CONCERT REVIEW: Jimmy Wilson Group and guests (Ween)

- Al Muzer

Promising to be one of the strangest nights of musical mayhem in recent New Jersey history, the "special guests" hinted at in the ads for this bill were the real reason a long line of happily-chattering surfers, jocks, metal heads, frat boyz ('n' grrrls), country music fans and skate punks lined the sidewalk outside The Saint (Asbury Park, New Jersey.) a full half hour before the doors were scheduled to open.

Busy from the moment the first group of excited customers had their hands stamped, club manager Scott Stamper slammed into counters, beer coolers, garbage cans, door frames and anything (and anyone) else behind the bar that remained stationary long enough to get in his way as he insanely attempted to keep up with the continuous demand for "more beer!" while Petey cranked up the music and the place quickly filled to capacity.

Wandering up to the bar with heavy-lidded eyes and a sheepish look on his face, Deen Ween seemed pleasantly baffled when he overheard a couple discussing the last time they experienced the Jimmy Wilson Group live.

"What," he drawled incredulously as he grabbed another cold one from a dangerously oscillating Stamper, "you mean to tell me that you've seen the Jimmy Wilson disaster before and actually came back for more? Wow!?!"

The band (actually a weird combination of assorted Moist Boyz, Ween members and whoever else happened to feel like climbing up on stage for a song or two) chose that moment to burst into a wigged-out version of a Chris Harford tune (with Chris on vocals) that segued into a Vanilla Fudge-like take on "Aquarius (Let The Sun Shine In)" that somehow became a mutant rendition of King Crimson's "Cat Food" that, in turn, shifted into a Wayne Kramer-ized assault on the blues that was followed by a doodlin' version of "Fire On The Mountain."

While the group took a second to catch their breath, Deener ambled up and strapped on a guitar for a slammin' blast of Funkadelic's "Red Hot Mama" that briefly became "21st Century Schizoid Man," "If Six Was Nine" and "Fire" before Gene (who had somehow found his way on stage during a Doorsy rendition of Hendrix' best acid vision) burped out a crazed solo that devolved into a manic wall of feedback and noise.

With the club officially packed and the full Ween contingent now strapped in, Gene and Deen broke into "I'm Dancing In The Show Tonight," "The Mollusk" (featuring a bizarre Jacques Cousteau underwater keyboard break), "The Golden Eel," "The Blarney Stone" (bitchin' trombone solo!) and a whole bunch'a other songs from their Elektra album, The Mollusk (as well as a few blasts from the past) that I was simply way too buzzed to write down.

Fulfilling the crowd's expectations for musical brilliance, sick humor and a totally twisted weirdness that went beyond anything witnessed in scenic Asbury Park since the last time the same group of musicians shared (more than) a few bottles and broke a few strings on the Saint's stage - The Jimmy Wilson Group's latest assault on music will long be remembered (by those actually sober enough to recall it) as one of the concert highlights of the summer.