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First, a little background to give an idea as to where I’m coming from – I’ll keep it short – perspective is everything – but feel free to skip down to the REVIEW if you’re in a hurry because you’re fucking off at work and is that your fart-knocker of a superior who looks like the “dork” in the Apple commercials padding up behind you? What, it’s the other guy? The unassuming but alarmingly smug piece of shit in slacker drag?! You’re screwed.
Minimize! MINIMIZE!!!
Last time I saw Zappa live was 1984 – very good show but the tour I saw before in Houston in October 1981 was a motherfucker – jaw-dropping amazing – and I had seen Zappa before then – more on that show later when I get to the REVIEW, except to say, and it’s an unfair measure but it’s mine, I have never, ever heard a performance anything like that one before or since. We’re talking long moments of transcendence and Frank at the time said early in the show he felt like “dog-shit.”
Also – believe it or don’t – I actually am the friend the other reviewer wrote about who didn’t know I would be there.
I had tickets to ZPZ for the December 2006 show but I was nursing an impressively broken leg when that show came around and as much as I wanted to see that show and hear Frank’s music live again, I didn’t want to be distracted with crutches and pain meds. And that perhaps made the ZPZ Show at the Verizon Theatre in Houston, Texas on November 12, 2007 that much more enjoyable.
T H E R E V I E W (long)
I’d never been to the Verizon before – not a bad venue but from where I was sitting (6th row, just left of center), and by the look and sound of the setup, I was probably skirting the edge of the audio cone’s focus. The lows and highs on the extremes were dropping or fuzzing out but from inside those extremes, everything else sounded great. And it was very cool to be so close to the stage and interact with the band.
The band was very prompt and took the stage smiling at 8pm, give or take a minute or two. All smiles, waving, getting instruments together, and getting to work. Happy to be there.
All right, I’m thinking. Cosmik Debris works for me – let’s see where it goes and where it went was very nice. Frank on the screen – hey, that’s cool – I’ll try not to stare at the screen – I wanna watch the band. The band is into it. They’re working and enjoying the work. Let’s listen to Dweezil on the solo and ~not~ play amazing stunt-guitar. Holy crap! He’s pulling it off and well! He’s not carbon copying Frank but he’s clearly not trying to – and that’s a good thing! Still, the sound is there and close enough to tickle the ear and the memory but not so exact as to give the idea that he’s just being an accomplished mimic act. No way. His guitar work is his own. To be sure, the music and the songs are Frank’s, and always will be, but this is as close as anyone is going to get to hearing Frank’s stuff live. Good for Dweezil and the band. This stuff should be heard live if at all possible. So far so good – nice number and the audience is appreciative. Not going nuts – the night is still young.
City of Tiny Lights. Oh, very nice. Ray is such an amazing singer. I remember a very positive review of Ray that one of the local newspapers wrote up on an earlier FZ show in Houston. And he’s still so, very good. I have lots of “favorite” Zappa band lineups but I’ve always been fond of the basic makeup of the band from the late 70’s into the mid 80’s when I got to see the shows live. Ray was, of course, an important part of that sound and it was great to hear him sing Frank’s songs again and play his music. The audience is more appreciative – starting to give standing O’s but not being noisy during the softer parts or when Dweezil’s explaining what’s going on or what’s about to happen. I didn’t hear anyone gargling, “Titties and Beer, Yellow Snow, and Dinah-Moe-Hum!!!”
Advance Romance. Ah, I’ve always liked Bongo Fury and it’s a good one for Ray and such a goofy song – good humor going on – this is getting to be a lot of fun! And the crowd is rising and applauding Ray and the band.
Doreen. Excellent. Another great song for Ray. Lets him work the range and the crowd loves it. Towards the end I’m wondering if Goblin Girl is going to be next but not to be and no big deal because I as ready for some Mothers. No problem..
Dweezil preceded the next song, Magic Fingers, while referencing 200 Motels figuring some of the audience may have actually bought the album when it came out – and he acknowledged their good taste. Islands of applause erupted here and there across the floor. Some knew it, I certainly did, but it stuck me – not everyone does – how’s it gonna go down? I mean they’re gonna be referencing “wee-wee’s” before too long… It was great! I could tell the girls in front of me eye’s were crossing. I figured there would be likely coming some sort of explanation to the confused date on the drive home with perhaps the significance of Jeff Beck being mentioned. The audience isn’t going nuts but they’re liking it. I’m digging it, bigtime!
Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy. Hey! More from Bongo Fury! Even better than that, I’m already hearing Frank’s solo in my head before the fact and soon Dweezil’s gonna give it a go and this ought to pretty special. Holy Shit! What an amazing rendition! Way to go Dweezil!!! This is music and it’s the greatest! Blew me away. The crowd, too. Everyone’s on their feet and going nuts. The band is smiling. Dweezil’s grinning and taking it in for a moment. Dweezil’s liking his job.
The gears switch and it’s into Son of Suzy Creamcheese, Brown Shoes, and America Drinks and goes home – also some great stuff. I’m still reeling a bit from Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy but the edge is softened by how well the band is playing the intricate stuff. And I’m really appreciating and enjoying it.
Into Pygmy Twylyte which is preceded with a reference to Winchells donuts and scatterings of people around me get it and name the song before it begins. Nice, very nice. The show’s going good.
Next comes the audience participation segment and Dweezil explains what he’s looking for and ultimately gets it. When he arrived at the Magic Words there was this fan who nicely, if not somewhat seemingly inebriatedly, put into words what some people had to be thinking. He said, and I quote as near as I can remember, “I wasn’t even going to come to this concert but I just want to say how amazed I am at the skill of the musicians!” The crowd yelled and applauded their agreement and it was a nice moment for everyone. It wasn’t just a band on stage doing their act but it was becoming a shared experience for everyone in the room. Dweezil thanked the guy and went with “I wasn’t even going to come to this concert,” and “Nonya Business” which someone else offered. I wanted to offer “Grunion” but figured I’d get busted for the, obscure to be sure, Frank reference. And I couldn’t think of another word to go with it except for “Farb” and even that has an obscure connection to Frank. With Magic Words determined, into Dupree's Paradise we went with pleasure. There’s so many great compositions of Franks’s and this is one of them. The band pulled it off nicely, if not excellently. It’s a favorite. The audience participation ensued soon after and it was fun – I was singing, “She cried Arf!” and variations on the phrase before Dweezil had the house work the rhythm to “Heavy Duty Judy.” The dude next to me at one point went, “Hey man – what are you singing?” It was fun. Ray got the Magic Word song honors and worked it very nicely, if not hilariously. I could easily picture the whole scenario he was singing about going down over at the bus station. I was laughing.
The section concluded with Uncle Remus which was a fun sing-along and Ray’s voice worked very well the gospel elements to the song, as well as nicely illustrating the absurdity of the song’s subject matter. But then, hey, Willie the Pimp! Another opportunity for Dweezil to walk that guitar line which separates himself from Frank while connecting him in the musical sense to Frank and, not surprising at all by this point, he accomplished this, and every well. It was fun to watch and even better to hear. You can see Dweezil watching his hands as he’s playing. Like Frank he’s focused and he’s single-mindedly working hard to not just get it right on stuff like this, but get it good and you can tell it isn’t, also like Frank, just second nature – that he’s making it look easy because, obviously, it isn’t easy. He’s clearly working and doing a good job of it and the crowd, to their credit, were very appreciative of his effort. I loved it.
The gears shifted again to the Dog/Meat Yellow Shark section which in of itself, approached that jaw-dropping transcendental I mentioned earlier from that Zappa show in 1981. Impressive. But more so, beautiful. I would go to the show again just to hear that material again, alone.
In a similar universe but slightly to the left, Dweezil announced G-Spot Tornado which surprised the hell out of me because I didn’t know humans, or a half dozen musicians or so could play stuff like that – or at least do it justice. Dweezil and his band can play and they did it justice. In spades. There were people around me slamming their legs physically popping along the rhythm and others syncopating their bodies, pitch, roll, and yaw, as the band was driving through that driving cut. And the crowd explodes at the end. You can see the effort the band was putting into it and I think the audience’s response was as much an acknowledgement of that effort, as it was an acknowledgement of how cool that piece is.
From the technically amazing to the hard rocking social satire of Dumb All Over with Frank back up on the screen and aside from being a great, rocking tune – the social satire is as scarily relevant today as it was more than 25 years ago. Still, that aside, it’s a great song for the show and I liked it a lot. During that Zappa show in 1981 there came a section during what I was calling the Drowning Witch/Instrumental section which was blowing my doors off. The doors finally vaporized when the band hit into this certain motif which later became a part of what came to be a part of and called, What’s New in Baltimore?, which was the next song to be played. Brittany’s gargoyle was mentioned and I was dying. Truly hilarious. I thought Ray was gonna lose it. I think he almost did. I know the crowd did.
When I run into people who might have heard of Frank Zappa but aren’t hard-core devotees, one of the cuts that nearly always gets mentioned is Joe’s Garage and Dweezil mentioned it as being for us, the audience, before he and the band went into it. Another nice one for Ray and it’s a fun song. Honestly, I thought Gas Station slacked the show a little bit, but not terribly so – Ray was having fun with it. San Ber’dino came along after, nicely done, and the section picked up more steam.
Wild Love followed, another favorite, and it’s becoming clear why it slowed down a little earlier because Wild Love is speeding things up and they’ve been playing awhile so there’s gonna be a big finish plus encore(s)?
Yo Mama excited the hell out of me when the band started playing it because it meant another chance for Dweezil and his guitar to interpret another signature, and stunningly beautiful Frank solo. I teared up. It was emotional. It was that dreamy state where you’re living the moment, chord by chord and note by note. It was Music and it was the Best. Thank you.
Dweezil said he’d be right back as the band left the stage while the audience, having collected their breath from Yo Mama and are yelling it back out at the stage. After a minute or less, where the audience starting to slack a little picked it back up for the band and for the encore.
Illinois Enema Bandit wouldn’t have been my first choice but I don’t write the set list and, after all, it was another great song for Ray to show his chops. Great fun with some amusing theatrics thrown in and the crowd was laughing and enjoying it all and here it comes, I’m thinking, the ~Big Finish~ I honestly had no clue what it could be because the whole night had been full of surprises – which is another distinct facet of Frank’s music – just how surprising it can be and on so many levels.
The show finished with Muffin Man with Frank on the screen doing most of the lead and apparently – I couldn’t really tell because Dweezil’s back was to me a lot of the time during this piece, Dweezil accompanying. I think at this point the nostalgic elements of the show finally bubbled to the surface – at least for me. There will never be another Frank Zappa but it is so indescribably good that his music continues and isn’t just being performed by some and heard by others, but well-performed by what is apparently a very dedicated and talented group of musical artists and heard by not just the fans who have been clued-in for years but by people who haven’t heard it but upon hearing it, discover it for what it is which is, in a word, remarkable. The band was playing hard but not so uptight about that they couldn’t show the audience that they were having fun – and audiences feed off of that kind of energy as long as there’s good music to back it up.
Dweezil mentioned his intention was to come back in a year and I’m looking forwards to it and I think even if my leg were broken again, this time I’d go, crutches and meds bedamned.
Oh, yeah, for what it’s worth, Dweezil – I’ve been editing with Sony Vegas for years and (no shit) been a free-fall photographer for even longer than that – so – if any of that becomes relevant for you in the future, please let me know and I’ll help where I can.
Thanks for doing a good show, dude.
-Jerry
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