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The first time I ever saw FZ, The Palladium, NYC, 1978...scored 3rd row center tix...my favorite album was Uncle Meat, and at some point during the show Frank announced that someone from the night before had requested the main theme from UM and the band didn't know it, but that morning they learned it  "and now we're gonna play it...one two three four..." and they proceeded to play said song...sheer bliss and euphoria for yours truly...also being that close got to "slap him five"...I'll never forget it...

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I can't tell when you're telling the truth.
>I'm not.
How do I know anything you've said to me is...
>You don't.

1978 Knebworth park -Laying back in the sun staring up at the clouds just as Zappa came on stage and did a brilliant show, during the show a polysyrene head bounced around the croud ,quite surreal.<br><br>Kieth Moon died 2 day's before

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Everyone smiles as we tread through the horse shit, it grows so incredibly high.

I didnt even know Zappa existed till the month he died. (I was 16) So going to see 'the muffin men' with Jimmy Carl Black was pretty fucking exciting. This might seem a bit esoteric, but the memory ( and this is out of some pretty memorable moments) that sticks with me is the look of tolerant compassion and tolerance that came from my best mate Tom who had driven. This is a man who at the time worked shifts processing blood. (I shit you not. he worked in a blood factory.) Not only was he a  completely knackered Wu Tang fan but he had work at 6 in the morning. In years to come Ill look back on that night as being 'back when freindship meant something. (Sniffsniff)<br><br>

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My clothes are lying to me. My pets want me dead & My furnitures giving me bad advice.WORD

Frank was playing in  Tucson   9/11/77  Univ of Arizona . He rehearsed for hours in the Beardown<br>Auditorium. My friends were running the concert circuit so we got to sit there and watch Frank an his band play for hours. He played Watermelon in Easter Hay  an amazing guitar solo by FZ himself. Steve VAi was ripping<br> <br>When I met Frank at a break that day I told him I would try to charm girls by singing "love of my Life".<br>Later in the rehearsal he sang that song  and prefaced it by saying "this is a song that brad (that's me) sings to girls when he wants to get his dick wet"!<br> <br>He also autographed my Burnt Weenie album - which is now framed  along with ticket stubs from the various concerts I attended starting with Halloween 10/31/76. <br> <br>That day, he gave may all his lyrics for the show and asked me to go to an office punch holes and insert the songs in his loose-leaf from which he read/sang the songs as some of them he had not memorized yet.<br> <br>This was my on my most memorable FZ moments.<br>

This happened during a concert at the montreal forum : the band was playing dirty love when frank was hit in the head by a roll of toilet paper .... the song stopped immediately . frank admonished the assembled masses then went a one and a two and a .... and the band continued the song on the exact beat where the music had stopped a few seconds earlier . I think most of the audience shit their pants at that exact moment ( am i allowed to say that ?)

I have only attended on FZ performance and that was November 14th (?), 1984. Location, Orpheum Theater, Boston, MA. (would love a tape of this show, btw).<br><br>A friend and I drove down in his Pontiac Riviera or some huge Buick, not quite sure. He didn't have a license so I did all the driving. I shouldn't have driven because I had minimal driving experience. Anyways, we had to get to the show (with no tickets, mind you)! To this day, I have no idea how we found the Orpheum Theater in Boston. Anyone who's ever driven in Boston knows what I'm talking about. Nor do I know how I avoided an accident, although I did almost crash into a porshe.  <br><br>We get to the venue, park, and begin searching for tickets.  All sold out....scalpers being arrested left and right. We go to a local park and meet up with a couple other kids looking for tickets and happen upon a couple hustlers (we didn't know this, we're from Maine...what do we know) The two kids give us the look like...no don't do it and they take off, we give the hustlers 50 bucks and one tells us to wait with his "friend" as he walks off to get the tickets to bring to us, so we thought.  so we waited and waited until we realized we'd been ripped off.  We were bummed, we were 19 yo and desperate to see the show.  <br><br>About 10 minutes before the show, we miraculously aquire 2 aunthentic tickets for 20 bucks each and as I turn around to head to the venue, my face runs into a cops chest, with the scalped tickets in my hand. I didn't panic and just said excuse me and walked around him.  WE GOT IN TO THE SHOW!!!!!<br> <br>The most memorable aspect of the show was sitting in the front row of the balcony during whipping post and FZ's solo took me to anothor place (naturally!!!!!) and it seemed to last for about 15 minutes. That was my best concert experience of all time, hands down!  Although, Project Object opening with Five-Five-Five on Dec. 30, 02 at the Lion's Den in NYC was a close second.  <br><br>Anyone got a tape of the Orpheum Show on 11/14/84????<br><br>I've rambled on enough....... hotratz

I got to meet all six members Iron Maiden as I was staying in the same hotel as them the same night of their concert for the Ed Hunter tour.  Adrian Smith wasn't at the bar with everyone else, but I met him after in the lobby.<br><br>

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Nothing is what I want.

I saw Frank in Detroit in November 1980 for the first time. When the band played "Broken Hearts...", several audience members ran toward the stage. These people were desperately trying to get FZ's attention by waving their arms in the air and jumping up and down. Frank acknowledged some individuals by pointing to them as he sang "You're an *******, you're an *******". These lucky folks seemed overjoyed as they ran back to their seats. They were quite pleased that they had convinced Frank Zappa to call them an *******. I wonder if this happened whenever he played this song in concert?

[quote author=BigSwifty link=board=concerts;num=1030732151;start=30#36 date=02/28/03 at 21:09:10]I saw Frank in Detroit in November 1980 for the first time. When the band played "Broken Hearts...", several audience members ran toward the stage. These people were desperately trying to get FZ's attention by waving their arms in the air and jumping up and down. Frank acknowledged some individuals by pointing to them as he sang "You're an *******, you're an *******". These lucky folks seemed overjoyed as they ran back to their seats. They were quite pleased that they had convinced Frank Zappa to call them an *******. I wonder if this happened whenever he played this song in concert? [/quote]<br><br>Big Swifty, that is funny as hell....thanks!!<br>

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Help all the rednecks and the flatfoot policemen on the terrible functions they all must perform. God help the winos, the junkies, and the weirdos and every poor soul who's adrift in the storm.

It had to be seeing the Mothers at the Fillmore East - circa 1970. ( I'm not sure of the date. )<br>  I had never seen Zappa before, and was a bit  nervous.<br>What is he going to be like in person?<br>  JF MUrphy & Salt,  and SHA NA NA were the support bands.<br>Out comes Bill Graham.<br> He steps up the mic, and some heckler starts yelling stuff.<br>Graham says " Come down here and say your piece.  The<br>mic is yours. Shame no one takes me up that offer.<br>Anyways....everyone's favorite mothers.....The Mothers<br>of Invention"<br>  The Fillmore crowd goes nuts. Yelling and screaming, " Where's Suzy Creamcheese??"  " Ian is a fag," which really seemed to piss off Ian. He glanced over at Frank.  <br>   Frank stepped up to the mic " Ok....ahem....I see that we have our usual Fillmore audience here tonight.  How 'bout<br>this? Why don't you entertain us for while. Maybe when<br>you're done, we'll play for some music for ya."<br> Frank says off mic " no....don't play anything"<br>Zappa opens a can of Bud and lights a cig and just glares<br>at the audience, shaking his head in disbelief.  The crowd<br>finally quiets down. " Ok...are you ready now for some<br>music?"<br>  Excellent show, but Zappa seemed pissed off the rest<br>of the night. <br> After "King Kong," they all leave the stage w/o saying a word. Frank appears, and the band comes back carrying these huge burlap bags.<br>  Zappa speaks, " We're not going to play an encore.<br> We have something else in store for ya."<br> Zappa and rest of band proceed to go into the bags,<br> pull out little boxes of prunes,  and hurl them at the<br>audience. Zappa nearly missed me in the head with <br>a box. When that was over, Frank said " goodnight,<br>boys and girls" and left stage.

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"The largest land mammal is the absent mind" (Don Van Vliet - 1971)

Toronto 1977- Maple Leaf Gardens. <br><br>Frank has just finished some ludicrously amazing solo, then tries to introduce the name of the next number. The audience cheers drowns him out, so he just solos some more.<br>During the second encore -with the surprise guest spot featuring Flo & Eddie, Frank says something to the effect of "OK; That'll wrap it up for tonight" -only to be met with such a wave of disappointment from the audience that he then says "OK; that won't wrap it up for tonight" and the crowd goes wild as he plays yet another number. <br>You could tell he was simply delighted that night.

[quote author=prime_rate_poodle link=board=concerts;num=1030732151;start=45#45 date=01/19/06 at 16:45:07]Toronto 1977- Maple Leaf Gardens. <br><br>Frank has just finished some ludicrously amazing solo, then tries to introduce the name of the next number. The audience cheers drowns him out, so he just solos some more.<br>During the second encore -with the surprise guest spot featuring Flo & Eddie, Frank says something to the effect of "OK; That'll wrap it up for tonight" -only to be met with such a wave of disappointment from the audience that he then says "OK; that won't wrap it up for tonight" and the crowd goes wild as he plays yet another number. <br>You could tell he was simply delighted that night.[/quote]<br><br><br>Wanna hear it again?  ;)<br><br>Click >>HERE<<<br><br><br>IB ;D

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All the time he would spend...all the colors he'd blend...
Where are they now?

[quote author=Ronnys Noomies link=board=concerts;num=1030732151;start=45#47 date=01/19/06 at 20:56:38]My favorite moment of any show I've ever attended came the first time I saw FZ in the spring of 1973, at the Auditorium Theater, in Chicago. Frank was in the middle of Echidna's Arf when he broke a string. He got all flustered and ended up asking the audience if anyone had a guitar he could use while the tech guy re-strung his SG. Well, I was in the 6th row, and had brought my guitar to the show, just in case. I jumped up onstage, and he said, "Well, that's a pretty nice guitar, why don't you play it?" The band had been vamping the changes to the end of Echidna, and I just jumped in. The part just before it seques into Don't You Ever Wash That Thing was tricky, but I got through it. By the middle of my solo on that piece, Frank's guitar was ready, so he jumped in and we traded licks for a while. Then, he had to kick me off the stage because I was so star struck I didn't get the hint. He did autograph my guitar (a Tele knock-off) after the show, though, so I'll always have that to remind me of the great time I had that night.  :)[/quote]<br>Holy shit, Ronnies! Are you yanking my chain, or is this real?! If it is real, WHY ARE YOU JUST NOW TELLING THIS STORY?!!! I'd be telling it more times than Trendmonger says "Read it and weep." ;D<br><br>Clarifier: I don't think you are lying. I'm just shocked I've never heard this one before! It sounds like a dream. What other stories are you holding back?

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“The person who stands up and says, 'This is stupid,' either is asked to behave or, worse, is greeted with a cheerful 'Yes, we know! Isn't it terrific!" -Frank Zappa