Zappa.com

Did you attend this show at The Music House in Arhus?

Dweezil and the band would love to read your reviews.

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

Mikey
Zappa.com Webmeister

Whoa, what a concert last night! I have to admit it - this was one of the best musical experiences of my 22-year old life.

Sitting on the front row with my father (who gave me my Zappa-ducation) and singing along with the incredible tight band was AWESOME!

Dweezil, you're playing the meanest guitar and your solos were very creative (combining Frank's melodic ideas with wickedly fast licks ). Ray's voice was out-of-this-world and he just danced around, looking happy and smiled at me with his Willie-the-Pimp-hat on =)

Aaron, Scheila, Pete, Billy, Jamie and Joe - you're the best. It's rare experience to find a group of musicians this tight. Scheila, looking good as the blond waitress in "America Drinks..." and Joe, how come Frank never took you on as a drummer? You could easily have taken Wackerman's seat!

So all in all, a great musical experience..!

And now.. the DISAPPOINTMENT of the evening:
I had been looking forward to this show for 6 months, reading reviews on this site frequently and was expecting 2-3 hours of fabolous Zappa incl. the fabled video-montage edition of Cosmik Debris amongst others.

And what did we get for our $90 tickets? LESS THAN 90 MIN. OF MUSIC BECAUSE THE BAND HAD TO CATCH A FERRY! What kind of professional band acts that way? Something must have gone terribly wrong in your planning, cause you really disappointed me and all the other fans..

No video AT ALL, no "Cosmik Debris", no "Advance Romance", no "Doreen", no "Joe's Garage", no "Wind Up Workin' In The Gas Station" and no "San Ber'dino" (shame on you - I would have LOVED to hear Ray sing that).

And there was no time for an intermission, so you didn't even find the time to sell us your new DVD, which I really had been looking forward to buying!

Considering the price of the show - and compared to the length (and video material) of your other shows - I kinda feel like I have simply bent over ("and there's a big difference between kneeling down and bending over")..


Concluding this rather tiresome essay, the concert was great! Incredible music played by incredible musicians. "G-spot Tornado" BLEW me away and Ray, you're the only Enema Bandit around!

Pete, thanks for throwing me your plectrum - that cheered me up =)

I'll see you next year! (Promise you'll come to Denmark again.. for more than 85 minutes)

Yours truly Zappatic,
Steffen Juul Krahn
steffen@krahn.nu


PS. Roxy-DVD now!

Deep disappointment!

Compared to the Paris show this is what we did not get:

Cosmik Debris
Dumb All Over
Joe's Garage
Wind up Workin' in a Gas Station
San Ber'dino
Zoot Allures
Ship Ahoy
Muffin Man

We got 85 minutes without video and the excuse that the band had to catch a ferry(!)

Maybe the audience was to small for the band to bother. I don't know. But after having warmed up by reading the set lists and reviews on this site, the actual concert was just not good enough.

Only in it for the money?

Thanks for a show that was infinitely better than no show at all!!!!
I hope you visit Jutland again soon, and let those cursed Norwegians wait another day

Looking on the bright side of a way too short concert, we managed to get home nice and early in spite of the 120km drive home.

I found the concert too loud in certain passages. Now I appreciate getting blown away as much as the next guy, but I'm sorry to say that the house PA simply couldn't handle the loud passages. When the fantastic band was playing loud there was a lot of evil mid frequency distortion that made all of the nice lyrics incomprehensible.
Also, when the overall level is boosted so much, there is greater risk of otherwise delightful musical squeals becoming a pain in the (r)ear...

Take care
Palle

@ Walkover: They DID play "Dog Breath Variations / Uncle Meat" - right before "G-Spot Tornado" and they did a damn fine job of it =)

@ Palle: I really didn't mind the volume of the concert. And apart from being in the front row, where the stage amps make the guitar sound a bit too loud, I found no issues regarding the sound.

Check out JP's review (the infamous Danish newspaper with the Muhammed-cartoons) at jp.dk/arkiv/?id=1122893.
To the non-Danish folks: They thought the music was brilliant but they curse the bloody ferry!

Great show! While it lasted.

I can't help but feel cheated.

After less than 90 minutes, the band ran away. I was stunned, "sorta starring in disbelief".

I do not feel i got what i was promised.
I do not feel i got what i payed for.

Something must have gone terribly wrong in the planning of this show.

Disregarding the length of the show:
I think the music was great! Awesome!
A really great experience hearing my all time favorite music live!
Thank you!

The feeling of exitement during the show, has been replaced by a feeling of disapointment.

I feel cheated.

I truly hope you come back to Århus! But please bring a full show.

Kind regards,
Jesper
Jesper

I have mixed feelings of the concert:

I have listened to this music for almost 40 years now and it was a great experience to hear it played by these brilliant musicians. The highlights was Dog/Meat (Dog Breath/Uncle Meat, which was indeed played as the first encore) and G-Spot Tornado. It is some of the finest Zappa-music ever written, and only The Ensemble Modern can match the versions played by ZPZ. Well done.

That said, it was a great disappointment, that DZ has so little respect for his audience and fans that he finds it OK to cram in half a concert (at full price) because the touring schedule is too tight.
No Roxy video and less than 90 minutes of music. You cannot help feeling cheated, when you can read about the 2,5 - 3 hours extravaganzas played in other venues. Hell, we love that music and payed 90$ to hear it just like everybody else.

You owe us one, Dweezil!

Ole

I totally agree with everything written above - very well put krahnium!

Been waiting for this show for a long time, been checking out the setlists on a daily basis from the other venues and was looking so much forward to this. The show began at 19.40 and ended 20.55 - Compared to what was expected, this was (timewise) a huge disappointment.

PLEASE BE SURE TO NOTICE THE PERSON(S) WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR MAKING THE LOGISTICS - CAUSING THE SHOW TO BE THIS SHORT - THAT THIS IS A CASE OF BAD JUDGEMENT!!!

Other than that The music was absolutely brilliant! ...but the feeling when we left the venue was unfortunately being overshadowed by the short playtime.

Best wishes Claus

@krahnium: I wouldn't have minded the volume if the distortion had been lower...

Since you did not experience this problem in the front row it kinda supports my theory that the house PA was the culprit.

It could also be somewhere in the mixer for the PA sound, but there was definetely overdrive when everybody played loud simultaneously.

I guess what I'm driving at there is that the sound quality out in the room could be doublechecked at full volume level in the other shows.

Anyone else had a hard time making out the lyrics?

I recognize many of the statements metioned above, and here're mine:
I've followed the Zappa music for about 38 years now. Some of the reasons that I've always loved to go Franks (and ZPZ) concerts are the music, the musicians are really good and the length of them (the shows I mean). So after yesterdays experience I sit here with mixed feelings - half pleased and disappointed.
The setlist (thank you Scheila) as you all can see is very much shorter than the set lists from the other shows. But here what we heard during the 85-90 minutes:

City of Tiny Lights (yeah!)
I'm not satisfied (it could have been an encore instead)
Lonely Little Girl
Carolina Hard core extasy (yeah!)
Suzy Creamcheese
Brown shoes
America drinks (with the lovely Scheila as a waitress)
Pygmy Twylyte (yeah!)
Duprees's paradise
'fery/fairy' song improvised by Ray referring to the ferry they had to catch
Uncle Remus (yeah)
Willie the pimp
Illinois Enema Bandit (yeah)
encore: Dog/Meat & G Spot Tornado (both yeah)

The audience saw and heard great music and great musicians but the person who is responsible for the logistics spoiled a lot for us. I sat as krahnium on the front row center (right beside him I think) and I came all the way from Copenhagen to relive the great 2½ hour show from last year, payed the $90 for the seat and expected to have a least a couple of hours of musical journey.
Dweezil - you have gathered a fine band once again; different in expression than last year. I hope that you'll be back (with another logistic coordinator) and give a full treatment concert instead of the appetizer.
Enjoy the rest of the tour.
Claus

I'm with the rest: great music, great musicianship!

I was in the back of the hall, and it sounded great from there, except that Willie The Pimp was too loud and distorted. Apart from that my sensitive ears weren't overloaded.

The concert had a fine curve up to Dupree's Paradise. After that fine theme the improvisations seemed rushed and not of great musical value. And I got worried when Ray had to improvise on "reaching the last ferry or the tour would fall apart".

When the band left the stage the applause didn't last very long: I think most of the audience thought that this was the intermission. So did I. Just a little strange that it wasn't announced.

Then the band was back and when Dweezil said that "they are already packing us down" or something like that, it sunk in that this was the end of the show.

Great encore - but I have the same mixed feelings as the other posters.

DZ's blog gives us some of the answers regarding the short show..

Let's hope that ZpZ return next year, so that Dweezil can fulfill his promise of "something special".

Thanks for reacting Dweezil - that was a good gesture.

Hope to see the band around in the near future!

Take care,
Steffen

Agreed!

Very decent of you, Dweezil, to react so quick.

One can wonder (or ask them) why Musikhuset, Aarhus wouldn't let you start at 7:00, if they knew in advance?

Hope to see you next year.

Ole

Though still disappointed, caused by my expectations, I'm glad that there has been a response - and I as well will look forward to see you next year!

Dweezil writes that of course they didn't want to disappoint us, but that most bands never play more than 90 minutes.

In this case we have read about the show from a lot of other concerts, so expectations were for a long, fulfilling concert with a big video screen, where Frank would actually sing and play with the band in real time. I was very interested in how this would work out.

So no big screen and Ray entering with the rest of the band from the very beginning told us that this might be a downsized show. But it could be reordering the segments as well. You hope until the end.

But I certainly would like to come back for a treat next year too!