Radical Transparency

Ween's softer side...

They didn't play it for us quite so tenderly in Anaheim on Wednesday. What we experienced looked and sounded much more like this. But, regardless, you gotta love a band that isn't afraid to play the quiet stuff to a sweaty, dancing audience.

A Tear for Eddie is track 5 on Chocolate and Cheese. And the studio version of Tender Situation is track 2 on Pure Guava, though it might be one of those songs that didn't become great until the limitations of liveness smoothed it out.

Click here to download:

A Tear For Eddie.mp3 (5650 KB)

Saw Hoots and Hellmouth last night. After two songs in a tiny, table-filled venue, they successfully requested that people start dancing. I was impressed.

By the request and by the fact that they sang a song about a gypsy.

Two Hearts, a Snake, and a Concubine is track 5 on Hoots and Hellmouth.

Click here to download:

Two Hearts, A Snake And A Concubine.mp3 (2934 KB)

You find things when you clean up after a concert.

Like scribbled lists on wet notebook paper:

The drummer sounded good.

Over and over again since the show on Friday.

Heard the song plenty before, but something about seeing it live made it click.

Maybe it was the guitar version of the violin solo. Or maybe I just simply paid attention for the first time.

Plenty of songs,
Right under our noses,
That we'll someday realize we love.

Hummingbird is track 5 on A Ghost Is Born.

Click here to download:

Hummingbird.mp3 (2996 KB)

Headed to the minor league ballpark for the Wilco show tonight.

Never seen them live. Excited.

I think this song's about why they play their music together, why it takes two wings to make love fly, and why we'll need a whole lot of surrender and compassion and introspection and collaboration if we're going to change this world (which we are).

Solitaire is track 8 on Wilco.

Click here to download:

Solitaire.mp3 (2922 KB)

I saw Martin Sexton live for the first time tonight.

When he finished singing this song, it didn't stop playing in my head, so I didn't stop dancing.

The Beast In Me is track 1 on disc 1 of a recording from Burlington, VT in 2005. I couldn't find the album on the internets or at the concert. Apparently Lauren, who burned me the CD, has some very sweet hookups.

Click here to download:

The Beast In Me.mp3 (5924 KB)

"If you took everyone that's even been to a Grateful Dead show and stacked them head to toe, they'd travel all the way to the moon and back. And never once complain."

Wish I'd been there for those shows.

I guess I wish I'd been everywhere else ever in the history of everything, too. To wander around a bit and listen.

Cassady is track 10 on Reckoning.

Click here to download:

Cassady.mp3 (4287 KB)

I love it when fans sing along.

And I love it even more when they get on stage and hum the bass line.



I also love one man bands with plural names.

Totally crazy to go to a concert alone?

Or totally awesome?

Never even imagined it until tonight.

I had imagined going to an imaginary local bar down the street from my imaginary apartment in an imaginary city on the imaginary night on which the imaginary neighborhood DJ plays music I love and dancing like an imaginary lunatic.

But concerts are significantly different from mixed music for me.  Impossible for me to dance completely alone at a concert.  I'm always dancing with the band.  Whether they know it or not.  Which they almost definitely don't.  Unless they're the kind of band that's always dancing with all the serious dancers in the crowd.  Whether they can identify us or not.  Which is the kind of band to be.

Anyway, Mason Jennings is playing tomorrow night at my favorite venue ever.  And I'm tempted.

Butterfly is track 2 on Mason Jennings.

Click here to download:

Butterfly.mp3 (2252 KB)

The Gene Ween Band stepped in front of a theaterful of screaming Ween fans last night and surprised us all.

They could have opened up with Buckingham Green and turned the whole crowd into lead singers.  They could have tapped their Led Zeppelin roots (everybody but Gene plays in an LZ cover band) and rocked Over the Hills and Far Away.  But they didn't.

They started the show by playing almost an hour of brand new, unreleased music.

It was unorthodox, courageous, and awesome.  A classic Ween move.  I danced like crazy, leapt in celebration when they busted out the mini synthesizer for Blue Balloon, sang along what little I could during a second hour that mixed I Fell in Love Today, a couple of older, lesser known Ween songs, and Mr. Sandman Bring Me a Dream in among more new stuff, and screamed in vain for Buenas Tardes Amigo whenever I remembered to.

Only bummer was that Deaner wasn't there.

But dude deserves some time off, and I expect him to come back better than ever for the next tour.

Baby Bitch was my first Ween love, and I thought about attaching it to this post, but, as I mentioned on the Carrot Project blog this morning, I'm feeling the Valentine's Day spirit, so I feel like I need to attach the truest Ween love song I know.

Voodoo Lady is track 10 on Chocolate and Cheese.

Click here to download:

Voodoo Lady.mp3 (4458 KB)