Ween celebrated the 2001 reissue of their 1990 album
God Ween Satan: The Oneness -- commonly accepted as their debut, despite all the indie tapes of the '80s -- by performing the album in its entirety in their hometown of New Hope, Pennsylvania on September 14, 2001. Only 11 years separated the release of
God Ween Satan and this concert, which was released in 2016 as
GodWeenSatan: Live, but
Ween sound like an entirely different band in 2001 -- because, for all intents and purposes, they were. Back in 1990,
Ween was just
Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo dicking around with a four-track recorder, stumbling toward a fusion of
Prince, hardcore,
the Beatles, and underground and classic rock, but at the dawn of the 21st century, they developed into a band that could realize all of the ideas those teenagers sketched out. Listening to
GodWeenSatan: Live is like watching a colorized version of a beloved black-and-white film: it contains the same bones but everything is hyper-saturated and vivid. The full-bodied band helps accentuate how much stylistic ground
Ween covers on this debut -- they essentially laid down markers for every direction they'd pursue over their career -- but it's also more exciting to hear a full group lay into these weird songs. Inevitably, they seem straighter performed by a live band than they do by two guys, and if that oddness is missed, the skill displayed throughout
GodWeenSatan: Live is intoxicating. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine