BARRYMORE THEATER
MADISON, WI
FEBRUARY 17, 2014
ZAPPA PLAYS ZAPPA band:
Dweezil Zappa: Lead Guitar, Vocals
Schelia Gonzalez: Saxophone, Keyboards, Percussion, Lead Vocals
Ben Thomas: Lead vocals, Trombone, Trumpet, Percussion, Rhythm Guitar
Chris Norton: Keyboards, Vocals
Kurt Morgan: Bass Guitar, Vocals
Ryan Brown: Drums, Percussion, Vocals
All Music and Lyrics Composed by FRANK ZAPPA
Dear readers, nearly two days later I am still caught in the afterglow and with the goofiest grin plastered upon my face, unsure of exactly how to begin but allow me to try it this way...
I really believe that regarding the status of music at this point in the 21st century, we are all living within one of the strangest, and certainly most precarious times in live music performance. While visual spectacle, from costumes, make up and special effects have always been elements of live performances and often existed as a symbiotic "hand in hand" experience, the visual spectacle, especially since the music video era, has since overtaken the levels of musical and vocal proficiency and overall talent to levels I have long felt to be unprecedented and dangerously so. To think, we are now living in a time when it seems that no one bats a disapproving eye anymore to know that their most favorite commercial artist is lip syncing through their stage shows, completely unable to sing and dance at the same time, and allowing the visual extravaganza to fully carry the day. To that end, it also seems to me this new reality has given the concept of musical and vocal proficiency a heightened sense of purpose and therefore, responsibility, to show real musicians performing in real time, and at times with minimal, or entirely without, visual enhancements.
I do not typically attend live concerts frequently at all but within the past year and half , I have been so very fortunate to witness the triumphant victory lap and hometown return of Garbage last Spring, as well as the terrific psychedelia of Tame Impala, a band which did utilize a strong yet more atmospheric visual component but did not distract from the high level of musicianship on stage. Most strikingly, was the one man performance by the legendary Lindsey Buckingham, during which everyone in attendance witnessed a MASTER CLASS is how to fully sculpt a live performance, the builds with peaks and respites, and scales euphoric heights, solely with a soaring voice, at times minimal metronome drum beats, and absolutely spine-tingling and gorgeous guitar playing.
And now, I know without question I have experienced the pinnacle and then some as on the frigid evening of Monday, February 17th, I was no less than blessed to have had the opportunity to witness Zappa Plays Zappa, Guitarist and Bandleader Dweezil Zappa's justly celebrated touring band which faithfully re-creates the mammoth musical compositions of his Father, the late Frank Zappa.
As a child and later as a pre-teen, I was aware of Frank Zappa as that strange looking, baritone voiced man with the iconic mustache who made those funny songs that you would hear on the "Dr. Demento" syndicated radio program like "Dancin' Fool," "I Don't Wanna Get Drafted" and "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow," and of course, the surprise mega hit "Valley Girl." I originally thought of him to be quite the sinister figure, akin to the shadowy man behind the bushes wearing nothing but a raincoat, forever waiting and more than ready to corrupt children by speaking all of those dirty words that we were never supposed to hear. But then, during my high school years, Zappa's highly publicized and televised battles against the P.M.R.C., in particular and censorship in general, made him a figure I slowly began to admire. Even so, I truly never had a clue as to what his music sounded like.
While I was introduced to his music during my college years, I never began to really listen to him in earnest until my post college years during the early 1990's. For that very reason, I have never had the good fortune to have experienced the majesty and mania of Frank Zappa live in concert as he had long ceased touring by that time. And then, there was the sadness of Frank Zappa's most premature passing in 1993, at the age of 53, after a battle with lung cancer. For whatever unknown reasons his death signified to me and my musical spirit, my musical education expanded exponentially from that point until this very day.
The "Big Bang" in regards to exploring the music of Frank Zappa for me was listening to the "Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar" triple album collection (released 1982). It was here that I instantly learned that Frank Zappa possessed two of the greatest hands to ever hold a guitar plus the massive musical spirit which carried his playing to heights that I never could have conceived of. Zappa played with such an unfiltered, glistening ferocity, speed, skill and atmosphere that he played notes and patterns that simply no one else on the planet could have ever thought of. And to that end, like James Brown, Miles Davis and Prince, Zappa somehow, someway always found a collective of musicians formidable enough to be able to play alongside him. And then, that was when I began to notice Zappa's greatest gifts as a composer as he again conceived of music that I could not believe that I was hearing and that one man had somehow not only thought of all of this impossible sounding material, but he had the audacity and ability to write it!
Yes, he wrote tons of those "funny songs," but they were of such uncompromising brutality and abrasiveness that I do realize that the music of Frank Zappa is a supremely acquired taste. And while I love how he consistently kept throwing those bricks through society's most judgmental windows and interpersonal behaviors, with his political lyrics being especially incendiary, I do admit that there are some selections that are just too much for me and decidedly more scatological than I am really willing to deal with and by the later 1980's, some of his selections are terribly mean spirited and sometimes even joyless, as if he just wasn't having much fun anymore. Perhaps that is why he eventually turned his composition skills towards being realized on the Synclavier a la the excellent instrumental album "Jazz From Hell" (released November 15, 1986).
That said, my favorite albums and overall favorite musical period for Frank Zappa occurred during the entirety of the 1970's with works that include and are not nearly limited to, "Waka/Jawaka" (released July 5, 1972), "Apostrophe (')" (released March 22, 1974), "Zoot Allures" (released October 20, 1976),"Sheik Yerbouti" (released March 3, 1979), the darkly dystopian and unrepentantly filthy rock opera "Joe's Garage" (released September 17, 1979/November 19, 1979) and my personal joint number one favorite releases "One Size Fits All" (released June 25, 1975) and the posthumously released triple album magnum opus "Lather" (released September 24, 1996). All of those releases and more are albums upon albums of dizzying, head spinning, outrageous, unbelievable, jaw dropping and flat out ridiculous material that was stunningly composed and arranged, lushly produced and brilliantly performed.
In regards to Zappa Plays Zappa, I had been more than a little curious to see how Dweezil Zappa would handle the unbelievable damands of interpreting his Father's music and for this particular tour, in which he and the full band would be celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the release of "Roxy And Elsewhere" (released September 10, 1974), truly one of my absolute FAVORITE Frank Zappa albums.
But there was the matter of a snowstorm to deal with first...
For a midwestern Winter that has already seen two nosedives deep into the "Polar Vortex" plus seemingly continuous bouts of snow, augmented by periods of freezing rain and ice storms, the day of February 17th found us again confronted with yet another significant snowfall which blasted trough the area for most of the day and into the late afternoon. While the Barrymore Theater assured that the Zappa Plays Zappa performance was still on for later that evening, there was the unforeseen obstacle of the band's tour bus breaking down, thus forcing the evening's events to be re-adjusted.
Now, in my daily life with daily responsibilities, I knew that I had a very early morning ahead of me and after waiting for essentially two and a half hours, I have to admit that the thought crossed my mind to possibly leave the venue just to head home and just chalk the night up as being "one of those things." But, better thoughts prevailed and once the concert actually began, and the band played a 10 minutes plus version of the slow, sleazy and spectacular "The Torture Never Stops," I mentally kicked myself for even entertaining such a foolish thought.
As with the original album, Dweezil Zappa led the band through letter perfect renditions of "Penguin In Bondage," "Pygmy Twylyte" and "Dummy Up," complete with full, extended vamping and goofy stage dialogue and banter between an unsuspecting happy-go-lucky individual confronted by an "evil dope dealer" who is pressuring him to smoke a high school diploma with a tube sock wrapped inside of it (don't ask...just go with it--it's funny).
My first impressions by this point was how brilliantly the Zappa Plays Zappa band actually were and how they truly elevated themselves from what could have been nothing more than a most heartfelt tribute or even a cover band. In a radio interview Dweezil Zappa conducted with Madison's community radio station WORT-FM, he explained the process in which Zappa Plays Zappa prepares itself for each tour. After Dweezil picks all of the material himself, Frank Zappa's original scores are located as well as the master tapes, whose individual tracks are then dissected by each instrument so that every band member can completely learn their roles. This process makes Zappa Plays Zappa function more truthfully as a travelling orchestra, faithfully and rigorously learning and performing the works of the composer as they are all designed to be heard and experienced. And yes, they truly conveyed the wide vistas and breadth of sound just as an orchestra accomplishes so successfully that I was often counting the amount of band members upon the stage and feeling stunned that only six people were producing a sound this dynamic and even cinematic.
This aspect of their performance truly came to light during the next section of songs from "Roxy And Elsewhere," a section that features the nostalgic pop selection "Village Of The Sun" and two almost indescribable instrumentals, "Echidna's Arf (Of You)" and "Don't You Ever Wash That Thing?" All three of those selections segue seamlessly into each other and they make up what is my absolute favorite sequence of the original album, 17 full minutes of soaring melodicism, combined with an ever accelerating whirlwind of whiplash inducing time signature shifts, abrupt starts and stops, swirling progressions, and jump out of your seat instrumental solos featuring trombone, keyboards, guitar and drums. Frankly (ha ha), I almost didn't care what other songs Zappa Plays Zappa would perform during this evening as I knew that I just had to hear this sequence live more than anything. After hearing something like that, everything else would just be a bonus and Zappa Plays Zappa did not disappoint in the least. In fact, there were times during this section, plus other sections later in the performance, where I literally laughed out loud as I just could not believe what I was seeing and hearing right in front of my eyes and ears. I was just stupidly happy to be in their presence.
After the band paid tribute to bargain basement monster movies with "Cheepnis," they slowed it down but continued to keep the musical intensity at an extremely high peak with "Son Of Orange County" and "More Trouble Every Day," which featured Dweezil Zappa's roof raising guitar heroics during extended solos that were serious lessons for how to actually sculpt the very type of virtuosity that completely ascends.
As with the album, the "Roxy And Elsewhere" performance concluded with the epic and ludicrous "Be-Bop Tango (Of The Old Jazzmen's Church)," a nearly 20 minute piece of sublime complexity that is augmented by required on-stage audience participation (thankfully, I was not selected) to dance along to the impossible rhythms in an increasing frenzy.
By this point, especially as the hour was quite late, I felt as if the performance had reached its zenith and the Zappa Plays Zappa crew would be shuffling off for the night. But then, Dweezil Zappa announced that after a short intermission, the band would return to the stage to lay even more material. My jaw hit the ground!
Yes, dear readers and listeners, after already playing for nearly 90 minutes, the band did indeed perform for quite possibly another full 90 minutes, making for a full concert experience that lasted three hours (including encore) and by the final bow of the curtain call, I strolled out of the Barrymore Theater into the cold winter night with a smile plastered upon my face from ear to ear. Zappa Plays Zappa was a concert that not only celebrated the legacy of Frank Zappa, it was an experience that celebrated the art of music, musicianship and the inexplicable joy that arrives when witnessing the gift of sheer talent at work and play.
With Zappa Plays Zappa, not one sound was ever out of place and their superb tightness as a musical unit was breathtakingly formidable to witness, to say the least. As rigid as it may seem to faithfully reproduce the music of Frank Zappa on stage, it should be noted for those unfamiliar that Frank Zappa's music leaves copious amounts of room and space for improvisation, allowing all of the musicians ample opportunities to stretch out and inject their own personalities within the framework Frank Zappa has set.
But the true star of the show was the music of Frank Zappa which encompasses the symphonic as well as balls out rock and roll fury and everything else in between and even beyond. Containing elements of blues, jazz, fusion, doo wop vocal harmonies, chamber pieces, cartoon music and more than a few elements of the avant garde, the music of Frank Zappa is and remains music unlike anything you have ever heard in your lifetime. No, it is not for everyone but I do believe that it is something everyone should attempt to try and listen to at least once in their lives as it is so unparalleled and unequaled. Just Frank Zappa's guitar playing alone is required and essential listening as he is one of those few players where the guitar ceased to be a mere instrument and actually became an extension of his entire being as his greatest solos stretched far beyond music and voyaged into something that was...cosmic.
When it comes to the legacy of Frank Zappa, I am often overwhelmed and gobsmacked as to how this man was able to even conceive of he music he composed and furthermore, how he actually found human beings that were able to perform it at all. With Zappa Plays Zappa, again I am astonished that these six musicians had the ability to perform music this unfathomable so flawlessly and with a sense of fun that was visible and palpable from the stage.
This is precisely what live music performances should be and precisely what we all need to behold in this extremely prefabricated 21st century music scene. Dweezil Zappa is "keeper of the flame" for much more than his Father's musical history and legacy, as far as I am concerned. He is yet another figure in modern music who treats the medium as the most precious gift, his talent as something too terribly important to squander on something meaningless or without any sense of personal purpose and his audience as being worthy of receiving the best he has to offer and not as soulless commodities.
2 sets. 3 hours. Mind BLOWN!!! I'm ready to take this trip again!!!!
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