August 7-13, 2003

musicpicks

Ween

Rock/pop

Please pardon the tired They Might Be Giants/Ween comparison. But with Brooklyn's dry-humored duo TMBG fully-banded, Emmy-handed and feted in documentary film form, now's the time to drag out the Bolexes for Bucks County's favorite sons Gene and Dean Ween. In 1984, Mickey Melchiondo and Aaron Freeman started plundering an absurdist dirtball Zappa/Bongwater gold mine. By the '90s, a lusher, plusher, melodic Ween took on Twin Cities pop-funk (Chocolate & Cheese), hillbilly hootenannies (12 Golden Country Greats) and the MOR-'70s (White Pepper) with caustic lyrics ("Stuck in my cabana/ living on bananas and blow") that stick in your head. Their new Quebec (Sanctuary), like its brethren, holds true to the Ween ethos of odes to screamingly delirious drugs (legal and illegal: "Zoloft" and "Happy Colored Marbles"), rancid, ornery sex and numb suburban wastelands. But this time, the duo walks a grungier neo-psychedelic line that pulls them closer to the edginess of their classic The Pod than they have been in some time. It's time for your close-up, boys.

Sat., Aug. 9, 7:30 p.m., $25-$28, with the Tin Men, Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing, Delaware Ave. and Spring Garden St., 215-336-2000.

—A.D. Amorosi