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Capture the Moment in a Photograph…
Here is Aaron Freeman back when he was happy to be known as Gene Ween, before he threw it all away. He is playing mandolin on the Ween song ‘Ocean Man’. I took this photo during a concert in Reno, Nevada on July 23, 2006.
And it was a fun night. I went with a married friend that didn’t get let out of his ball and chain all that often and we used the Ween concert as our cover to do some heavy drinking and a little gambling. We drove up from Sacramento in the early afternoon and we hit it hard before the show. We kept the beer flowing during the show and after the show we watched the band mingle with the fans from our vantage point, the Pai Gow tables.
The show was a typical great Ween show. They started out with an acoustic set and the show ended with about 40 to 50 women audience members dancing on stage as the band played ‘Let Me Lick Your Pussy’…I really loved seeing that band.
It was a blast of a night that ended back in Sacramento at about 4am…and my friend puking in my front yard.
The Boognish is Dead, Long Live the Boognish…
Don’t cry for the Boognish…he will rise again.
In order to more fully explore and pursue my solo career, I’ve decided to end my musical relationship with Ween. I want to personally thank each and every fan for all their love and support through the years. – Aaron Freeman 05/30/2012
What a Day…
Tuesday pretty much sucked. After a long day of work and a delightful meeting with a lawyer I drag myself home and turn on the computer to read that bluegrass/folk legend Doc Watson passed away at 89. That was bad enough but then I read that Aaron Freeman was hanging up his alter ego Gene Ween and ‘closing the door’ on the band he formed with Mickey Melchiondo (Dean Ween). Damn.
I only saw Doc Watson once. But I really don’t count it as it was at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Fransisco and I was half a mile away from the stage with half a dozen empty beer bottles laying around my faux Indian blanket. I do have a few of his records (yes, vinyl) and I have been a fan of his music for what seems like a really long time. His picking style was just damn impressive. If you have never heard his music give it listen…
But then I see the fallout from a short interview Aaron Freeman gave to Rolling Stone where he seemed to announce that Ween had broken up.
So does that mean the end for Ween, the band that Freeman formed with high school friend Mickey Melchiondo (a.k.a. Dean Ween) in New Hope, Pennsylvania, in the mid-Eighties?
“Pretty much, yeah,” says Freeman. “It’s been a long time, 25 years. It was a good run.”
After this story broke Aaron’s partner in the band, Mickey Melchiondo, posted this on the band’s Facebook page…
They never have had the best communication between members (Mickey released a load of demos free on the net without approving it with Aaron), but if you are breaking up the band you might want to inform the other members of the group and management of your decision. Sounds to me like this was not a very thought out statement from Aaron.
The guy has been going through a lot these past few years. He had a very public melt down in Vancouver last year…a very intoxicated show were he forgot lyrics, tuned his guitar endlessly and had the band walk off leaving him onstage alone.
Arron hit rehab and by all counts he seems to be doing great and he may be trying to distant himself from what he precieves as ‘bad influences’…and that is his fun, substance using alter ego Gene Ween. So he has taken out on his own it would seem. Too bad he chose to release such a bland solo debut with his all Rod McKuen cover album MARVELOUS CLOUDS.
There seems to have been a little bit of tension between the founding members of the band for the last few years. Which is understandable. They are getting older and are just not as close as they once were. Mickey has a fishing business he seems to love. Clearly the passion is not as red hot as it once was.
Ween may broken up for good or this might just an extended break from each other. I hope Aaron can get to a happier phase of his life.
The Boognish is dead, long live the Boognish…
Santa Sangre Redux 