Dean Ween Revives Ask Deaner Website, Discusses Phish, Lockn’ & More

Mickey “Dean Ween” Melchiondo revived his interactive Ask Deaner website, posting the first new information to the site in years. The new Q&A response focuses mainly on Ween’s recent performances at the Lockn’ Festival and Deaner’s feelings about sharing the festival’s stage with Phish.

Melchiondo responds at length to this question: “The first night of Lock’n was my favorite set of Ween I’ve ever seen live. So brown. What’s your take on that set and the festival as a whole?”

Deaner explains he didn’t realize Ween was slated for two separate performances at Lockn’ until he arrived on site at Oak Ridge Farm in Arrington, Virginia. He further describes the circumstances surrounding the two different scheduled sets at Lockn’ and Ween’s approach to playing before the festival crowd, writing [sic throughout]:

Now then, Lockn—Ween at a festival is something that leaves everyone half-hard—no one more than us. Ween for 75 mins, 90 mins, meh… When the sun is out? Forget it. I should be asleep still, and I usually am. Now all I knew about the Lockn Festival is that we were opening for Phish. I swear to god I had no idea it was 2 nights either. I was surprised to learn that one night we were headlining and the SECOND NIGHT we’d be opening for Phish. i’d be lying if i said that opening for Phish wasn’t a big deal. all i’ll say is that we really wanted to play our asses off in front of those guys, who we’re friendly with going back a long ways. call it friendly competition, but it exists with every band. read: i wanted to blow their fuckin’ asses off the stage and rupture their fans’ ear drums and harsh their “vibe”. so there it is. u happy now? i hate their fans, they hate Ween, and I wanted to kill them with our music and un-fuck their minds from their normal listening habits. that would be like trying to convince a gay man that he was really straight though. ok, i think i just crossed the line. don’t like phish fans, so next off……..

i mean I didn’t even know this shit til right when it was happening, the whole “headlining one night” and “opening for phish” the next. i thought it was one gig opening for Phish and that was it. not that it really matters because we prepare the same for every show. Any ideas that we made it “more brown” on one night than another is imagined.

Later Melchiondo laments the lack of interaction between bands on stage and blames Phish for needing too much time to set up their “excessive” gear before playing. He also reveals he didn’t stick around to watch Phish play after Ween’s opening performance and enjoyed meeting Peter Wolf of The J. Geils Band backstage. Follow this link to read Deaner’s complete response to the question above.