Sunday, January 18, 2015

Bryn Mawr Stomp



A friend and fellow Ween fan recently brought up this gig and I thought I'd pull it from the archives and revisit it in its entirety. Recorded at The Point, a small quaint coffeehouse in equally tiny Bryn Mawr, PA (population 4000 which is mostly college students). Sadly the establishment closed in 2005 but this gig, recorded in 2002, captures a very intimate, mostly acoustic evening with Ween at a time they were near their musical peak. Quebec was a year from release, their creative spirits were flowing and hearing the band jam some of the old "hits" broken down slow and lazy is a real treat. The small crowd yells out request after request (I seriously think they cover Ween's entire catalog) and the band tries to keep up with a smile - managing to belt out some obscurities like "Right To The Ways And The Rules Of The World" and "Scrape The Mucus Off My Brain". My favorite is a very personal version of "If You Could Save Yourself (You'd Save Us All)" - Gener sings the lyrics over his own strumming acoustic - a really nice take of one of my favorite songs by the band. The encore is great - the mellowness of "Birthday Boy" played acoustic really enhances the love song it's supposed to be. "El Camino" is awesome as well, they somehow morph "cuando, cuando" into "White Rabbit" - fucking hilarious. And they play "Someday" twice to boot. A great gig from a truly legendary band. Someone actually had both a video of it and the good sense to upload it to YouTube - check it out.


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