Board 8 > The Frank Zappa Appreciation and Song of the Day Topic! Part 10.1

(+) Yeah! (+)

Song of Three Hundred Eighteen Days Ago: Montana (from Over-Nite Sensation)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO_bKdRqkuQ" data-time="

There's two new live versions of "Montana" on The Roxy Performances. The 12/9, first show version partially appeared on You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore Vol. 4, and the 12/10, first show version partially appeared on You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore Vol. 4.

Though it can't be heard in the YCDTOSA Vol. 4 version (because it cuts to an '84 performance of the song at that point), the last section of the RTP versions pretty much sound the same as the last section of this studio version.
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Song of Three Hundred Seventeen Days Ago: Dickie's Such an Asshole (from Broadway the Hard Way)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2ILDPu_6JI" data-time="

There's three new versions of "Dickie's Such an Asshole" on The Roxy Performances; two live versions and one rehearsal version. The 12/10, first show version partially appeared on You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore Vol. 3, and the 12/10, second show version partially appeared on You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore Vol. 3.
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Song of Three Hundred Sixteen Days Ago: Village of the Sun (from Roxy & Elsewhere)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgrYNG7TanY" data-time="

There's three new versions of "Village of the Sun" on The Roxy Performances; two live versions and one rehearsal version. The 12/9, second show version partially appeared on Roxy & Elsewhere (this version) and on Roxy by Proxy, and the 12/10, second show version partially appeared on Roxy & Elsewhere (this version) and on Roxy by Proxy.
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Song of Three Hundred Fifteen Days Ago: King Kong Itself (As Played by The Mothers in a Studio) (from Uncle Meat)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKImBi53Jdk" data-time="

"King Kong" appears on the vinyl only Lumpy Gravy: Primordial, which was released on 4/21 of this year (see post #139). While Frank said he composed this tune in '62, that version - from '67 - is the earliest known recording of it. The same recording also appears on the second (but first official) version of Lumpy Gravy.
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hmm
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ok
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alright
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yes
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huh, there's a news article on zappa.com about the dates for dweezil's second north american tour of the year. (for some reason they don't mention the upcoming european tour.)

a sign that ahmet/diva and dweezil have finally made peace?
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aww yeah dweezil tickets GET
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santana was playing in amsterdam tonight!
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So I paid 40 for my Dweezil ticket. Thought that was a sensible price for a Dweezil show, but his show in Antwerp is only 32!
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hmm
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and again
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alrighty
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then
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less than 10 days to go before the dweezil show!
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one week to go!
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only a few more days to go!
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tomorrow!
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yay!
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Alright! I can remember all of the songs they played but I may screw up the order - didn't take any notes during the concert.

Pre-show stuff: I went with my best friend Loesje. Before the show started she bought a Choice Cuts T-shirt for me at the merchandise stand ("for my birthday in advance") - important to mention, because this shirt will play a role later on.

The show:
"The Purple Lagoon" - Not the huge version we have on Zappa in New York (unfortunately) - the main theme was just used as the opening song for Dweezil to come out to. Kind of a bummer he didn't start with a guitar solo vehicle with an awesome guitar solo but this was a cool way to begin the show, nonetheless. Frank also used a short version of "Purple Lagoon" to begin the majority of the shows on the second '76 tour - an example of this can be heard on Philly '76.
"Andy" - Pretty weird version. It kinda sounded like the original, unreleased version of the song but it wasn't quite identical to that one - it sounded more like a hybrid of that version and the more familiar One Size Fits All version. Amazing song, of course, but not the best version I've ever heard. Sidenote: This was the first instance of Dweezil playing a Zappa thing that was never officially released. At the previous Dweezil shows I saw he strictly played officially released stuff, so I thought it was very cool he did some unreleased stuff now. This opens up a world of possibilities! Maybe one day, we'll hear Dweezil play the awesome with-guitar-solo version of "Clowns on Velvet"!
"Lonely Little Girl" - Yeah, this was the '75/'76 version of LLG with added lyrics - it can be heard on Joe's Menage and FZ:OZ. Awesome version. Dweezil didn't play a guitar solo, as far as I could tell, but he did play the melody on guitar.
"Flakes" - Great! One of my favorite Zappa songs (I'd probably say that about a thousand other songs too but hey) and they also did it at the last show I saw, but I was kind of disappointed by that version. Kind of hard to explain why in text, but it has something to do with how the Sheik Yerbouti version gradually builds up in intensity and that aspect was completely absent in the version they did. However, the arrangement they had now was pretty much identical to the SY arrangement, including the build-up. The basic structure of the Bob Dylan portion was similar to what Muffin described, with "Barb Dylan," the guitar playing getting in on the bit (don't think he said he was Johnny Guitar Watson, though) and the not-too-great Cartman imitation. They also talked about "Indonesian mandies" (? - I don't do drugs so I'm not sure what the significance of this was) and "pindakaas" (Dutch word for peanut butter, Secret Word of the previous Dweezil show I saw). Both of these things then sort of became Secret Words for the rest of the show. Pretty funny stuff.
"Fifty-Fifty" - I have nothing to add to what Muffin said about this. Great version of this song.
"Tell Me You Love Me" - Great song. Glad they went with the original Chunga's Revenge version and not the fast-paced '80s versions - I never liked those much.
"Call Any Vegetable" - Nothing to add to what Muffin said about this one either. Awesome version.
"Dog Breath" - The Just Another Band from LA version. Pretty short Dweezil guitar solo but Frank's solo in the JABFLA version wasn't that long either, so I'll forgive him.
"Dog Meat" - Not really the classical version, this sounded more like the version from the third '74 tour of this medley (which can be heard on YCDTOSA Vol. 2 and A Token of His Extreme). Awesome. Dweezil also told the "Frank often didn't play on the hard stuff" anecdote Muffin was talking about.
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"The Black Page #1"/"The Black Page #2" - Nothing to add to what Muffin said about these. Very well done.
"Pygmy Twylyte" - Before this song started, Dweezil made quite a big deal about how they were going to play "the very first version of 'Pygmy Twylyte,' which was never released" and how different it sounded than the other versions. Didn't think it sounded THAT different from the Roxy & Elsewhere version, personally. At the point where it goes into "Dummy Up" on R&E, they played what sounded like the start of "Room Service" (the "Honey, honey..." section) and the guitar player ad-libbed some vocals in a very Napoleon Murphy Brock-ish way. After this was done they played "Pygmy Twylyte" once more and then ended the song coldly. Not as good as the slow-paced versions of "Pygmy Twylyte" (easily the best versions IMO) but it was cool.
"Cosmik Debris" - Always great to hear, of course. Dweezil told us how before the show, he was talking to a guy who came from Italy and brought his daughter with him "who didn't know she was going to a Dweezil Zappa show." It was her birthday and "Cosmik Debris" was her favorite Zappa song, so in her honor they were going to play it. Some guy in the front shouted "IT'S MY BIRTHDAY TOO!" and Dweezil replied "Well, happy birthday to you too. Hope you like 'Cosmik Debris' too." lol Anyway, they went with the Apostrophe (') version with a short Dweezil guitar solo in the solo section. I was kinda hoping they'd do multiple solos in the solo section like Frank frequently did in '73/'74, but oh well.
"King Kong" - When this started I freaked out because it sounded like the beginning of the Make a Jazz Noise version of "Cruising for Burgers," which is another of my favorite Zappa songs (at least that version is), but then the "King Kong" theme appeared. Oh well, that's nice too! The keyboard player played a great keyboard solo. The guitar player played a guitar solo, which was also great - quite experimental and dissonant. They then went into an odd time signature vamp that sounded like a familiar Zappa solo vamp but I couldn't identify it. At first I thought it was the "Thirteen" vamp but it wasn't quite the same as that one. Anyway, Scheila Gonzalez played a tenor saxophone solo over this vamp, which was also great. They then played the "King Kong" theme once more and ended the tune. Not the craziest "King Kong" ever but definitely a version worthy of the "King Kong" title. (Thought it was kind of weird how Dweezil didn't play a solo, though - he only assigned solos and gave cues for the vamp switches. Guess he just wanted to use this number as a showcase for the other band members.)
"Cocaine Decisions" - Yeah, this sounded like what you'd expect "Cocaine Decisions" to sound like. Not one of my favorite Zappa songs but it's OK.
"Drowning Witch" - One of the highlights of the show for me. At this point I was kind of craving an awesome Dweezil guitar solo - he'd played a bunch of good, shorter solos but nothing truly great. Well, he brought it in this song! Both solos were awesome but the second one, over the slow vamp, especially stood out to me. Way more metal than any solo Frank ever played over this vamp (in the "Drowning Witch" versions I've heard, at least). The crowd went wild for it.
"Sleeping in a Jar" - This was over quick, as Muffin pointed out. Pretty similar to the Uncle Meat version.
"Zoot Allures" - Way closer to the studio version than any live version Frank ever played. In the solo section Dweezil played a solo over the studio version vamp. Awesome solo, probably the third best solo he played (behind the two "Drowning Witch" solos).
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"This Town is a Sealed Tuna Sandwich" - Don't like this song much but it's super short so it didn't do much harm.
"Uncle Remus" - Another one of the highlights of the show for me. Apostrophe (') was one of my first Zappa albums and when I was a kid, this was my favorite song on the album. Played as on Apostrophe ('), with a short Dweezil solo in the middle.
"Peaches en Regalia" - Nothing to say about this one, solid performance. Always great to hear, of course.
"Son of Suzy Creamcheese" - Great to hear this one. Sidenote: Dweezil introduced this song as "a song featuring Suzy" and I went "what the hell, they're going to do 'Monster Magnet'?!" Kind of dumb I didn't realize he was talking about THIS song >_>
"Florentine Pogen" - The super fast-paced version, as Muffin pointed out. Not my favorite version either but it was cool.
"Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" - Another song where they played the hyperactive, fast-paced version (the version that's on One Shot Deal). Again, not my favorite version but it's not bad. I hoped we were getting the entire Yellow Snow Suite (earlier in the show, Dweezil did say "'Father O'Blivion' or 'Farther O'Blivion'? Both are great..." when people were shouting various requests) but alas.
"Keep It Greasey" - I agree with Muffin that this song isn't great, but Frank's guitar solo in the Joe's Garage version is my favorite guitar solo of all time (highly underrated IMO - people won't shut up about the "Willie the Pimp" solo and the "Yo Mama" solo, but where are the people talking about the "Keep It Greasey" solo?!). Dweezil's solo couldn't live up to THAT solo but it was good. As for the song itself, as far as I could tell they played it fine. Didn't notice them being out of sync.
"Cheepnis" - Nothing to add to what Muffin said about this one. Solid performance indeed.
"Oh No"/"Son of Orange County" - Well, actually it's just the end of "Oh No" (from "And in your dreams..." on), as on Roxy & Elsewhere. Great Dweezil solo in the "Oh No" part.
"More Trouble Every Day" - Great to hear but Dweezil's solo in this song just wasn't that good - kind of short and uninspired. Pretty disappointing, especially considering that Frank's solo in the Roxy & Elsewhere version is another one my all-time favorite Frank solos, and also considering that Dweezil played an awesome solo in this song last time I saw him. Then again, that entire show was dedicated to Roxy & Elswhere, so maybe Dweezil put in a bit more effort into his solo for that reason.

Encore:
"Montana" - This was a disappointment. I was super hyped when it started as "Montana" is another one of my favorite Zappa songs. It started out fine. When the solo section started Dweezil introduced guitarist Richard Hollenbeek (sp?) - he was also guesting at the last concert. In that show he played an awesome guitar duel with Dweezil in "Zomby Woof" (brought back memories of the Frank/Steve Vai guitar duel in "Stevie's Spanking" Muffin was talking about). But now Richard and Dweezil both just noodled aimlessly for a few minutes, Dweezil said the show was over, endtroduced the band again and ended the song and the show. They didn't even play the post-solo section of "Montana"! Quite disappointing as it had been only two and a half hours while Muffin got three hours. I hope Dweezil didn't end the show prematurely because he was pissed at the audience for some reason (his father frequently did this), but I doubt that's what happened. Seemed more like the concert had some stupid time limit they had to adhere to. Oh well.
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Post-concert stuff:
After the band had left, Dweezil came back on-stage to say hi and shake hands with his fans. Since it actually wasn't that busy (surprisingly), I decided to go to the front of the stage and see if I could make contact with Dweezil. And sure enough, I did! I shook Dweezil's hand and shouted "AWESOME, MAN!" to him (not the most insightful comment, but I was too starstruck to come up with something better) and he smiled at me. Incredible moment! I went back to Loesje. A few minutes later we noticed that Dweezil was signing stuff. Loesje took the shirt she'd bought for me and went to the front of the stage, handed it to Dweezil and shouted something like "SIGN IT FOR COCO!" (Coco is actually my last name - Frank's kids aren't the only people with funny names >_> I'll spare you the backstory on why Loesje always calls me by my last name.) So Dweezil put "To Coco" on it and signed it. Amazing! Then the drummer came back on-stage and Loesje let him sign the shirt as well. Cool. (Literally nobody else was talking to him, BTW - he seemed pleasantly surprised that anyone would want HIS signature <_< Poor guy.) Then Scheila came back on-stage. Loesje asked her if she would sign the shirt as well, she replied that she didn't have a marker but she was going to get one backstage. She went back backstage, then entered the audience from the side of the stage and immediately got approached by several fans. She then sat on the steps to the stage for a few seconds, loudly proclaimed she "didn't want to deal with this" and ran off backstage again. Kind of weird and disappointing but oh well. I love Scheila, but she's not a living legend to me like Dweezil is. So yeah, needless to say, this was an amazing experience. Getting the opportunity to shake Dweezil's hand, get his signature + a personal message is more than I could have hoped for!

Overall thoughts on the concert/odds and ends:
- Easily the best Dweezil show I've seen, it had everything I would want from a Zappa coverband concert. Last time I was kind of missing a super lengthy "everyone gets a moment in the spotlight" song (though maybe that's unreasonable - Frank didn't always play those kinds of songs either, after all) but this time round we definitely got that with "King Kong." If I had to make one complaint, it would be that it took awhile before we got an awesome, epic Dweezil solo, but that's just a nitpick.
- Awesome drummer. He did a great job at "Black Page" and his support during all of the solos was consistently excellent. He's not as good as Vinnie but I'd definitely put him on par with Wackerman. Maybe even Bozzio.
- Awesome bassist. The fact that I noticed him at all is high praise, coming from me, because I generally don't give a flying fuck about bass players. He kind of reminded me of Scott Thunes, both in his playing style and in the way he flailed around on-stage.
- The back-up guitarist was awesome. He did vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion and flute! And he did a great job at all of those! He's at least as important to the band as Scheila, I'd say.
- Awesome female vocalist.
- Very wild crowd. They were cheering and applauding a lot and in the quiet moments between the songs they were shouting requests non-stop. Occasionally Dweezil responded to the requests ("Oh yeah, 'Oh No' is such a great song..."). At the start of the show (right after "Purple Lagoon") an old guy behind me shouted "'WHIPPING POST'!" I gave him a loud laugh and he said "man, I can't do it like the guy on the album." lawl
- WAY more young people and women at this show than the previous Dweezil shows I've seen. Loesje noticed this too (she also went to the last show with me). Of course the majority of the audience still consisted of beer-bellied old men but the crowd was relatively diverse.
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One more thing I forgot to mention: during "More Trouble" they also did the "Stayin' Alive" bits Muffin was talking about, which were kinda weird. (A reference to the Best Band version of "Inca Roads"?)
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so here's a thing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXTpyX2wWTY" data-time="
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pretty cool.

lol @ "analyzing the drumming on who are the brain police," though. valuable time he could have spent analyzing way more interesting drum tracks!
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yeah I feel like even I could play that one!
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