Ween Announce Reunion, Plan 2016 Concerts

The Boognish rises again: Almost four years after Ween split up, Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo, a.k.a. Gene and Dean Ween, have announced plans to reunite for a pair of concerts. The Chocolate & Cheese duo will come together President’s Day Weekend, February 12th and 13th, at Broomfield, Colorado’s 1st Bank Center. “I can’t wait to get on that stage and hear how happy this makes people,” Freeman said in a statement.

For the concerts, Ween’s longtime touring members – drummer Claude Coleman, Jr., keyboardist Glenn McClelland and bassist Dave Dreiwitz – will rejoin the duo. “Ween is an extension of who we are. It’s not a persona that we put on to go onstage,” Melchiondo said in a statement. Ween promise to perform “new stuff that nobody has ever heard live before” while adding that the reunion shows are “going to be fucking mind-blowing.” Tickets for the gigs go on sale November 20th; check out Ween’s official site for more information.

Ween last performed together on December 31st, 2011 in Denver. In May 2012, Freeman talked to Rolling Stone about his decision to split from Ween and Melchiondo, his recording partner for over three decades. “It’s time to move on. I’m retiring Gene Ween,” Freeman said. “For me it’s a closed book. In life sometimes, in the universe, you have to close some doors to have others open. There’s no, ‘Goddamn that such and such!’ For me, I’d like to think it’s a door I can close finally.” The following month, Ween formally announced they were calling it quits.

In the ensuing years, Freeman pursued his own solo career – under his own name, not Gene Ween – while Melchiondo hit the road with the Dean Ween Group. However, in September, Freeman began performing as Gene Ween again, giving fans hope that a reconciliation between the pair was in the works.

It’s unclear whether Ween’s reunion will be limited to the Colorado shows or if a full-scale tour is planned. Ween’s last studio LP La Cucaracha was released in 2007.