



Last week, DM treated you to the high school talent show set by Mike Patton’s Mr. Bungle, who would go on to become a proggy art-metal phenom in the ‘90s. Today, we bring you such a set from Ween, a duo of high-as-fuck, genre-hopping, weirdo rock homagistes who found completely unexpected MTV success in 1992 with “Push th’ Little Daisies,” and went on from there to find a Deadhead type following among fellow marijuana enthusiasts.

Ween’s first three albums, GodWeenSatan: The Oneness, The Pod, and Pure Guava, are hilarious, rambling affairs full of sophomoric stoner humor—there’s no telling how many bongrips and inane giggles met their maker during the zillion or so times I listened to stuff like “Pollo Asado,” and “Don’t Get 2 Close (2 My Fantasy)” on repeat—and genre-savvy nods to basically any and every kind of music they happened to like. For Chocolate & Cheese and 12 Golden Country Greats, they narrowed their focus to explorations of soul and country, respectively. They returned to the unpredictable with 1997’s The Mollusk, and after that, I can’t tell you much, as by then I fell off of the weed—and Ween—wagons. I’ve really only skimmed their later output (thank you Martin Schneider and Spotify), though I found quite a lot to like about what I heard. They made well-regarded albums for very, very high people until 2012, when singer/guitarist Gene Ween announced the end of the band.







But that unlikely career arc began at New Hope-Solebury High School in lovely New Hope, PA, right across the Delaware river from Lambertville, NJ, where young Dean Ween (Mickey Melchiondo) and Gene Ween (Aaron Freeman) collided with destiny and possibly a Graffix bong (for tobacco use only) with a Dark Side of the Moon sticker on it. Melchiondo was kind enough to share some old footage with us:

I saw you posted a video of Mister Bungle at their high school talent show so I thought I’d mail you this equally awful clip of Ween at our talent show (which we won). It’s me (Deaner) on guitar, Aaron (Gene Ween) on bass, Christina Serino on drums, and our friend Scott Lowe (who is now a nationally syndicated DJ) on vocals. After losing for 3 years we finally won this year, our juinior or senior year, I can’t remember? It’s “Boys” by the Beatles.

Before the predictable commenters injure themselves by speed-typing while hyperventilating, yes, many, many people are aware that the song was originally recorded by The Shirelles.

So here’s that video. Why not watch it with a bud?

