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Did you attend the ZPZ show at the Dodge Theatre in Phoenix?

Dweezil and the band love reading your reviews.

Please do not post in this thread if you did not attend the show.

Mikey
Zappa.com Webmeister

Oh my God!! Another masterpiece by the Zappa Plays Zappa band. Completely different show than the first tour and I didn't think it could get better than that. Joe Travers is now in my Top 3 drummers list. (neil peart, stewart copeland) Shiela Gonzales is a gift from God. I Love you Shiela!! Dweezil seems to be channeling Frank. He has mastered Frank's music. This is one of the most talented group of musicians ever assembled and anyone who sees these concerts will agree with me.
From the surprising opening number of Van Halen's "Eruption" (great story) to the encore of The Torture Never Stops and Muffin Man, I have never been more thoroughly entertained at a concert.
I took a friend who is a professional singer and is not familiar with Zappa's music. She was totally blown away by the cohesivness and range of the band and now is a fan that can't wait for her next ZPZ concert.
Dweezil, thank you for bringing your father's music back to life and sharing it with us with the Zappa plays Zappa tours. Frank would be proud of you as are all of us fans. And please keep coming to Phoenix.

Anyone who has the opportunity to see this band will not be disappointed. This is the 3rd time I got to see Dweezil at the Dodge. I loved the opening story about Van Halen's "Eruption" and I did like the previous years just a little better - but this show will leave the best memories for me because i took my youngest son and it was his first concert. What an impression you gave my son - you set the bar so high that any other concert he goes to will be hard to beat the impression you gave to him - thankyou! Ray White was great to see and hear - his voice sounded as good as i saw him in the 70's, and what in the hell can't Scheila Gonzalez do? She is just simply amazing.
Dweezil, I have to say that your hard work and dedication to music is extremely appreciated and it shows in your demeanor.Your parents raised you well, and must be very proud of you. Its so refreshing to see a band who is ego free. I saw the interview on Channel 3 and learned that Zappa had over 80 albums...boy am i bummed, i only have 61. My only complaint of the evening is the t-shirts...they must of gone green,
because they feel like they will denigrate in about a wash or two - I still have the Zappa shirts from the 70's and 80's and my kids still wear them.
Dweezil,congrats on the well deserved Grammy, the new daughter to your family, and i will return next year to witness musicianship at its finest!
Jay Allen

what is the Eruption story?

Dweezil, GREAT SHOW!

Set list was really one of the best of Frank's music that I ever heard. Opening with Eruption was a nice touch and it was kind of neat you even copied the 2 mistake Eddie VanHalen made when he recorded it!

Great bunch of musicians, I liked how you played the tempo of the songs slightly slower than they are usually played live. Too many times things get speeded up, slowing things down, tempo wise allows the listeners to hear and enjoy the music.

Faster is not always better.

Great to see Dweezil stick around after the show and sign autographs from the stage, nice personal touch and I know after a show you can be tired and not exactly enthused about signing hundreds of autographs and answering questions, but you did it.

ONE COMPLAINT.

I bought a "We don't mess around T shirt" from the vendor and for $35 the shirt quality is poor, VERY thin fabric that is not going to stand up to washing and wearing more than a couple of times. I hope you switch vendors and improve the shirts.

[quote="acorn"]what is the Eruption story?[/quote]

Dweezil came out on stage with a Eddie VanHalen black/yellow striped guitar (like the one pictured on the back of Van Halen 2 album cover). Charvel guitars I believe is headquartered in Scottsdale and they gave Dweezil this guitar. (Interestingly, the original EVH black/yellow guitar was bured with Dime Bag Darrell when he dies a few years ago, Dime Bag was a HUGE EVH fan and when he was killed at a concert EVH gave the guitar to the family who then placed that guitar in Dime Bag's coffin).
At the start of the show Dweezil came out and told the story of how he first met Eddie at the house. When Eddie arrived the first thing Dweezil said to him was "play Eruption", Eddie did, Dweezil was impressed.

Dweezil opened the show with Eruption and he did a darn good job, as I noted in my previous post, during the original recording of Eruption, EVH made 2 slight errors, and it was fun to watch Dweezil copy those mistakes when he played the song last night.

Dweezil came out on stage with a Eddie VanHalen black/yellow striped guitar


unreal man.

DZ is amazing

The show was an outstanding performance!!!!! Who could believe the total command of such musical abilities, I could of course!!!! I took my roommate, who hears me playing Zappa & ZPZ all hours of the day and night, she thought...."well I'll go, don't want to waste a ticket" even though she's not a fan....."Well after the performance-a jaw dropping one at that-she is now converted!!!! She says "That was the BEST DAMN Concert she had ever been to" she couldn't believe her ears and eyes, totally awestruck!!!! Thank you Dweezil for such an experience. Also to all members for their contribution to keeping Franks Music Alive!!!! Arf!!! Robert

I was at the show last night... wow... that's all I gotta say. This too was my third time seeing the band, and I appreciate it more and more every time. Thank you Dwezil and company for keeping this great music alive, and out there for everyone to hear. It was a fantastic show. Great choice of tracks, and Ray as always sounded phenomenal. I hope you keep this project alive for many many years to come. I will continue to be a regular when you come to the Dodge Theater. 7 rows from the stage, middle section... I was in heaven!

Can someone post a setlist to satisfy my setlust?
I am especially curious about the early-Frank instrumental that Dweezil said he was going to break out. From Hot Rats?
Going to Ventura tomorrow, Santa Rosa next weekend...
Hey Dweez, wanna come play in Istanbul sometime? I'll make the trip and be happy to show you all around.

Right off the bat, me and the family (wife, 2 daughters, 16 and 23) KNEW that this was going to be special.

A few people yelled out stuff to Dweezil along the lines of:

"THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR KEEPING FRANK'S MUSIC ALIVE!"

and the like ... very emotional for me personally -- the genuine good feelings from the audience were just so right and special -- we really DO need to continually thank Dweezil for making this happen.

But let's not get too maudlin just yet! On with the show!

1) Eruption (1978)

So the thing is:

When DZ was younger, EVH was what the guitar was all about, as far as he was concerned at that time.

This technical wizardy is very much a part of FZ's music, of course -- but I think Dweezil made a beautiful and perhaps subtle point by opening with this solo statement of great technique and force

BTW< Dweezil "remembered" this as "being around the time that 'Apostrophe (')' came out -- > !

and then ...

2) Andy (1975)

... on to -- ah -- more substantial matters!

having heard this in Tucson on the last tour + as well as the DVD version = makes this the 3rd ZPZ version I've heard.

I just hate to nitpick this kind of thing -- but there are a few very minor screw-ups here -- a few entrances missed, if I'm not mistaken, in this complicated chart...

And that wicked underlying rhythm just wasn't quite tight, knife-cutting-thru-the-air like it was in Tucson and on the DVD -- perhaps they were still having sound and/or monitor problems -- Ray White's amplification never sounded quite right until several tunes after this ...

But nevermind -- it rocked the house -- and the expression on my 16-year-old's face will last me a lifetime...

3) Why Don'tcha Do Me Right (1967)

... from the "Absolutely Free" album...

How funny, really.

Of course, on the original "Absolutely Free" album (that is to say, the LP, or -- if you will -- long-playing record -- 33RPM -- boys and girls -- a piece of vinyl, ya know?) there was no track WHY DON'TCHA DO ME RIGHT! It was released as a single [Frank REALLY wanted a hit -- and this was actually the "B" side -- the "A" side was "Big Leg Emma" (qv)], but was NOT on the album itself!

Decades later, when the CD came out, these two tracks were added to the CD.

4) Penguin in Bondage (1974)

And my barely legible notes (oh I was having too much fun to be too analytical. OTOH, I can't help myself. I yam who I yam.) indicate something about the mikes and the overall sonic balance.

Again, I realize how picky this must sound to many of you -- but consider that we live in this digital age where that "close-as-you-can-get" perfection in delivering loud, but distortion-free music is really not that hard to achieve if you have the right equipment.

It didn't take them long to straighten out whatever problems there might have been -- because after this, everything was gorgeous -- mix-wise...

The performance itself was awesome, of course. Things like the "shake up the pale dry ginger ale" and gorgeous vibes shaking up the bubbly, rising to the top of the room, our bodies tingling with effervescence --

Adding this to #6-8 below, Roxy & Elsewhere was pretty well represented. And really splendidly performed...

5) Wind Up Workin' in a Gas Station (1976)

WHAT A TREAT!!

From Zoot Allures (1976) -- Scheila was particularly fantastic on this one...

6) Village of the Sun (1974)
7) Echidna's Arf (Of You)
8) Don't You Ever Wash That Thing?

What can I say? You can't even imagine how precious this music is to me -- my brother and I were there at the Roxy in 12/73 for the version which ended up on the record (there ARE a few overdubs ... just a few)...

THIRTY-FIVE + years later and guess what ?

I still get chills down my back during those fast 5 and 7 sections.

This band played it all as tight as the black-shirted Mothers did that wonderful December evening in 1973...

What really impressed me was how with only one horn -- as opposed to THREE in FZ's band -- you NEVER feel the absence of Fowler's trombone, so well is it all covered.

There is one thing I'm very curious to know about:

In VOTS, there is a short, very beautiful, NEW lick added -- Scheila plays it on sax, AND it is sung -- it consists of a half-step and then a large upward leap -- something ZPZ definitely added in the arrangement. It is very pretty -- I wonder who came up with it?

The changes in the latter part of this "suite" really allow the player to blow some pretty and interesting stuff. My notes indicate that Scheila really got into it --

and every single little transition (and there are TONS of 'em in this piece!) was really perfect -- the CODA rocked. Bravo times eternity

9) Lumpy Gravy Theme (1967)

Delightful. I only wish they had gone on just a little further, as I do in my MIDI here:
http://www.4shared.com/file/77409978/36 ... Gravy.html [reviewer's note: 3/2/09 ~ as of today, this MIDI was put into the "abuse" file because a complaint was filed. Please e-mail me (found at www.lewissaul.blogspot.com) if you wish to hear it.]

10) Dog Breath (1969)

EXCELLENT solo by dz! Another great pick from UNCLE MEAT!

11) Pound For A Brown (1969) ~ (extended) -- and man ! was it extended! My notes just helped me remember:

a) a very great vibes solo by Billy. His sound btw was just PERFECTO all night long. I heard every note and it never was the least bit distorted or overpowering...
b) a very cool 5/4 section, which dz conducted at times, and really had some very hot musical interchanges goin' on...
c) RUN HOME SLOW! That was pretty amazing to hear that all of a sudden. dz used the 3/4 vamp to underpin a variety of very cool musical happenings -- wonderful! (I understand that the band is learning ALL of RHS!)...
d) Jamie Kime took a very beautiful -- nicely-structured solo here ...
e) and Pete Griffin, too! Pete is consistently turning my head around -- the three times (inc. the DVD) that I've heard him, I've absolutely been knocked out !! (sort of literally -- that sound really HITS you in the chest and gut in the first few rows!) -- his playing is SO tasty --
f) a 4/4 riff I notated that I have no idea where it came from -- but it was two 1/8ths, two 1/4 rests, and then 4 1/16ths -- very cool and powerful...
g) Ray's guitar solo in 7 -- NOT a blues (that was the big joke! he always got to play guitar if it was a "blues"!!) -- VERY nice -- of course, it's no surprise to most of us that this guy can actually really play the guitar. He scatted along with his playing for a bit -- very nice!
h) An amazing coda which wrapped it all up.

This piece is so brutal with that underlying FAST 7 rhythm and that wacky, zig-zaggy line on top which DEFIES the seven pulse...

FZ's first version of this is at a MUCH slower tempo ... over the years it crept up and as zpz now plays it is perhaps the way Frank really heard it in his head. At the slower tempo, you don't really get the overall arch of the melody, in all its weirdness, as you do when it's faster.

Fantastic all around.

As disappointing as it was not to have "Billy the Mountain" or "Greggery" or some long-form work -- we got the "Village Suite" and this VERY long arrangement -- very very special...

12) Bamboozled By Love (1980)

zpz did this in tucson last time, and the arrangement was pretty much the same. dz's solo was good.

13) Dirty Love (1973)

good. not great.

14) Cleetus Awreetus Awrightus (1972)

What a nice treat! Apparently, newly learned, it was VERY well performed -- perhaps a bump or two along the way -- again, a very difficult chart for a band with only one horn (unless Aaron picks up his trumpet) playing a chart that originally was PACKED with horns!!!

I tried very hard to discern the separation with three separate keyboards being played at some points here: but it was ALL there -- just about every note --

and THAT'S really something for a hard piece like this. The solos were good -- not ASTONISHING -- but, good. Certain people looked -- I dunno -- maybe just a tad tired, or whatever ...

... keeping up that fever pitch night after night is what really set FZ apart from the others, however. And by others, I mean ANY type of entertainer; classical, country, opera, you name it -- Frank came out (I saw him around 14 times) and gave you 1000% every second...

My criticism is not really about any one person at all -- but I'm saying that SOMETIMES -- to my tiny ears -- it sounded like the soloing was a bit , er ... VOLCANO-ish, at times. Or even worse -- the opposite, too UNDERSTATED.

Frank created mini-compositions in his solos. My wish is for zpz players to search out that component a bit more. I can certainly say that one or two of Dweezil's solos last nights were mind-blowing -- but several were just, ah -- OKAY, ya know?

Oh well, just saying it the way I felt/feel it...

15) Eat That Question (1972)

And again here -- a mono-chordal jam is SO POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS -- because, ah, there's just ONE chord!

Of course, it's easy to say how great the solos are on the original (Grand Wazoo) -- but that was a studio album and obviously not the same as making music last night in Phoenix!

Still, the soloing was interesting -- but never quite VITAL enuf. I wish I was rich and could follow this band around -- because I'm sure there are/will be nights where these people just catch on FIRE in this regard...

16) Camarillo Brillo (1973)

In late FZ career, this became a throw-away encore # -- the tempo got faster and faster over the years --

but I thought zpz played this like it was as fresh as if we were transported back to 1973 ... and I can *so* vividly remember that day when I tore the shrink wrap off this baby and heard this!!!

Can't you? (You old farts, like me, I mean!)

17) Peaches en Regalia (1969)

And the same here ... tiny complaint -- the FLUTE+GUITAR part (E-F#m) -- such a special, lovely moment -- the mix wasn't real good, with the flute overpowering the guitar (from where I sat, anyways)...

...the famous A/B/G/C/F/D/E part with all the leaping 16ths were -- oopmh -- PERFECTO! -- each time!

18) Zomby Woof (1973)

Again, lest I be accused of being a horrible ingrate, to be forever BANNED from zpz concerts because of my BAD ATTITUDE --

Over 50% of this setlist comes from 1972-1975...

... NOT THAT THERE'S ANYTHING WRONG WITH THAT! ...

but I dunno -- as a programmer -- I salivate at the thought of sticking an oddball choice in this spot -- something like

Road Ladies (1970)
You Are What You Is (1981)
Jesus Thinks You're A Jerk (1988)
No. No. No. (1968)
Reagan at Bitburg (1993) (sorry, couldn't help it) ...

or something totally unrepresented -- from 200 Motels, for example..

19) The Torture Never Stops (1976)

All I could think about during this was how Frank would have ALTERED this song for the times in which we live, vis-a-vis the whole waterboarding thing, etc.

Scheila's flute was miked a bit too loud (at least from where I was sitting).

A note on Dweezil's solo here:

He started it off with a second or so digital delay, and plucked away at some staccato licks, sending the sound splintering through the hall -- very very nice -- THIS TIME his solo built up to wonderful musical heights -- it seems perfectly paced and he was making ALL kinds of really nice progressions ...

(All my complaints about "soloing" above have to do with the fact that I am CONSTANTLY amazed at how FZ's solos stand out as mini-compositions -- gee, duh: he only made a BUNCH of records out of these solos! -- )



20) Muffin Man (1975)

... and again -- a one-chord vamp where it's easy to just "chew up" the measures with spewage.

Here, Dweezil really worked hard, and earned his money. I felt really good when it was over.

*********************

Thanks, Dweezil & Co. for an unforgettable evening.

Frank's music will live on forever -- and I hope that you all will take my rather long-winded and perhaps pompous post as I truly mean it -- a teensy effort of trying to describe what Frank's music means to me -- what it does to me, personally and, as a composer myself, professionally --

-- AND my 23- and 16-year old girls were COMPLETELY BLOWN AWAY!

And that's perhaps the most important thing of all. Because if Frank's music will exist throughout the centuries, it will start with each new generation and then what follows...

*#*

Now

Put out the ROXY dvd. That alone will bring in 100,000 new fans. No ? about it. I'll go door-to-door, if I have to...

Lewis Saul

Nice setlist! Than ks for posting lsaul. Can't wait to see more of the same!!!!

Cleetus Awreetus and Penguin! Nice choices, Dweezil!

See y'all Sunday night at the HOB.

Arf!
Wagz

Row one, seat one! Absolute center stage! I don't know how I managed to snag those seats, but I sure was glad I did... this time! Thanks, Dweezil, for giving me your copy of the setlist! And thanks for coming back to Phoenix!

I had seen ZPZ every time they came to the Dodge in Phx and the Fox in Tucson (Please come back to Tucson! The Fox acoustics are awesome!!)

As much as I enjoyed seeing the minutia of every nuanced wiggle of DZ's magic fingers on the frets (and for that matter I could have counted the number of rogue nostril hairs that may have missed the attention of the occasional zircon-encrusted tweezers), I probably won't sit there again. The visual vantage point was wonderful as I could almost imagine they were the worlds hottest garage band and I was just hanging out drinking beers to the best music ever written. It really felt that personal to be so close.

But... and this is probably unavoidable for these seats... I had a hard time hearing anything besides Dweezil. Not that hearing EVERYTHING Dweezil did with absolute 100% perfect ear-bleeding clarity is necessarily bad, but except during non-DZ solos, quieter songs, etc, I was missing out on much of the rest of the music.

C'est la vie... I wouldn't have traded those seats for anything - this time - but there's a very good reason I also don't sit in the front row for movies or live football games either, as the sweet spot for those are also further back in the venue. Sitting that close to the band was a premium visual experience, but next year I'll be rubbing shoulders (instead of my ears) with the rest of the huddled masses a little further back.

Thanks again for another great show guys! You are keeping alive and sharing some of the most important music that ever existed. I think that's rather important.

[quote="admin"]Did you attend the ZPZ show at the Dodge Theatre in Phoenix?

Dweezil and the band love reading your reviews.

Please do not post in this thread if you did not attend the show.

Mikey
Zappa.com Webmeister[/quote]
I am wondering if there will be a download available for this concert like the Chicago show!!!!!