Last Thursday I had the privilege of seeing Ween live for the second time. I couldn’t help but marvel at how well these guys have done for themselves as we drove past the venue looking at the line that was backed up well around the block. Considering that they started as just a couple guys huffing whatever they could find lying around the house and recording delightfully demented songs on a 4-track, they have come a long, long way.

If you’ve never heard Ween, there is really an art to getting into them. They are not a band that you can force on anyone unless you want them to hate Ween and hate you for making them listen. No, they are an acquired taste that one must discover for themself. They’re new album, La Cucaracha, is very good and full of dead-on parodies. Although maybe the best album to introduce the unsuspecting listener to Ween would be Quebec. Despite it’s overall mellowness, it’s a good way to ease yourself into their world. There are enough weird moments and time-distorted vocals to give you an idea of what they’re about, but they are mixed in with a lot of their most accessible music as well.

The best thing to do when first listening to Ween is laugh. They have some genuinely messed up songs, but when it comes down to it, they’re hilarious. Half of their music is part-tribute and part-send up, with them masterfully aping some of your favorite artists and genres. The other half is just good, clean fun. Well, definitely not often clean, but fun for sure. Once you’ve stopped laughing, however, you realize something: these are just some damn good songs. And that’s when you realize their genius. They take cliches and idiosyncrasies in every musical style and simultaneously lampoon and build upon them. And for all their wackiness, you realize that while they don’t take themselves seriously, they still take music itself seriously and obviously love every minute of it.

Watching them onstage is a unique spectacle, seeing them translate their songs seamlessly into a straightforward live band setting and rock your balls off while doing it. Their setlists are career-spanning, diverse and satisfying, although I could have done without the 15-minute drum solo at the end. They really overdo it with the fog machine, but it would appear they do that partially to cover up the billowing “ambiance” of the crowd. I seriously was no more than 10 feet into the venue before I noticed the entire lobby was already in a haze. Although a Ween crowd is one of the most fun and entertaining concert crowds you could ever want to be a part of.

What it really comes down to with these guys is that they are doing exactly what they want to do with music, and making a fine living off of it. And they make me happy.