Went to the show last night & had a he!! of a time until we went to the t-shirt booth,the sea hag at the t-shirt booth was outta control & drunk with power,this hag was the typical upper middle class housewife who worked at the venue to make herself feel better & did not need the money,it was easy to see.
Anyhow more about the sea hag,while in line we watched this compilation of dozens of facelifts give a snotty attitude to a ton of people, at one point she yanked a t-shirt out of a girls hand & told her to leave,she then freaked out on a guy who was smoking a cigar near the booth,this was my call
,i promptly light up a smoke & went directly to the window next to hers,while i was looking at t-shirts & hoodies she freaked out again & tried to start yelling at me about smoking,i let her old a$$ have it & informed her that i was smoking in a desiganet smoking area & if she didnt like it to go get a cop which she promptly did,the cop comes over & asks me to put it out,i tell him i wont because im in a designated smoking area & im following the rules of the arena & showed him the brochure i had listing the smoking areas,along comes a crowd control supervisor & tells the cop im not breaking any rules & tells the sea hag to deal with it,before i left the t-shirt stand i made sure to tell the sea hag how lucky she was that FZ wasnt alive because he'd of made a public spectical outta her for treating customers like dogs, he would of too.
The show was fantastic,the band played some enormously hard compositions but what really blew me away was that they had adapted songs from the album Jazz From He!! & played them live,to understand how gigantic a feat this was one must understand that the score of Jazz From Hell was never intended to be played on instruments,the album is composed with the exception of a single song entirely of tracks from a Synclavier,according to Franks writings he chose to do Jazz From Hell entirely on the Synclavier due to its ability to reproduce notes in an order that humans are incapable of doing,to hear The G-Spot Tornado live was nothing short of amazing & something i wil always remember.
Dweezil Zappa,lead guitar,conductor & vocals.
Dweezil's playing was world class,gone is the style he used to have that sounded like Steve Vai where he had to play 1,000 miles an hour,the new style is more gritty & concentrated on conveying feeling,much like his fathers style of putting together abnormal & complicated solo structures that are unique to the guitar,Dweezil has very fast fingers,he always has but in the last few years ive seen him go from sheer speed to speed with feeling & its a huge leap,Dweezil is destined to be one of the guitar greats before his life is over.
At several points in the show a massive progection screen is lowered & video of the MTV halloween Zappa concert from the 80's is on the screen,all the music from the concert is cut out except for Frank's vocals & guitar playing while the band on stage plays the parts that were dubbed out,durring these video interludes the band watches the screen while playing & there is rarely a dry eye on stage or in the audience,its creepy as all get out to see a 5 story Frank Zappa playing on the screen while his son is on stage,its creepy but awesome & makes the audience realize that Frank's style can never be 100% replicated by any other player,after these video interludes the standing ovation is endless & ear peircing & makes Dweezil shed tears every time.
This year Dweezil stepped more foward & took a more active approach to leading & conducting the band in improvisational jams,at several points in the show he would direct seperate band members to deliever something unique to fit the moment,this activity could have been rehearsed but from the look on the other band members faces & the expressions that Dweezil would give the players its more likely than not that this was spontainous as Frank would of done it.
The guest singer/guitar player was Ray white,what an unbelievable talent this cat is,he played with Frank on many tours & on many albums so it was nice to see & hear him again,he played a few songs with the band & traded licks with Dweezil which was sweet but his vocals are what really shined,when he sang The Illinois Ennma Bandit he had the entire crowd to their feet,he also did some favorites from Joes Garage which was cool too,listening to Ray sing was like being teleported by one of Machina Dynamica's teleportation tweeks all the way back to 1970,all that was missing was the smell of pot & i'd of thought i was at The Masonic temple in 1972 all over again.
Sheila Gonzales,woodwinds,vocals & keyboards.
Good god what a talent this girl is,last year they had her way in the back but they brought her up to the front left this year & rightly so,this girls talent is borderline on obscene,she would be at home playing with the likes of people like John Mcgulaghlin or George Duke,she's that damm good,this year she took over the job of delevering all the silly lil back ground voices(I wanna wanna wanna enema a a a ) that are customary to Zappa music & its easy to see she loves it.
This girl is a one man band playing the crap out of her keyboards & soloing on the flute,sax or harmonica at the same time,to top it off what she was playing was very complex,all the time quickly changing what woodwind she was playing & never missing a lick.
Joe Travers,Drums.
Its nice to see that guy do some real drumming again,not what i'd consider one of the top 10 drummers but a great talent no doubt,after he joined Duran Duran i thought it was over for him,he didnt do anything far out in the way of crazy drum solo's but his playing was spot on & extremely tight.
Arron Arntz,keyboards,last year he was a solid ball of fire taking center stage above Sheila Gonzales,this year he took a less visible role & served more as back up keyboards,nothing amazing from Arron with the exception of a massive solo but good solid playing all night.
Pete Griffin.Bass.
This kid is another boy wonder on bass,every bass player that was ever in Franks bands was a world class player,they needed to be & this kid is no exception,he went to several music schools to learn bass but his real talent comes from the teachings of Pat Metheny bass player Steve Rodby who took him under his wing & showed him how to achive style over speed.
The result is that this kid's playing is near flawless,he can be all over the place & still not be overbearing,he did a solo that reminded me very much of a young Stanley Clarke & then he toned it down & went back to playing with style,making the notes he played count.
Billy Hulting,percussion,marimba & mallets.
Billy is an entertainer extrodinare who puts an absolute beating on anything he plays,years back when i saw Frank his percussionest was Juliard trained percussionest Ruth Underwood & Billy's playing easily kept up with anything i saw Ruth do,Billy played a full percussion set along with Xylophones & Marimba Vibes,switching from 2 mallets to 4 mallets to 8 mallets at the speed of light,to call Billy's playing complex is an understatement,what amazed me the most about Billy's playing was his lack of sheet music,he must have a phenominal memory to keep it all straight,i have never seen any Zappa percussionest be able to play the complex passages in the music without the aid of sheet music but Billy did the entire show from memory,to see this cat wail on so many different instruments at one time all over the scale with no sheet music blew my drawers off to no end.
Jamie Kimi,rythm guitar,nothing special in the way of crazy stunt guitar but a good solid player all night long,at one point Durring the song Dupree's Paradise which is a long time improv song of Franks Jamie had a killer solo but it was short & sweet.
Dweezil choose the song Dupree's Paradise for the secret word for the day,the secret word was a long time Zappa gimmik where he would pick a member from the audience then have them make up any word or sentence & the band would build their vocals around that sentence,at this show the secret word was the sentence (I EAT P...Y) for the sake of arguement lets call it i eat apples.This was a very fun song for the audience & the band especially Sheila the female in the band.
All in all this was an outstanding show full of very intricate compositions being played by a group of well rehearsed musicians,this was not the average rock show where sheer volume & crowd stimulation was the goal,the goal in these shows was to play the music as accurately as possible keeping true to Franks writings & the band did an exceptional job of it,
I highly reccomend this tour or last years tour video to anybody who likes Fusion jazz or complicated music,there is so much more to FZ than silly songs like Dont Eat The Yellow Snow or Dynamo Hum that most people know him for & this band is keeping the compositions alive.
