Zappa Plays Zappa, 1st July 2006, Apollo Theatre, Manchester
When is a tribute band not a tribute band? When it’s lead by the late bandleader’s son, and includes several members of the original band? Zappa Plays Zappa is such a band.
Frank Zappa’s eldest son Dweezil put together a band including Zappa alumni Stevie Vai and Napoleon Murphy Brock, plus a bunch of young unknowns picked for their chops rather than name recognition, then, in the best tradition of Zappa senior, rehearsed them solidly for three months.
I only discovered Frank Zappa’s music in the 1990s, after he’s stopped touring. I can’t think of anyone else who’s successfully thrown rock, jazz, pop, classical and comedy into a blender in quite the way he did, and I never expected to be able to hear his music performed live. Until now.
The support was a 1973 concert film of Frank himself. As the film ended the eight musicians walked on stage and launched straight into the opening number (which was one of the few in the set I didn’t recognise!)
The setlist covered much of Frank’s lengthy career, but concentrated very heavily on the mid-70s, especially the Apostrophe(‘) and Roxy and Elsewhere albums. Since this is probably my favourite Zappa era, I’m not complaining. They played flawless renditions of favourites like “Let’s Make the Water Turn Black”, “Peaches en Regalia”, “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow”, “Zomby Woof” and “Cosmic Debris”, as well as dazzlingly complex instrumentals like “The Black Page” and “Echidna’s Arf”. No “Dangerous Kitchen”, but with FZ’s vast back catalogue there’s now way they could possibly play everything.
Although it was probably Stevie Vai’s name that helped sell tickets, for my money the star was Napoleon Murphy Brock. He handled pretty much all the lead vocals, not just his own, but a lot originally sung by Frank himself, as well as some mean sax. Dweezil himself has matured into pretty impressive guitar player in his own right. To be honest I preferred his playing to Vai’s, which sounded a bit too clinical for my tastes.
The show was unfortunately marred by equipment problems part-way through, when Dweezil first lost his guitar signal, then got an electric shock of the microphone. “That wasn’t a nine volt battery!”, he exclaimed. It’s a tribute to the skill and showmanship of the band that they kept on playing, slotting in the keyboard and sax driven “Pound for a Brown” which didn’t need Dweezil’s guitar while they tried to fix the problems. They finally bypassed whatever box of tricked had failed and plugged the guitar straight into the amp, for a superb rendition of “Inca Roads”. Then there was a short interval while they checked the electrics for safety, before the band came back and played right through to the curfew without going offstage and coming back for an encore. Dweezil told us that “Sofa” was supposed to have been the end of the set.
The ghost of Frank returned for what was supposed to have been the first encore, as we were treated to archive footage of Frank soloing accompanied by the live band on stage; shades of the recent Frank Sinatra show in London.
A superb show, showing how a great band can still rise above equipment problems and still bring down the house. They head for America next.
Glad to hear this was good — I think they were in NYC before crossing the Pond.
The show I want to see is Clapton. Derek Trucks is part of the band this time around and, well, he’s far and away the best guitar player out there (and Allman Brothers member, ergo “family” to Duane). No one plays slide better than Derek these days. I caught some Youtube footage of Layla in Lille, and it’s spectacular.
I’ve haven’t heard Derek Trucks’ playing, but I’ve never been a big fan of Clapton himself, who I think is vastly overrated. He may have established himself early as a guitar hero, but it seems to me that he’s been treading water creatively for the past 30 years. I think his reputation is due to the fact that he’s the only halfway-decent guitar player the coffee-table MOR crowd ever get to hear. I find his music rather safe and unchallenging.
I need to send you some music, I think, Tim…
Trucks is seriously beyond everyone else. And he’s YOUNG. Well, not quite as young now as when he first started playing live at age 10 or so.
Saw the Zappa band tonite(june 15) at Meadowbrook. That is the tightest band I have ever seen. Everyone is deadly. DZ is one bad MF guitar player. Vai and Bozzio looked like they were having fun. The other drummer (not Terry ) was also unbelievable. The BLACK PAGE !!!!OUCH
I Loved it all. Pleezzzze release this on DVD
Man,i cant wait i might have a free ticket for show in Atlantic City Borgata— I ANT FUCKIN WAIT.
Saw ZPZ in canton, ohio, great little venue. I was incredible. Incredible musicians, they all worked their asses off. Dweezil stood his ground against Steve Vai (I was amazed at how good dweezil was – never new), Terry Bozzio, was just outstanding, i think he had like 1000 drums, at least it sounded like it. Napoleon was great and really made it sound like the real macoy.
Many layers of music, at times i didnt know where sounds were coming from and you’d look up and the percussionist was playing a sax solo with his mallets or low vocal harmony was coming from that girl keyboard/horn player, hi harmony from the drummer and the bass player (Peter Griffin- Great name) laid down the gravy, like a guy thats been playing for 30 years (and he only looked to be in his 20s). They all looked comfortable and in control. wish they had a dvd.
Mostly old guys in the audience (me at 48 seemed on the younger side) and be prepared to get up a lot, cause them old guys start drinking beer and they gotta piss every 10 minutes.
I rate ZPZ 10 and recommend that you see it if you can
i saw zpz couple of weeks back on halloween day in nyc at the madison square garden theatre. i’m a huge fan of zappa senior’s 70s works – apostrophe/overnite sensation/one size fits all/roxy and elsewhere. and to my immense satisfaction atleast 70% of the zpz set was from these albums – montana, zomby woof, yellow snow, i am the slime, inca roads, pygmy twylyte etc. dweezil thankfully has absorbed the spirit of zappa soloing than playing note for note. with his flashy white strat and 61 reissue sg, he totally stood out. but steve vai who stepped in for a couple of songs totally outplayed dweezil (i’m not a fan of vai and dont really like the style of his solo work) – after which dweezil seemed to lose a bit of his cockiness. but the heart of the show was napolean murphy brock – with his great vocals he’s what gave the show the zappa trademark. a halloween that i’ll never forget! viva zappa!
There has been much talk of this tour over at my site, Progressive Ears but I thought I would come over here to post my review. You guys were not kidding about this show! That was a helluva evening of music. I mean I knew what we would be in for, but it exceeded expectations as well. For me the set with Bozzio was the highlight. Is there a more entertaining drummer in rock to watch? I don’t think so. Usually I couldn’t give two shits about most drummers, but that guy totally had my attention. Billy Cobham is about the only other one that does that to me live. I thought Dweezil played great. He really came a long way and played the best guitar of the night, easily. Yeah, even when Vai came out. I found Vai brought very little to the proceedings. He brought his bag of licks and tricks he has employed on every cd since he left Frank’s band and did his damndest to cram them all in his 30 min window. I liked his playing better when he was with Frank, honestly. Now he sorta plays like a big dumb 80s shredder. All his posing and posturing was totally silly too. Yawn. Napoleon was just amazing too, damn, he is TIMELESS. His voice hasn’t changed at all! The band was hot as hell too, the mallet guy was especially impressive. Great setlist! They really played most of my faves. Damn, now I want a DVD to remember this by!!!!
Saw ZPZ at Shepherds Bush (London) last night. What a blinding gig! I saw FZ on the ‘Broadway The Hard Way’ tour back in ’88 (I think) but this was better. No knob gags, no Republican/Democrat propoganda – just pure music! And it was (for me) the music from the best FZ/Mothers era.