and it rocks!! i haven't heard the songs not on Live Brain Wedgie and I don't really espect to, but judging from their live renditions at Maxwell's c. 1987 + Pranzatelli's c. 1989 in the case of Red as Satan it was probably pretty rockin'. as far as I know, the only song with missing live footage from their pre-GWS years is Boobs, since they've only done it the once on record.
recording-wise? it's a damn good soundboard! crackle permeates the copy that I have, and some of the louder tracks (ESPECIALLY You Fucked Up) get a bit distorted, but it's nothing that fully breaks my immersion, i imagine the crackle is probably cause it's a pretty old record anyways.
performance-wise? at least to my ears, this is a huge step up from Maxwell's about half a year earlier. dean goes pretty crazy on the pedals in Nippy Wiffle and the yelly-noisy outro of I Drink A Lot, and gene sounds waaay more into songs like Refrigerator and Jelly. hell, i think this show has THE best recording of Jelly period, though I guess that comes from the other two (that I know of) being a sloppy version from 1985 and the other being the Maxwell's show where the first verse starts a few bars too early. oh yeah, the version of I Like You rocks too, and the solo in the middle of Nippy Wiffle this time rocks - I'm not sure if it's a quote from something as it is in Maxwell's (with the bit of Third Stone), but if it's not it's one hell of a cool lead.
oh yeah, also there's some funny banter where Gene introduces I Drink A Lot as Nippy Wiffle and dean goes "no it's not, this song's called I Drink A Lot". i dunno why that got a lol out of me, but it did.
anyways! as a show, this is probably THE best representation of their early stuff. part of me wishes they reheated some of these in studio versions, but i dunno how well stuff like I Drink A Lot would fare amongst, like, Wayne's Pet Youngin' or Never Squeal or the duo of Licking The Palm and Mushroom Festival. if you can track down a copy, i highly recommend it - it's one of my fave things from the period where they were still kinda figuring stuff out and were leaning more into the punk side of stuff.
aside from the ween show review though, i got my friend tenille to do dreamwidth-y stuff there! she's one of my coolest friends and i enjoy talking to her a lot, if you dig my posts you'll probably enjoy her writings. i'm gonna go for a walk now, up to a local liquor store and back. not for liquor though, i have a few winning scratchoffs (a whole four dollars!!!) and also i just kinda enjoy the air y'know?
hope you're well. be bold with your love. never let the bad team tell you what you're living for.
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