Grousing The Aisles: So Long, Rocktober

Ween 10/20/2007 DAUD [MP3, FLAC, STREAM]:

Photo by Brainsomuddy

Ween hit all different segments of its vast repertoire when the band turned Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom browner than a UPS truck. New Hope’s finest brought down the house with crowd pleasers like Piss Up A Rope, Voodoo Lady and Take Me Away. They also drew some fake tears with faux love songs Learnin’ to Love and Woman and Man. Ween even cracked up the audience with Mister Would You Please Help Me Pony, The HIV Song and Waving My Dick In The Wind. Lately Ween shows have been hitting all of the key emotions, and we dig it.

Gene and Dean filled the set with a number of new songs from their latest album, La Cucharacha, for a crowd that seemed more excited for the new songs than the older material. Ween’s die-hard audience is one of the few in the biz that actually encourages their favorite band to play as much new shit as possible. Fiesta, a song best described as Spanish Flea’s retarded cousin, opened the set with a bang.

The odd Spirit Walker sounds even quirkier in concert, and was one of the few throw away tunes of the evening. Woman and Man as well as The Party both featured nice little jams and were clearly the best new tunes of the evening. Ween will be supporting La Cucharacha for the next year, so be sure to catch them when they turn your town brown.

Give Us The Money Lebowski 10/27/2007 SBD [MP3, FLAC, STREAM]:

Photo by Jeremy Gordon

Give Us The Money Lebowski ran into quite a jam on Saturday night when they found out that the venue they were scheduled to play at had been closed due to a fire across the street. Thanks to some quick thinking and action by their management, the boys were able to quickly find a new spot to host their post-PGroove extravaganza. GUTML played one set, heavy on the killer and light on the filler, and it showed off the best these guys have to offer.

And speaking of Phish covers, we think GUTML version of Harry Hood with special guest Brock Butler of PGroove is just as good as anything The Breakfast played at Higher Ground. At first the jam starts off with guitarists Butler and Nick Setteducato building up a nice head of steam before they take the improvisation in a completely different direction that reeked of heavy funk. You’d think these guys had played together for years the way they communicated so well on stage.

GUTML only has one original, but their version of Anybody Got Papers was the centerpiece of the show and makes me hopeful the band will continue to add more zany originals to their sets. Lebowski returns to the stage at the end of the month for a couple of gigs in Pennsylvania.

And here’s a list of great Halloween shows for you to devour:

• Arcade Fire [FLAC]
• Gov’t Mule [FLAC]
• Max Creek [MP3, FLAC, STREAM]
• Perpetual Groove [MP3, FLAC, STREAM]
• RAQ [MP3, FLAC, STREAM]
• Ryan Adams [MP3, FLAC, STREAM]
• U-Melt [MP3, FLAC, STREAM]
• Widespread Panic [FLAC]

Let us know if you’ve found any other Halloween shows below…