Watch Ween Perform ‘Chocolate & Cheese’ In Its Entirety At Desert Daze 2019

Ween recently announced a concert celebrating 30 years of their landmark 1994 album, Chocolate & Cheese. The show is set to take place 30 years to the day the album was released on September 27, 2024 and will be the New Hope, Pennsylvania-born band’s debut at The TD Pavilion at The Mann Center for the Performing Arts.

Ween will deliver a complete performance of Chocolate & Cheese at The Mann, however, it’s not the first time the band has performed the album in sequence. On October 12, 2019, Ween founders and guitarists Aaron “Gene Ween” Freeman and Mickey “Dean Ween” Melchiondo led the band — drummer Claude Coleman Jr., bassist Dave Dreiwitz and keyboardist Glenn McClelland — through all 16 Chocolate & Cheese tracks in order at Desert Daze 2019 on Moreno Beach in Lake Perris, California.

Ween had performed all the songs on Chocolate & Cheese individually at least once before Desert Daze 2019, as per Brownbase. A number of the tunes like album opener “Take Me Away” (which often opens shows), “Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down)” (the C&C song most played live with 656 total plays to date), “Mister Would You Please Help My Pony?,” “Voodoo Lady” and “The HIV Song” are all Ween live staples clocking more than 400 plays to date.

Other C&C favorites with plays in the 150 – 400 range include “Roses Are Free,” “Baby Bitch,” “I Can’t Put My Finger on It,” “What Deaner Was Talkin’ About,” “A Tear For Eddie,” “Buenos Tardes Amigo,” “Don’t Shit Where You Eat” and last but not least the band’s ode to Philadelphia “Freedom Of ‘76.”

But there are a few of rarely played songs on the album (under 100 plays to date). Those include “Drifter In The Dark” (93), “Joppa Road” (31) and rarest of all — the twice played and kooky (even by Ween standards), “Candi.”

The second performance of “Candi” — the song from which Chocolate & Cheese derives its title — took place at the aforementioned Desert Daze 2019. Ween played “Candi” for the first time on October 29, 1994 a month after Chocolate & Cheese came out. According to Brownbase, the performance was a request with Ween bringing the audience member up to sing backing vocals.

At Desert Daze 26 years later it was a bit understandable that Gener seemed to forget his role in the tune. “Who sings this?” He asked. “I don’t know it.” Amused, Deaner replied, “You do. We talked about practicing this.” While Gener took a stab at singing it, Deaner exclaimed “you suck” and took over on vocals. Hilarity ensued.

While the whole C&C performance is awesome, highlights include smoking renditions of “Take Me Away” and “Voodoo Lady.” The “Joppa Road” with Deaner on acoustic guitar is a treat. The perfomrance also features classic renderings of “I Can’t Put My Finger On It,” “Freedom Of ‘76” “Roses Are Free,” “Baby Bitch” and “The HIV Song.” After the latter, Deaner said, “Wow, hope somebody recorded that.”

Watch fan-shot video via Daniel Kirby of Ween performing Chocolate & Cheese in its entirety plus more at Desert Daze 2019:

Setlist (via Brownbase)

Set: Take Me Away, Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down), Freedom of ’76, I Can’t Put My Finger on It, A Tear For Eddie, Roses Are Free, Baby Bitch, Mister Would You Please Help My Pony?, Drifter in the Dark, Voodoo Lady, Joppa Road, Candi, Buenas Tardes Amigo, The HIV Song, What Deaner Was Talkin’ About, Don’t Shit Where You Eat, Touch My Tooter, You Fucked Up, Someday, Buckingham Green