IT'S GONNA BE ALRIGHT, GENE

All is not brown in Boognish town, apparently. Well, the internet bulged a little vein one night after Ween tried a gig in Vancouver in January. Ween's trademark when it comes to live shows and life in general is that pretty much anything goes, take the wrecking ball and shoot some hoops kind of thing. In Vancouver the wrecking ball broke the hoop apparently. Gene was planting daisies on his own planet all evening, completely out of it. He fucked up most of the lyrics, his voice was a squeaky toy gang-banged by rottweilers, could barely stand up and, all in all, was a total downer and embarrassment for the rest of the band. Consequently, the rest of the band walked off stage and left him there hanging by the strings of his long since out of tune guitar. To his credit, Gene did not give up, he singlehandedly showed everybody how to properly hit rock 'n' roll bottom. He continued playing by himself until the brownness of it reminded everyone of shit.

Now, I admit, I was scared when I read this. I thought, not you too, Gener. No, no, no, nonononono, you're not pushing any daisies on my watch. Or while I'm watching, anyway. These guys helped me a lot. A Lot. I can't imagine me being the way I am (and I'm fine, thank you), without them. This band is pure gold and it would be, not a shame, it would be ILLEGAL to lose them in such pathetic, predictable, pitiful way. A boring "Lead singer chokes on his own vomit" type of headline would be...fucking grey. Not that Ween is about headlines, but you know what I mean. So I was pretty sad about this, but then finally thought that maybe this was a one-off thing , not a binge. He got funny that particular night, maybe some weird Vancouver hybrid pot or something, but otherwise he's fine.

(This is just one example, it takes forever for Gene to start with the lyrics and when he does, he fucks it up. Unfortunately there's a lot more on YouTube.)

And so it was, thank god. Gene was fine in Portland two days later. Phew! He's not fine-fine, he was never fine to begin with, look at the lyrics, look at transformations his body goes through every five years or so - fat-skinny-fat-skinny. Look at his eyes. But I knew this, I was and am ok with this. Hell, Ween would not be Ween without him being this fucked up. I always admired his way of dealing with traumas, through his music. Well, music just wasn't enough that night, I guess. But in Portland they rocked. Check out this little baby, Gene goes all suicidal rock star doing Nirvana's 'Heart Shaped Box'. I would laugh if I weren't still a little worried. Hang in there, Aaron.