Despite
their obvious musical craftsmanship and ecstatic performance energy, I
never really “got” Ween, the gleefully dirty-minded satirists of the
alt-rock ’90s. Comprised of Mickey Melchiondo and Aaron Freeman, aka
Dean and Gene Ween, there was always an unnerving
shock-for-shock’s-sake quality to their misogynistic and race-baiting
frat boy humor. It felt like really smart and well-crafted dumb music
made predominantly for a set that might not mistake it for empty
theater.
Offshoot Moistboyz, then, simply extends the pair’s
anarchic, jovial political incorrectness (after all, what better way to
drum up attention these days than toss around the word jihad?),
and finds it invading fresh new subgenre terrain (a relative term here,
considering they’ve been spitting out occasional releases for the past
decade) in the form of thrashing rap metal. Caustic single “O.G.
Simpson” was the duo’s initial claim to fame, but that doesn’t show up
in the course of this 75-minute show, filmed live at the Bowery
Ballroom in New York City in mid-September of 2005. Spanning material
from all four Moistboyz records, multi-instrumentalist Mickey Moist
(Melchiondo) and pants-slung-low frontman Dickie Moist (that would be
Freeman), pausing occasionally to quote from Pulp Fiction,
together with their backing band rip through a sweaty show full of
smirky crassness (sample lyric: “Shit stains cooking in the crack of
your ass!”) but also undeniably catchy punk-metal catharsis.
Directed by Marc Schmidt-Casdorff, the concert is full of both the
forceful vigor that marks the best of punk rock as well as a pointedly
subversive theatricality. The fact they’re straight-facedly playing
characters comes through loud and clear. The hard-charging set list is
comprised of: “Great American Zero,” “That’s What Rock & Roll Can
Do,” “The Tweaker,” “U Blow,” “Lazy and Cool,” “Officer Please,” “White
Trash,” “1.0 (Fuck No),” “Keep the Fire Alive,” “The Year of the
Maggot,” “Captain America,” “Crank,” “Carjack,” “In the Valley of the
Sun,” “Roy,” “The Spike,” “Good Morning America” and “Fuck You.”
Strangely, a cover of Hanson’s “MMMBop” is not included.
Moistboyz: Live Jihad is presented in a regular Amray case,
with a Dolby digital audio track that ably handles the high-register
demands of the show. It’s presented in full screen, but enough creative
shots and angles are commingled so as to give one a fresh sense of the
stage and space. An unfortunate lack of extras makes this screeching
document pretty much a wash for Ween/Moistboyz newbies, but one
imagines there’s a sneering, and perhaps even erudite, devotee out
there that will be more than happy to provide you with a rolling
commentary track should you need/want one. B- (Concert) D+ (Disc)