Zappa Plays Zappa

"The Dweez!"

Last night I went to see Zappa Plays Zappa.

The second of four children, Dweezil was born in 1969 - shortly before his father's popularity peaked. Having taken up guitar, he was able to learn from, and occasionally play with, one of the instrument's most distinctive practitioners.

"I played in the studio with him a couple of times, and casually sitting around when he wasn't touring we would play, he would teach me things, and I'd ask questions," Dweezil says. "I would have liked to have the opportunity to have done that more."

At 12 he performed with his father for the first of a handful of times, in front of 5000 people at London's Hammersmith Odeon. "I'd only been playing guitar for nine months, so to be playing with a band as good as Frank's was a bit surreal," he chuckles.

Zappa routinely composed with orchestras in mind, but paid the bills by playing that music with rock bands. When he did employ orchestras, he personally bore the mammoth costs.

"Normally when a composer that's in favour with the classical community uses an orchestra, they'll be getting money from a government organisation or some benefactor," Dweezil says. "But he was never in favour. He was always considered to be somebody dangerous in some way - musically or politically."

Zappa Plays Zappa has more links to Frank than his son. It includes the long-term singer and saxophonist Ray White, and virtuoso guitarist Steve Vai.

"We actually re-create things from the records on stage that Frank didn't do, because he didn't have the instrumentation at the time," says Dweezil proudly. "It's pretty cool."

Frank Zappa scion Dweezil Zappa has assembled a band to play his father's music. It's the closest you're going to come to seeing Frank Zappa songs played live. The band includes erstwhile 'Assistant Illinois Enema Bandit' Ray White, an alumnus of Frank's old band, as well aas a guest spot for Steve Vai who is another Zappa band alumnus.

What's Good About It
2hours 45minutes of Frank Zappa music played as faithfully as any cover band, but with more legitimacy. The show kicks off with footage of Frank doing Cosmic Debris, and the band play along to the footage. From there, it explores most of the signature tracks from his 1970s oeuvre. So you get 'San Ber'dino' 'Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy', 'The Illinois Enema Bandit', 'Advance Romance' and so on. Then they launch into a heavily exploratory 'Dupree's Paradise', after which Steve Vai joins the stage for 'Andy', and it's lead-break heaven.

The performances are so respectful, you get echoes in your brain from recordings Frank made and put together for the epic 'You Can't Do That On Stage Any More' series; and there are many references to Frank's persona too. The audience participation schtick, the ending of the show on 'Yo Mama' with the big introduction of the band-members at the end and so on.

There's so much fidelity to the classic Zappa band sounds you cannot miss that it is a labor of love for all the musicians, and the passion plays true, straight to the devoted audience who would be its harshest critic if anything was artisticially out of place.

The band is tight, so much so they can play a very credible version of 'G-Spot Tornado' as an encore to a mightily long show. They close out the evening with 'The Muffin Man'.

What's Bad About It
I never thought I'd say this but some of the duet lead guitar material played by Dweezil and Steve Vai went a couple of refrains too long. I think I fell asleep in the 'Advance Romance' lead-break, only to wake up and find they were still playing the lead break to 'Advance Romance'. Maybe it was micro-sleep, but y'know I never thought I'd fall asleep at a rock concert I was actually enjoying greatly, while they were playing one of the best songs off one of my fave albums of all time. I mean, would I fall asleep during Yes playing 'Tempus Fugit' (hypothetical I know)?

Yeah, I like guitar breaks galore just as much as any guitar gonzo, but there really was just 'Too Many Notes Mozart' at one point. But complaining about excess beyond excess in such a show is like saying, there's too much sugar in the icing on the cake.
The cake was pretty darn good.

Other Thoughts
Question 1. Why does Steve Vai have such a nasal tone on his guitar?
Disregard the god-like technique of Vai. It's just strange that the guy once teased for sounding like 'an electric ham sandwich', sounded much like an electric hot dog at best.

Question 2. Where are all the obscene songs?
There was no Nanook rubbing the doggy-doo snowcone into the eye of a bogus St Alfonzo at all. There was no Bobby Brown going down; and no 'Broken Hearts Are For Assholes; no ramming it up the poop-chute; no 'Honey Don't You Want a Man Like Me' and giving some head; no 'Applying rotation on the sugar plum, on 'Dinah Mo' Hum'; none of it. Basically, there was hardly any of the obscene songs. The most erotically evocative track was 'Carolina Hardore Ecstasy' where they do it 'til they're unconcho. That's about it, which is kind of strange.

The persona projected by Dweezil Zappa is a lot more gentle and conciliatory compared to he jagged, acid confrontational Frank. I'm not sure that not playing Frank's more obscene songs makes the cause for Frank's greatness, an easier thing to sell. Most people who fork out the cash, know what they're in for when they think of Frank. May as well play it as kinky as Frank did, I would have thought. Clearly Dweezil thinks otherwise. In some ways it was an uncharacteristically polite Zappa show.

UPDATE:
Here's a gallery of photos for the night.
Set List reads:
Cosmik Debris
Magic Fingers
Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy
Doreen
Illinois Enema Bandit
Joe's Garage
Wind Up Working in a Gas Station
San Ber'dino
Dog Meat
Pygmy Twylite
Dupree's Paaradise
Uncle Remus
Willie The Pimp
Andy
I'm The Slime
Filthy Habits
Dumb All Over
Baltimore
Advance Romance
Echidna's Arf
City of Tiny Lights
Yo Mama

Encore:
G-Spot Tornado
Muffin Man