So this past Wednesday night I headed up to The Orange Peel to catch Dweezil Zappa's "Cease and Desist" show aka "Dweezil Zappa Playing Whatever The F@%k He Wants" show. Turns out there is some family acrimony on who rightfully owns the name Zappa so Dweezil Zappa has to be very careful on how he markets the shows. His younger siblings Diva (37) and Ahmet (42) and those are their ages not their IQs though those could be state that they own the family surname Zappa and that Dweezil Zappa needs to "Cease and Desist" using the "Zappa Plays Zappa" moniker and that he can not sell any merchandise at his shows with the likeliness of their Dad. They even tried to copyright Frank's moustache for fuck's sake. Geezus how petty!
Anyways Dweezil Zappa has been performing the "Zappa Plays Zappa" tour since 2006 and has done over 1000 shows with a smorgasbord of musicians over time and on this latest tour he has several players that have been with him for years. One thing about Frank Zappa's music is that it is quite complex with constant time and beat changes. The rhythm section are Ryan Brown on drums and Kurt Morgan on bass. Ryan works like crazy and is great drummer with nary a break during the whole show. Frank didn't write ballads. LOL. Multi-instrumentalist Scheila Gonzales has been there since the beginning and keyboard player Chris Norton has been there for quite a while as well. The newest members are David Luther on vocals and horns and Cian Coey on vocals as well. Every band member had time to shine during the 145 minute show (2H25M). The musicality of the band is incredible and their versions of Frank's music was fantastic. Dweezil has some serious guitar chops. Any doubts on how good he is would be rendered null and void if y'all check out the instrumental "Apostrophe" from the January 17th show at Jannus in St. Petersburg on YouTube. The Florida one not the Trump one. LOL.
In fact "Apostrophe" was one of the highlights of the show for me. This is an instrumental featuring guitar, bass and drums and was written by Frank Zappa, Jack Bruce (legendary bassist of supergroup Cream) and the very troubled drummer Jim Gordon. The song comes from Frank Zappa's 18th album of the same name released in 1974. Frank's first album "Freak Out" was released in 1966. 18 albums in 8 years. Holy Eff Batman says Robin. "Apostrophe" was his highest charting album at #10 and also featured "Cosmic Debris" which was another highlight of the show and it also had the classic comedic song "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow". Sadly that song didn't make the setlist. One could have a show of only Frank's comedy songs and you would still come away impressed on how good the music is in these tunes. The album itself has the following genres: comedy rock, progressive rock, hard rock and jazz fusion. Not exactly the usual same old same old huh.
The setlist (just below) for the show featured over 25 songs and had out and out rockers, the comedy songs, the satirical songs, the statement songs, the guitar songs, the horn songs and pretty much everything else in including kazoos, beach toys and fake boobs. You had to be there for that last one (Fembot In A Wet...). LOL. Another favorite of mine was "Black Napkins" with the dual horns and the solos. Beautiful song!
Help, I'm a Rock / Transylvania Boogie
It Can't Happen Here
You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here
Harry, You're a Beast / The Orange County Lumber Truck
Lemme Take You to the Beach
How Could I Be Such a Fool?
Who Are the Brain Police?
What Will This Evening Bring Me This Morning?
Shove It Right In
Flower Punk
Inca Roads
Black Napkins
Apostrophe
Teen-Age Wind
Montana
Zomby Woof
Doreen
You Are What You Is
Yo' Mama
Fembot in a Wet T-Shirt
On the Bus
Keep It Greasey
Packard Goose
Watermelon in Easter Hay
Encore:
Ride My Face to Asheville
The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing
Cosmik Debris
Muffin Man
All in all it was great show. Fantastic value. Seeing this performance gives me a more appreciative view of the complexity of Zappa's music and how much he was before his time.
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